Grades from Kansas State’s loss to Texas and the help Wildcats now need to win Big 12
Kansas State’s chances of reaching the Big 12 championship game took a hit on Saturday following a 34-27 loss against Texas.
The Wildcats entered the day in control of their own destiny and went to sleep needing help to keep their conference title hopes alive. But their dreams of reaching Arlington, Texas next month are far from dead.
Here is a look at the primary Big 12 championship contenders and their closing schedules:
TCU (9-0, 6-0 Big 12): at Texas, at Baylor, Iowa State.
Texas (6-3, 4-2 Big 12): TCU, at Kansas, Baylor.
Baylor (6-3, 4-2 Big 12): K-State, TCU, at Texas.
K-State (6-3, 4-2 Big 12): at Baylor, at West Virginia, Kansas.
The Horned Frogs are clearly the front-runners at the moment. They can clinch a spot in the Big 12 title game by winning one of their next two games.
It’s a jumbled mess between the other three. Baylor and Texas both control their own destiny, but they also play each other and TCU down the stretch.
That means the Wildcats can still feel confident in their Big 12 title chances if they win their three remaining games. In that scenario, they would play for a championship if Texas were to lose any of its three remaining games or TCU were to lose all three.
K-State can’t jump TCU or Texas in the pecking order if they finish with the same league record, because they don’t hold a head-to-head tiebreaker over either team. The Wildcats will need to pass them in the standings.
Simply put: K-State fans need to root for the Wildcats to win out and for TCU to beat Texas next week.
Now let’s look back on the action from Saturday and hand out a few awards and grades, as well as look ahead to next week’s game against Baylor.
Play of the game
I’m going with Ben Sinnott’s hurdle over Texas defender Jerrin Thompson.
There were certainly more meaningful plays on Saturday, but it’s not everyday you see a K-State tight end jump over a dude for a first down. I could watch that replay at all day.
Player of the game
Bijan Robinson left cleat marks on Kansas State’s defense by rushing for 209 yards and a touchdown. He also caught a pair of passes for 34 yards.
The Wildcats have only gone against Robinson twice, and he has abused them in both meetings.
Stat of the game
For me, it’s 352. As in Texas gained 352 yards of offense in the first half.
K-State fell behind 31-10 at halftime and had very little chance of making a comeback in the final two quarters.
Quote to note
“It took us a while to make our adjustments,” - Chris Klieman.
Grades
Offense: B. Believe it or not, the Wildcats out-gained the Longhorns on Saturday, 468-466. But Texas took better advantage of its scoring opportunities. K-State crossed midfield seven times and only scored three touchdowns. Two turnovers from Adrian Martinez were very costly on a night when he threw for 329 yards. Deuce Vaughn was K-State’s weapon all game, finishing with 159 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns.
Defense: D. Credit Joe Klanderman’s group for rallying in the second half, but the first half was as ugly as it gets. Texas raced to a 31-10 lead, and things would have been even worse if not for the Longhorns losing a pair of fumbles when they were moving the ball with ease. Losing Julius Brents to a targeting penalty in the first quarter really hurt the Wildcats on defense.
Special Teams: A. Ty Zentner is starting to look like a star. He connected on both of his field goal attempts and booted three punts for an average of 53.7 yards.
Coaching: D. Chris Klieman doesn’t have much experience coaching from behind or finishing out close games in the final minutes, as North Dakota State was almost always a heavy favorite when he was there. That showed on Saturday when he refused to call timeouts with K-State in comeback mode and the Wildcats looked disorganized with the game on the line. His clock management has been questionable all season.
Next Up
K-State will return to action at 6 p.m. on Saturday in a road game against Baylor.
The Bears have been playing impressive football of late. Their three losses came at BYU, at home against Oklahoma State and at West Virginia when Blake Shapen was unable to finish out the game at quarterback.
Dave Aranda’s team has won three in a row since then over Kansas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma to stay in the Big 12 championship hunt.
The Bears are one of the most balanced teams in the league. They rank second in the Big 12 in scoring offense (38.3 points per game) and fourth in the Big 12 in scoring defense (24.6 points per game).
Richard Reese and Craig Williams will provide another challenging test on the ground for K-State’s defense, as they both average more than 5.1 yards per carry.
Chris Klieman has never had much luck against Baylor. The Bears have won all three games in this series since he took over as coach.
This story was originally published November 6, 2022 at 11:21 AM with the headline "Grades from Kansas State’s loss to Texas and the help Wildcats now need to win Big 12."