Takeaways from Kansas State’s disappointing home loss to the Army Black Knights
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kansas State dropped to 1-2 after a 24-21 home loss to underdog Army.
- Army executed three long touchdowns and a late interception to secure win.
- Quarterback Avery Johnson’s final-drive attempt was cut short by turnover.
The Kansas State football team continued its disappointing start to the season with a 24-21 loss to Army on Saturday night at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
K-State (1-2, 0-1 Big 12) turned in its third straight regrettable performance and paid the price with an agonizing home loss against an opponent it was favored to beat by more than 17 points.
Army (1-1) won the game with a brilliant second half that featured three long scoring drives and then a timely interception from Collin Matteson with 1 minute, 35 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
K-State led 13-0 late in the first half, but Army dominated the rest of the way. Over the final 75 plays of the game, the Black Knights amazingly ran 62 of them while the Wildcats only got their offense on the field for 13 snaps.
That allowed Army to outgain Kansas State 332 to 246. The Black Knights also possessed the ball for more than 40 minutes of game time.
Still, K-State quarterback Avery Johnson had an opportunity to win the game or force overtime with a last-minute drive, but the Matteson interception sealed the game for Army.
Johnson threw for 172 yards and a touchdown, but he got no help from his running game and the K-State defense couldn’t come up with any stops after intermission. For that reason, the Wildcats have lost two of their first three games for the first time since 2009.
K-State will next be in action on Friday at Arizona.
Until then, here are takeaways from Saturday’s game:
K-State has trailed in the second half of every game this season
No stat better explains the struggles that K-State has experienced in its first three games than this one:
The Wildcats fell behind by as many 10 points in a season-opening loss against Iowa State. Then they needed a last-minute touchdown drive to beat North Dakota 38-35. On Saturday, they fell behind Army 14-13 late in the third quarter and then 24-21 in the fourth quarter.
It’s worth pointing out that K-State was favored in all three of those games, and favored big in the last two.
If not for a clutch drive from Johnson last week, the Wildcats would be winless.
That is a stressful way to start a season, and it has cost the Wildcats already.
Why does it keep happening? You can blame a few things.
For starters, K-State has struggled to run the ball efficiently without starting running back Dylan Edwards in the lineup. The Wildcats only mustered 74 rushing yards against the Black Knights. It can be hard to maintain leads with a one-dimensional offense.
The Wildcats have also been worse than expected on defense. Iowa State, North Dakota and Army all reeled off numerous long touchdown drives against them.
Coaching has also been an issue. Matt Campbell and Jeff Monken were both able to outclass Chris Klieman.
K-State had a good day on special teams, for a change
Special teams has been a sore spot for many K-State football fans this season.
The Wildcats turned the ball over on a punt return against Iowa State and then a kick return against North Dakota. Other miscues on special teams hurt Chris Klieman’s team as it got off to a lackluster 1-1 start.
Watching mediocre play on special teams isn’t easy for K-State fans to accept, given that they like to refer to their team as “Special Teams U” when they win games with big plays in that area.
Things felt back to normal on Saturday. The Wildcats played well on special teams.
Bryce Noernberg got the game started with a 44-yard kickoff return, which set up a short drive that ended with a field goal from Luis Rodriguez. Later, Noernberg rumbled 99 yards for a kickoff return touchdown that gave the Wildcats a 21-14 lead in the third quarter. That big play shifted the game’s momentum right when things were starting to look bleak.
Klieman went out of his way to praise Noernberg earlier in the week. Now it’s easy to understand why.
Army was able to recover a surprise onside kick in the fourth quarter, but K-State can be forgiven for the error; the Black Knights deployed an unusual strategy on the play that featured a dodgeball-style kick that ricocheted off the front of K-State’s return team and allowed Army to grab the loose ball. No one could have seen that coming.
Army ended the first half with an insane TD drive
The home crowd was feeling very good about how things were going for K-State when it held a 13-0 lead with 2:26 remaining in the first half. The Wildcats had just kicked a field goal, and the Black Knights didn’t have much time to move into the scoring range from their own 25.
It seemed unlikely, at best, that Army and its methodical triple-option offense would be able to put points on the board before intermession.
But Jeff Monken’s team beat the odds with an incredible touchdown drive that lasted an astounding 16 plays. The payoff came on the final snap of the second quarter when Army quarterback Cale Hellums found Brady Anderson open in the end zone for a 2-yard strike.
Just like that, a game that K-State dominated for more than 27 minutes was suddenly too close for comfort.
Few, if any, other teams could have crammed 16 plays into 2:26. Army did it to perfection.
The Black Knights had several wild and crazy drives on Saturday, though. They held the ball for so long that they were able to run 82 plays compared to just 43 for the Wildcats. At one point, K-State went nearly 23 straight minutes with its offense on the sideline because of big plays on special teams.
The Wildcats couldn’t stop the Black Knights on money downs
This was not a stellar performance from Kansas State on defense.
The Wildcats allowed the Black Knights to gain 332 yards and possess the ball for 40:44 even though they had a deeper and more talented roster.
Perhaps the most unsettling stat of the night came on money downs. K-State struggled to get off the field whenever Army needed a conversion. The Black Knights went 10 of 22 on third down and 6 of 7 on fourth down.
Army is a difficult team for anyone to prepare for. But the Black Knights were playing with a backup quarterback one week after they lost a home game to Tarleton State. Much more was expected from the K-State defense in this game.
This story was originally published September 6, 2025 at 9:49 PM with the headline "Takeaways from Kansas State’s disappointing home loss to the Army Black Knights."