Kansas State couldn’t put anything together consistently on either side of the ball and simply got outplayed Saturday in a 35-16 loss to the Houston Cougars at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
It was one of those games that just felt flat for the Wildcats. They didn’t suffer humilating collapses, it wasn’t a complete disaster at any given moment. Houston just performed better over every small slice of time, and it added up to a beatdown.
Houston got the ball first and ran the ball well, Connor Weigman connected
on a 36-yard pass to Koby Young put Houston at the one-yard line. The Cat defense got three stops and would’ve had a fourth if Collin Klein hadn’t called timeout right before the snap as Wiegman threw incomplete; given another chance, he completed the pass to Patrick Overmeyer and got Houston (5-1, 2-1 Big 12) on the board first.
On their possession, K-State (3-2, 0-2 Big 12) had to punt; Houston’s counter ended with a resounding thud off the left upright on a field goal attempt. The Cats then moved well, getting into the Houston red zone before settling for a 29-yard field goal by Luis Rodriguez as the quarter expired to close the gap to 7-3.
Houston simply marched back downfield again to start the second, aided by a conversion on 4th-and-1 at the Wildcat 30 and a pass interference call against Kaleb Patterson which got the Cougars into the red zone. Weigman completed a 2-yard pass to Overmeyer to complete the drive and give Houston a 14-3 lead.
K-State had to punt, and Simon McClannan pinned the Cougars inside the 10 on a fair catch but managed to get called for holding downfield. That put Houston at the 19 instead. Didn’t matter. Houston K-State penalties and poor defense resulted in Houston scoring again on a 13-yard run by Makhi Hughes.
The Cats couldn’t get anything done to start the third quarter. Houston marched down and scored on an 8-yard hookup between Weigman and Overmayer, but K-State finally responded to something. A nice kickoff return by Brandon White gave the Wildcats good field position, and six plays later Avery Johnson found Garrett Oakley from 13 yards out to finally discover the end zone. A failed two-point conversion made it 28-9.
Houston drove, and Overmeyer struck again, scoring on a 2-yard catch for his fourth touchdown of the day. K-State went 3-and-out, Houston went 4-and-out, and then the Cats started driving again. Johnson found Linkon Cure for 18 and Oakley for 36 before a pass interference call on the Cougars gave them a first down at the 10.
Two plays later, Johnson threw one of the worst interceptions of his career, throwing the ball away at the line of scrimmage.
The defense forced a 3-and-out, and then Johnson completed a half-field drive with a 6-yard pass to Jaron Tibbs to make it 35-16, but it drained the clock to under four minutes. The Cougars ate it all, and that was that.
Johnson was 16-30 for 182 yards and two touchdowns against the one horrible pick. He added 39 yards on 9 carries. Rodney Fields quietly led the way with 46 yards on 14 carries, plus 2 catches for 36. Josh Manning had 2 carries for 26 and 3 catches for 24. Joe Jackson was nearly invisible, picking up only 6 yards on 4 carries and 13 yards on 2 catches.
Tibbs quietly led the receivers with 4 grabs for 33 yards and a score. Oakley was 3-49 with a score,and Cure added 2 for 27.
Houston outgained the Cats 475-299, in the air 242-181, and on the ground 233-117. Both teams were basically 50/50 on third down; the Cougars were 3-3 on fourth, while K-State never went for it. Houston won time of possession 34:49-25:11, but also “won” the penalty battle, getting rung up 8 times for 74 yards while the Cats only committed 4 for 49.
What We Learned
You’re not getting a list this week. The fundamental beatdown here was so comprehensive that it’s hard to point at any handful of things. The run game was DOA. The passing game was mediocre. The run defense? Well, we didn’t learn anything about it because we already knew it was suspect. And the #1 passing defense in the entire nation got picked apart by a mediocre quarterback, somehow.
The team just wasn’t ready this week, is the sense we get. There were no truly glaring failures. They just got outplayed top to bottom.
Players of the Game
On offense, Rodney Fields managed 82 yards of total offense, so we’ll give it to him. Defensively, Rex Van Wyhe quietly had a hell of a game.
Next
Morning kickoff at the Bill against the Flaw on the Kaw with a billion-year winning streak on the line.
