Grades from Kansas State’s 25-24 victory at Texas Tech and a look ahead to TCU
Things are starting to look up again for the Kansas State football team.
The Wildcats completed an improbable 25-24 comeback victory over Texas Tech on Saturday at Jones AT&T Stadium and their upcoming schedule sets up nicely for them to parlay that result into a winning streak.
K-State (4-3, 1-3 Big 12) will almost certainly be favored in its next three games against TCU, Kansas and West Virginia. Winning two of those games will secure bowl eligibility. Winning all three will clinch a winning season.
If the Wildcats take care of business and make either scenario reality, which is possible given how well they played in the second half against the Red Raiders, fans will forget all about how the lost its first three Big 12 games.
Here are grades from K-State’s win over Texas Tech and a look ahead to TCU.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
One could make a case for Deuce Vaughn, Felix Anudike-Uzomah and even punter Ty Zentner, but this honor goes to Skylar Thompson.
The senior quarterback completed passes to 12 different receivers for 296 yards and a touchdown. That would be impressive under any circumstance, but Thompson’s performance took on heightened meaning because the Wildcats didn’t enter this game expecting to play from behind or chuck the ball all over the field. They intended to run behind Joe Ervin and Vaughn. When that didn’t work, K-State pivoted to Plan B and Thompson pulled off a come-from-behind victory.
PLAY OF THE GAME
Kansas State’s comeback hopes appeared bleak when the Wildcats trailed 24-10 at halftime and then began the third quarter with a three and out.
But they were about to gain momentum. Zentner delivered a terrific punt of 63 yards that pinned Texas Tech at its own 4. On the following play, the Red Raiders called an ill-advised running play that was slow to develop and Anudike-Uzomah took advantage by bursting through the line of scrimmage for a tackle in the end zone, which resulted in a safety.
“That gave us life,” Chris Klieman said.
It was all K-State from there. Texas Tech probably holds on to win without those two plays.
STAT OF THE GAME
K-State was uncharacteristically mistake prone on Saturday, as it committed 12 penalties for 93 yards and lost a pair of turnovers on fumbles by Malik Knowles and Nick Lenners. The Wildcats showed serious resolve to win despite those blunders and an early 14-0 deficit.
QUOTE TO NOTE
“It would have been easy to quit the way the game started. After losing three straight games, starting the game like that was obviously not what we wanted. We easily could have folded. But guys kept on fighting. It speaks volumes about where we’re at as a program and the type of players we have.” – Thompson.
GRADES
Offense: B. Thompson completed a career best 80% of his passes and threw for 296 yards when K-State coaches put the game in his hands. Deuce Vaughn had 120 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns. They were both clutch. Credit the Wildcats for finding a way to win when they couldn’t run the ball. Still, it was a little troubling that they only rushed for 81 yards against one of the Big 12’s worst run defenses.
Defense: B. K-State once again looked lost trying to play defense in the opening moments of a game, but it may have turned a corner in the second half of this game. The Wildcats limited Henry Colombi to 148 passing yards and held the Red Raiders scoreless in the second half. Russ Yeast and Anudike-Uzomah both made big plays.
Special Teams: B. Zentner came up huge in this game with long punts and kickoffs, but Malik Knowles lost his second fumble of the season on a kickoff return. That can’t continue.
Coaching: B. Give Klieman and his coaching staff credit for having the Wildcats ready to play hard for four quarters despite another lousy start. They made some nice adjustments at halftime, too.
NEXT UP
What once looked like a tricky game for the Wildcats now feels more like a matchup they should expect to win.
Few teams have disappointed more than TCU this season. The Horned Frogs won five of their final six games last year and entered 2021 as a popular darkhorse candidate to challenge Oklahoma and Iowa State for a Big 12 championship.
Instead, the Horned Frogs (3-4, 1-3) are in danger of missing out on a bowl game.
Gary Patterson’s team is coming off a sloppy 29-17 home loss to West Virginia in which they lost three turnovers and allowed 229 rushing yards.
K-State will get another chance to run the ball against a putrid rush defense. The Horned Frogs are allowing 5.4 yards per run this season. That number ranks ahead of only Kansas in the Big 12.
Still, K-State is in no position to overlook this team. TCU has one of the nation’s top running backs in Zach Evans and the Horned Frogs are capable of big things when they bring their best effort.
This story was originally published October 24, 2021 at 11:33 AM with the headline "Grades from Kansas State’s 25-24 victory at Texas Tech and a look ahead to TCU."