A first-half struggle turned into second-half dominance as Kansas State rode a career day by Jaron Tibbs and the best performance of the year by Avery Johnson to roll to a 31-20 victory over the Tulane Green Wave on Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan.
Johnson accounted for 379 yards of offense between his arm and legs, and Tibbs set career highs in both catches and yards. The Wildcat defense finally bent, giving up two touchdowns, but they forced Tulane (1-2) to eat a lot of clock
in the process.
K-State (3-0) won the toss as well as the opening drive, forcing a 3-and-out. But the offense stalled, and the Cats had to punt. On Tulane’s second drive, the Wildcat defense finally had a breakdown, giving up a 41-yard pass from Kadin Semonza to Oliver Mitchell as well as a pair big runs before Semonza scored on a nine-yard run. It was the first touchdown surrendered on the season by the Wildcat defense.
Another fruitless drive by the Cats was followed by a huge tackle for loss by Gabe Powers on a blown running play which led to a punt giving K-State decent field position. A 33-yard connection between Johnson and Tibbs and an 11-yard jet sweep by Brandon White got the Cats down to the four-yard line, but on the next three plays the Cats lost a yard. Luis Rodriguez came on to kick a 23-yarder to get K-State on the board at 7-3.
After two 10+ yard runs, an Elijah Hill sack led to a Tulane punt. Johnson picked up two first downs with his legs, then completed two big passes to Tibbs and Will Anciaux to get down to the Tulane two-yard line. Two plays later, Jay Harris bulled in to give the Cats a 10-7 lead.
Tulane went 3-and-out, and after an incompletion Johnson broke free down the sideline for 66 yards, then scored from seven yards out. Tulane ran the two-minute drill well until Jayden Bryant plowed Semonza for a loss of 13 on a third-down sack, and Tulane had to settle for a 58-yard field goal attempt by Cooper Helmke — which would have been good from 70. The Cats killed the final 17 seconds and took a 17-10 lead into the locker room.
After the break, K-State methodically moved downfield, eating up over eight minutes. The biggest play was a 27-yard completion to Anciaux, and Harris capped things with a one-yard run. Tulane responded, aided by a pair of concurrent penalties which erased a 21-yard gain by DJ Dugar; a late hit by Mekhi Mason resulted in 15 yards instead. Tulane got down the the 24, but a 1-yard stop, a 5-yard loss, and a 7-yard sack pushed them back to the 35 and a 4th-and-21. Helmke pounded a 53-yarder to bring the score to 24-13.
As the third quarter ended, on 4th-and-inches at theWildcats’ own 34, Collin Klein opted to punt and rely on the defense. It paid off with a 3-and-out, and a 14-yard catch by Tibbs plus a 25-yard run by Johnson got K-State into the red zone. Johnson ran it in from 12 yards out a couple of plays later for a 31-13 advantage.
Tulane got a 22-yard gain on a pass play, then three plays later faced 3rd-and-19 but were bailed out by a pass interference call on Kaleb Patterson when Semonza was nearly sacked by Koy Beasley. Inside the 30, Bryant got his second sack of the day, but then on 3rd-and-17 Semonza found Maurice Turner for a 25-yard score to get within 31-20.
Tulane tried an onside kick, but K-State recovered, and after a first-down pass to Garrett Oakley after Tulane had exhausted their final time out, Johnson knelt the clock out for the win.
Johnson was fantastic today after a couple of shaky starts to begin the season. He was 21-28 for 227 yards although with no touchdown passes, and had a career-high 152 yards on 12 carries with two scores. The rest of the team only accounted for 49 yards on the ground, although with two touchdowns courtesy of Jay Harris.
Tibbs set career highs in both receptions (9) and yards (114). The tight ends were busy as well, with 4 catches for 27 yards for Oakley, 3 for 59 for Anciaux, and 3 for 23 for Linkin Cure.
K-State outgained Tulane 428-260, 201-95 on the ground and 227-165 in the air. Both teams were penalized five times, although K-State lost 34 more yards as a result than the Green Wave. There were no turnovers, and K-State led time of possession 33:41-26:19. The biggest eye popper on the stat sheet: Johnson was not sacked, while the Cats got to Semonza six times, and had 12 tackles for loss for a total of 64 yards.
What We Learned
1) The run game might be vulnerable.
Johnson was able to get yards himself, but the rest of the stable struggled today. Tulane was well-prepared, and the Cats are going to have to address that issue in conference play or things could get hairy.
2) The run defense might be vulnerable.
They didn’t get gashed horribly — in fact, on paper it looked like another great performance. But Tulane was able to get decent chunks and used the run game to move the chains often, and subtracting sack yardage like sane people do makes the numbers look a lot worse.
3) The pass defense was pretty hot.
Semonza’s numbers through the air today will be the cause of nightmares… for him.
4) Jaron Tibbs finally showed up.
Tibbs was mostly the invisible man in K-State’s opening pair of games, but he was Johnson’s favorite today. He had career highs in both receptions and yards, and while he didn’t find the end zone himself he had a big part in every Wildcat touchdown today.
5) Linkin Cure is now part of the system.
Cure caught 3 balls on three targets, presented a threat in the run game although he had no carries, and was on the field for most of the game. I think we can stop clutching our pearls.
Players of the Game
Johnson had his best game of the year, but when you have a career day we’re giving you the nod here. So Jaron Tibbs gets the nod this week. On defense, Will Gregory was once again great — three tackles for loss and half a sack — but we’ll spread the love around and give it to Jayden Bryant and his two sacks and two TFLs this week.
Next
The Cincinnati Bearcats come to Manhattan to open conference play in an evening game on ESPN2.
