Good teams always win off a bye week. Kansas State isn’t a good team right now. The coaching staff was asleep at the wheel. The football players didn’t even get out of bed. It is hard to know how the Wildcats used their bye week, but we know they didn’t use it to prepare for the Oklahoma State Cowboys. This is the first game KSU failed to score on their first drive. Will Howard’s timing with his receivers was non-existent. If he didn’t overthrow a receiver, he threw it to hard, or he threw it to the other team. Howard even threw a touchdown for the Cowboys. Tonight was an absolute awful display of KSU football. They failed to meet their own standard.
It is astounding to me that Coach Kleiman hasn’t figured out how to win in Stillwater. He should have known that the Cowboys would get up for this game. As the reigning Big 12 Champions, KSU has a major target on their back. Beating the Cowboys 48-0 put an even larger target on the Wildcats as they headed into Stillwater tonight. The Wildcats should have been aware of that and put on their best game. Instead, they missed blocks, missed assignments, dropped balls, misfired balls, over threw receivers, ran wrong routes, failed to follow lead blockers, and gave the ball to the Cowboys three times.
KSU did manage to do a few things right. Will Howard ran the football extremely well. The run game in general was good. The defense managed to force a few punts. When KSU turned the ball over on downs on their own 26-yard line, the defense held the Cowboys to a field goal. Finally, whenever KSU made a major mistake, the managed to follow it up with something good…three times.
Kansas State had a chance to win with 5:27 to go and with three minutes to go. The Wildcats had two potential drives to tie and came up with two major fails. Will Howard threw his third pick with about 3:45 to go. The Wildcats had one more chance when the defense forced another punt with three minutes to go. Unfortunately, with the game on the line, KSU failed to execute a basic two minute offense. It doesn’t matter if an offensive lineman is out. Injuries happen. The team must overcome. Generally, on a team full of athletes, the offense should be able to execute a two minute drill. The Wildcats failed to rise to the occasion when it mattered most, and now they have a long ride home tonight.
It is one thing to lose. It is quite another thing to fail to show up and fight. The coaching staff failed to adjust. Will Howard failed to settle down. The offense put the defense in bad positions. It was a terrible night of Wildcat football. Hopefully they learn from this and show up to the game next week.
