If you’re reading this article, I don’t need to tell you that things haven’t gone according to plan for the Wildcats this season. The heady summer days of pumping sunshine and writing things like “The
Window is Open for K-State!” did not prepare me for this slog to the finish. I thought I would be writing about the Wildcats’ preparation for the Big 12 Championship game; instead, I’m about to give whatever remains of the roster credit for not phoning it in and losing to an awful Oklahoma State team with a zombie head coach.
I fully admit to setting the bar too high this offseason, but this is getting ridiculous.
Lowered Expectations
Do y’all remember Mad TV?
For those unfamiliar with sketch comedy show in the vein of Saturday Night Live that appeared on Fox from 1995 to 2009. It starred comedians like Michael McDonald, Aries Spears, Will Sasso, Bobby Lee, and Nicole Parker, which isn’t particularly important. The point is that MAD TV had a recurring bit called “Lowered Expectations.” The skit featured spoofs of home-video dating profiles with the tagline “if you’ve been blown off by the rest, settle for what you can get.”
That’s where I am with this team. I’ve been blown off by the good Kansas State football team I expected, and am settling for the one that had to scrap and claw their way past one-win Oklahoma State. If you watched that game, no one can ever accuse you of not being All-In on EMA, because that was one of the least entertaining games I’ve ever attempted to watch. Keep in mind, I also cover Purdue football. I’ve witnessed some truly horrific games in my day.
In a way, that’s what impressed me the most about the Wildcats’ 14-6 victory in Stillwater. That wasn’t a fun game to watch, and I can only assume that it wasn’t a fun game to play. The crowd, if you can call it that, brought an energy level usually reserved for morgues on a quiet Tuesday morning. Kansas State didn’t just stumble out of the blocks; they refused to acknowledge the starting gun, accumulating ten yards on ten plays in the opening stanza. After an Oklahoma State field goal to open the second quarter gave the Cowboys a 6-0 lead, I questioned the offense’s ability to score enough points to win the game. That’s how much faith I had in the Matt Wells and Avery Johnson led offense.
The first sign of life from the ‘Cats came at the 8:35 mark in the second quarter when Ryan Davis got a piece of Oklahoma State quarterback Zay Flores’s throwing arm on what was supposed to be a deep shot down the field, and Zaschon Rich picked off the fluttering duck. Four plays later, Avery hooked up with Jace on a routine slant route that went for 34 yards and a touchdown. One of the more frustrating aspects of this team is the touchdown looked easy. Jace ran a slant, the offensive line held up, and Avery delivered a strike. It was basic, well-executed football, and it seems like something the offense should be capable of executing more often than once or twice a game.
After the touchdown, both teams resumed their putrid play. On the next drive, Oklahoma State required 11 plays to drive the ball 38 yards, and it culminated with a missed 55-yard field goal. The Wildcats had a golden opportunity to put some distance between themselves and a team that was begging for a reason to quit, and true to form, the offense refused to cooperate. They put together an 8-play, 43-yard drive that ended in three consecutive Avery Johnson incompletions and a shanked 38-yard field goal.
The football, indeed, was bad.
Both teams limped into the locker room, with K-State holding a 7-6 lead. Knowing what we know now, 7 points were enough to win the game. The disgrace to the game of college football that was the second half was not necessary, and yet, it was endured. Avery started the half with one of his patented roll-out right, throw-back late over-the-middle interceptions, which will be included in multiple teaching tapes on how not to play quarterback.
Luckily for Avery, Oklahoma State refused to accept his charity. The Cowboys looked like they may crease the opponent’s goal line for the first time in the game before Cody Stufflebean ended their illusions of grandeur with a strip sack on third down that was recovered alertly by Rich after an Ok State tight end attempted to bend down and pick up the fumble, only to kick it towards three defenders. It was one of the least athletic things I’ve ever seen on a football field.
Once again, the offense was gifted an opportunity to take control of the game, and they remained on brand, refusing to unwrap it. They managed to drive down to the Cowboy 32 before two failed running plays and a sack on third down brought out the punting unit yet again. To be fair, a punt is far superior to the strategy of ending every drive with a turnover that Ok State deployed in the second half. After fielding the Wildcat punt and driving the ball 60 yards, Ryan Davis broke loose in the backfield yet again, planting Zane Flores into that god awful turf, and separating the ball from his possession.
It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t efficient, and it required two fourth-down conversions, but the offense finally paid off the defense’s hard work to start the 4th quarter. Joe Jackson ploughed ahead on 4th and one from the Oklahoma State 15-yard line, hoping to pick up a yard, and instead, hit a crease and toted the ball the remaining 15 yards to the endzone. Not only did he put seven points on the board, but he also took the chances of a turnover inside the 10-yard line or a shanked field goal off the board.
The final 12 minutes of the game were an exercise in pure futility by the Oklahoma State offense. Their subsequent drive after the touchdown looked promising, covering 48 yards before attempting a trick play that resulted in their tailback floating the equivalent of a punt to Kansas State safety Daniel Cobbs at the goal line. The thing about bad teams is they do stupid stuff at the worst possible time.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Kansas State had the opportunity to close the game out on offense and couldn’t get the job done. They did manage to run six plays, which included a first down, so in terms of lowered expectations, it wasn’t the worst possible outcome, but Avery was once again stuffed on a short-yardage run on 3rd and two. If I have one request for Matt Wells this offseason, it’s to burn the short-yardage Avery Johnson run package because if you need two yards, he’s always good for one and a half.
Folks, I can’t explain the dread I experienced on the final drive of the game. At this point in the day, I was watching on my cell phone while at a tailgate for the UGA vs Texas game, and I was certain the Cowboys were going to find a way to prolong all of our misery with a game-tying drive and two-point conversion, followed by eight overtimes. When they made it to the 33-yard line with 1:46 remaining, I thought we were all doomed.
Lucky for the Wildcats, Oklahoma State is a legitimate 1-9, and once again, speaking from my Purdue experience, 1-9 teams find a way to lose football games. An 11-yard run took them all the way down to the 19-yard line, but they weren’t allowed to stay there because of a holding penalty. Instead of having the ball 1st and 10 at the 19, they were faced with 1st and 20 from the 29. Four incomplete passes later, and Kansas State secured a W in a game that neither team deserved to win.
You know what, I’m okay with that.
If you told me in August that Kansas State would beat one-win Oklahoma State 14-6, I would assume something had gone terribly wrong. The problem is that it wasn’t a surprising performance from this squad. The game you suffered through on Saturday was par for the course. The team that kicked off the college football season in Ireland was fundamentally flawed, and the team that squeaked out a road win over a hapless opponent was still fundamentally flawed, missing multiple key players on both sides of the ball.
I came into this season preaching Big 12 Championship aspirations and ended week 10 celebrating an eight-point victory over one of the worst teams in Power 4 football; sometimes, lowering expectations, at least temporarily, can have some benefits.
Speaking of which…Vegas is giving Kansas State a 17.5-point head start. I don’t expect this team to win in Provo, but maybe they can cover?
Talk about lowered expectations.
