Grades from Kansas State’s 33-20 loss to Iowa State and a look ahead to Texas Tech
The Kansas State football team is still searching for its first Big 12 victory.
The Wildcats lost to the Iowa State Cyclones 33-20 on Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. It was their third straight defeat, and it left coach Chris Klieman searching for answers.
“We’ve got to go back to the drawing board,” Klieman said.
K-State (3-3, 0-3 Big 12) is at a crossroads. It looked like a team on the rise when it defeated Stanford and Nevada during the nonconference portion of its schedule. But those good vibes have disappeared following a winless start to league play.
Here are grades from K-State’s loss to Iowa State and a look ahead to Texas Tech.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Breece Hall set the tone for Iowa State’s victory by taking a handoff 75 yards for a touchdown on the opening play. The Cyclones running back went on to rush for 197 yards and two touchdowns.
It’s easy to win football games when you’re getting that much production on the ground.
PLAY OF THE GAME
For a moment in the second quarter, it appeared that Skylar Thompson connected with Phillip Brooks for a 20-yard gain that gave the Wildcats a first-and-goal against the Cyclones.
But the play was correctly ruled an incomplete pass on replay review and Klieman ended up with a choice when K-State was unable to move the chains on the following play. K-State faced a fourth-and-three from the Iowa State 15. It was trailing 10-7 at the time, so Klieman made the conservative decision to attempt a 43-yard field goal and tie the game.
There was nothing wrong with that choice, but Taiten Winkel missed the kick. Iowa State responded with a touchdown drive that made the score 17-7. Two weeks ago, Klieman was more aggressive and went for it on several fourth downs against Oklahoma. He was less of a riverboat gambler against Iowa State. Perhaps he should have kept his foot on the gas. In any case, missing out on points there was a key moment in the game. Instead of pulling even or ahead, the Wildcats fell behind by two scores.
STAT OF THE GAME
Brock Purdy completed 22 of 25 passes for 208 yards and a touchdown. He is amazingly the second straight opposing quarterback to complete 88% of his passes against K-State.
QUOTE TO NOTE
“Our offensive line did a great job. Kansas State changed up their defense to where they were only rushing three guys, so our O-line did a tremendous job and I felt like we were really prepared for it.” — Purdy.
GRADES
Offense: C. The Wildcats will regret not attempting more passes in this game. Iowa State has the Big 12’s best run defense, and K-State did well to average 4.1 yards per rush against it. But 33 attempts seemed like too many, especially with the Wildcats in catch-up mode the entire second half. There were bigger openings in the passing game. The Cyclones routinely played off the line of scrimmage and allowed Skylar Thompson to throw for 206 yards and a pair of touchdowns. But he only attempted 23 passes.
Defense: F. Joe Klanderman’s unit allowed Breece Hall to rush for 197 yards and Brock Purdy to complete 88% of his passes. The Cyclones scored on seven of their nine drives. But they did punt twice in the first half, which is an improvement for K-State compared to its last outing.
Special Teams: F. K-State didn’t live up to the nickname “Special Teams U“ in this game. Winkel missed a field goal and an extra point. Phillip Brooks and Malik Knowles never got anything going in the return game.
Coaching: F. The Wildcats had two weeks to prepare for the Cyclones, but it didn’t look like it. They were sloppy in all phases and committed far too many mistakes to beat Iowa State.
NEXT UP
The good news for Kansas State is that its schedule is about to get easier.
A front-loaded conference schedule forcced the Wildcats to open Big 12 play against three of the strongest teams in the league. Now comes four straight games against unranked opponents.
First up is a road trip to Texas Tech for an 11 a.m. kickoff on Fox Sports 1. Klieman has won both of his previous meetings against the Red Raiders, and he will look to keep that winning streak alive next week.
Texas Tech looks like an improved team, but the Red Raiders are hard to figure. They are off to a 5-2 start and own a nice victory over Houston. But their other wins have all come against middling teams. It’s hard to know what wins over Stephen F. Austin, Florida International, West Virginia and Kansas mean.
Their losses have been ugly. Texas beat them 70-35 and TCU crushed them 52-31.
This seems like a good matchup for K-State, because Texas Tech allows 4.5 yards per run ranks near the bottom of the Big 12 in rushing defense. If Deuce Vaughn and Joe Ervin can move the ball on the ground, the Wildcats will take their chances.
But the Red Raiders will pose some problems on offense. They rank first in the Big 12 in passing offense, averaging 9.2 yards per attempt. The Wildcats will need to play better defense against Henry Colombi than they have in recent weeks.
This story was originally published October 17, 2021 at 10:33 AM with the headline "Grades from Kansas State’s 33-20 loss to Iowa State and a look ahead to Texas Tech."