Texas beats Kansas State 23-9 as Wildcats drop fourth straight

The ball flew over Michael Dickson’s head, and the Texas punter scrambled to find it. The play had the makings of a Kansas State touchdown, the type of cheap score coach Bill Snyder has long taught his teams to capitalize on. This, perhaps, was the moment the Wildcats had been waiting for.

Only on this day there were no defenders in sight. K-State didn’t bring pressure, opting to drop back and set up a return, allowing Dickson to chase down the loose ball, collect his thoughts and pin the Wildcats in front of their own goal line with a line-drive punt early in the fourth quarter.

The play summed up a 23-9 Texas victory over K-State on Saturday in front of a half-filled Texas Memorial Stadium.

“Once again we made so many mistakes that were critical in the outcome of the ballgame,” Snyder said. “Texas, I thought, played very well. We had our opportunities, and passed up on a number of them.”

K-State had four opportunities to tie the game in the second half. But all four times it touched the ball after fighting back from a 16-0 deficit to make the score 16-9, it came up empty.

The loss dropped K-State, 3-4 overall and 0-4 in the Big 12, into unfamiliar territory. It has lost four straight for the first time since 2008 and the first time under Snyder since 2005. With No. 2 Baylor up next, ending the losing streak won’t be easy.

K-State may not be favored again until it plays host to Iowa State on Nov. 21.

“I’m tired of losing,” K-State receiver Deante Burton said after grabbing five passes for 39 yards. “I think this is a time where you are at the fork of the road. Are you going to chip in your season or suck it up and play after getting punched in the mouth?

“We have to make a decision as a team. The coaches can’t make it for us, the media can’t make it for us, the fans can’t make it for us. It’s up to us to turn it around and take our season to where we want it to go.”

A touchdown on special teams could have changed things Saturday. More offense would have helped, too. For the second straight week, the Wildcats didn’t get the job done. Outside of running back Charles Jones galloping for a career-high 122 yards in 18 carries, they struggled.

Heavy rain and soggy conditions made throwing the ball difficult, but quarterback Joe Hubener also appeared overwhelmed.

Hubener completed 10 of 22 passes for one touchdown and an interception, and ran for 18 yards in 15 carries. When Texas forced K-State into obvious passing situations, the Wildcats had little chance of gaining yardage, even when receivers got open.

“We are very limited in what we were able to do today,” Snyder said of the passing game. “You can’t make any excuses as it relates to the weather. You look at some of those throws and it was an issue for both teams. We have got to be better. Taking the weather out of it, we have got to be a lot better. We are capable of it. I have seen us do it, but we didn’t.”

Kody Cook moved to quarterback for four plays in relief of Hubener, completing 1 of 2 passes for 10 yards.

When asked why the passing game faltered, Hubener avoided specifics.

“I don’t really know,” Hubener said. “I’m sure there is some frustration, to a degree, but you can’t point fingers. It is on all of us. You win as a team, you lose as a team. With the struggles, you just have to pull together and work.”

Something has to change if K-State hopes to qualify for a bowl game.

“It is go time now,” Wildcats defensive back Sean Newlan said. “Every game is vital. If we want to have the type of sesaon we can have, every game, every day, every practice, every meeting, every film session is vital. We have to take it to heart and put it on our shoulders and we have to turn this around.”

The Longhorns, 3-4 and 2-2, dominated in the first half and the fourth quarter. Behind a strong rushing attack that churned out 274 yards, including 103 from running back Johnathan Gray, they won while passing just 16 times for 99 yards. Quarterback Jerrod Heard continually bailed out the offense with keepers and scrambles on third down.

Soggy conditions seemed to favor the Wildcats, who entered the day with the Big 12’s top run defense, allowing an average of 126.3 yards. But the Longhorns won in the trenches.

“It’s all about just being physical,” Texas coach Charlie Strong said, “and playing physical and then dominating at the point of attack.”

The strategy helped Texas score the opening 16 points.

K-State answered with a touchdown pass from Hubener to Dominique Heath late in the second quarter to make things interesting. Going back to the tail end of a 52-45 loss to TCU and through a 55-0 loss to Oklahoma, opponents had outscored K-State 78-0 before the Wildcats scored late in the second quarter.

K-State added a field goal in third quarter, pulling within 16-9, and made defensive adjustments that hampered Texas until the final moments.

Close, but not enough.

That made this a painful loss.

“Our team has accepted moral victories this season already and it came back to haunt us. I’m not accepting that,” K-State defensive tackle Travis Britz said. “We still have a lot of mistakes to correct.”

TEXAS 23, KANSAS STATE 9

First quarter

TEX: FG Rose 28, 6:37.

Second quarter

TEX: Swoopes 1 run (Rose kick), 12:38.

TEX: Swoopes 2 run (run failed), 6:48.

KSU: D.Heath 7 pass from Hubener (pass failed), :32.

Third quarter

KSU: FG Cantele 36, 7:18.

Fourth quarter

TEX: Swoopes 10 run (Rose kick), 1:47.

Attendance: 88,283.

RUSHING: Kansas State, C.Jones 18-122, Hubener 15-18, Silmon 2-(minus 2), Cook 2-(minus 3). Texas, J.Gray 18-103, Heard 15-61, Swoopes 7-50, D.Foreman 10-43, Warren III 2-19, Team 1-(minus 2).

PASSING: Kansas State, Hubener 10-22-1-97, Cook 1-2-0-10. Texas, Heard 10-15-0-99, Swoopes 0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING: Kansas State, Burton 5-39, D.Heath 2-23, A.Davis 2-17, Gronkowski 1-16, Klein 1-12. Texas, D.Johnson 6-41, Burt 2-25, Bluiett 1-28, Beck 1-5.

This story was originally published October 24, 2015 at 12:44 PM with the headline "Texas beats Kansas State 23-9 as Wildcats drop fourth straight."