Five things we learned from Kansas State’s sluggish 31-20 loss at Oklahoma State
A short sequence of plays perfectly summed up how poorly things went for Kansas State during a 31-20 loss against Oklahoma State on Saturday at Boone Pickens Stadium.
It started with a kickoff return that K-State receiver Malik Knowles decided to run out of the end zone late in the first quarter. His confidence was understandable, considering he had just returned another kick 99 yards for a touchdown, but it proved to be the wrong choice when the Cowboys smothered him at his own seven-yard line. Disaster struck moments later when Will Howard fumbled a snap into the end zone and Oklahoma State recovered for a touchdown.
That’s the kind of night it was for the No. 25 Wildcats.
K-State (3-1, 0-1 Big 12) suffered its first loss of the season and looked nothing like a ranked team.
The Cowboys (4-0, 1-0 Big 12) were clearly the superior team. They outgained the Wildcats by 221 yards (481-260). K-State deserves credit for fighting back from a 31-10 deficit in the first half to keep the final score respectable, but it needed more. Oklahoma State put this game away early.
Here are some thoughts on the game before K-State tries to bounce back next week at home against No. 4 Oklahoma.
Will the real K-State please stand up?
What are we supposed to think about the Wildcats after four games?
Are they the team that whipped Stanford and then gutted out victories against Southern Illinois and Nevada without starting quarterback Skylar Thompson? Or are they the team that looked overmatched in their Big 12 opener?
One could make a compelling argument in either direction, but Oklahoma State exposed a few things in this game that make it hard to write off as a fluke.
The Cowboys hadn’t scored more than 28 points in a game all season, yet they ran over, around and through the Wildcats as if they were a junior varsity defense and posted 31 points by halftime. K-State’s new 3-3-5 defensive formation wasn’t effective in pass coverage, and OSU quarterback Spencer Sanders completed 22 of 34 passes for 344 yards and two touchdowns.
That’s not great, considering Mike Gundy only trusted him enough to attempt 13 passes last week against Boise State. To be fair, Oklahoma State got some injured receivers back for this game, and that helped. But that doesn’t explain this much improvement.
K-State also showed no ability to play from behind on offense. Chris Klieman’s ground-oriented attack is great at protecting leads, but it was put in an impossible situation against Oklahoma State.
The Wildcats are unlikely to lead from start to finish every week in the Big 12. They need to hope Thompson can make a difference when he returns.
Musical chairs continue at quarterback
Will Howard and Jaren Lewis once again split time on Saturday.
That was expected. The way coaches rotated them was not.
Howard handled the first quarter by himself and also started the second half for the Wildcats. But Lewis was in control the rest of the way. Klieman later said the switch was made because Howard suffered an injury at some point during the first half, and he was unable to run at full speed afterward.
Lewis responded admirably, considering it was the first time he had ever played in a road game. He completed 10 of 19 passes for 148 yards a touchdown and an interception. But most of his production came on an improbable pass he sent to Deuce Vaughn. Lewis was on the verge of being sacked on the play, but escaped and flipped the ball to Vaughn, who sprinted 55 yards up field for a touchdown.
It was a rough day, overall, for K-State’s offense. That was the Cats’ only offensive touchdown.
Howard was 4 of 12 for 50 yards.
Neither quarterback played particularly well. Oklahoma State didn’t respect them and lined up to stop the run. It did exactly that, limiting the Wildcats to just 62 rushing yards on 25 attempts. To put that in context, the Wildcats entered the day averaging 225.7 yards per game on the ground.
Big play on special teams goes for naught
Perhaps the most frustrating part of this game for the Wildcats is that they finally got the big play on special teams they had been waiting for when Knowles returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter and still lost by a lopsided score.
K-State is famous for winning games when it scores touchdowns on defense and special teams, but it couldn’t take advantage here.
Giving Oklahoma State a cheap touchdown on a fumble negated Knowles’ big play. As did four quarters of overall sluggish play.
Daniel Green ejected for targeting ... again
For the second time this season, K-State lost its best defensive player because of a targeting penalty.
Junior linebacker Daniel Green was ejected in the second quarter following a helmet-to-helmet tackle on Sanders that the officials deemed to be illegal after a video review.
The ruling was not well received by K-State fans, because it appeared as though Green’s helmet first made contact with Sanders’ shoulder. But the officials disagreed.
Klieman said Green will need to adjust the way he leads on certain tackles moving forward, saying he needs to lower his hitting point and keep his eyes up. He was ejected following a similar play against Stanford in the season opener.
“We can’t afford to lose Daniel Green. He is too good of a football player,” Klieman said. “Daniel’s got to change his game a little bit.”
Skylar Thompson on track to play against Oklahoma?
Don’t be surprised if Thompson is back in command of K-State’s offense when the Wildcats try to upset Oklahoma for the third straight season next week at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
The senior quarterback made the trip to Stillwater and warmed up with the Wildcats. He looked mobile running around the field and also threw the ball with power as far as 40 yards down field.
It didn’t look like he was still suffering much, if at all, from the knee injury he sustained two weeks ago.
He wasn’t ready to play against Oklahoma State, and Klieman said he didn’t know when Thompson would be deemed healthy enough to play. But he appears on track to return against the Sooners or shortly thereafter.
This story was originally published September 25, 2021 at 9:46 PM with the headline "Five things we learned from Kansas State’s sluggish 31-20 loss at Oklahoma State."