Avery Johnson threw for three touchdown passes, Rodney Fields ran for over 100 yards again, Joe Jackson had over 100 all-purpose yards, and Josh Manning hauled in 10 passes for 97 yards. More importantly, the defense kept the opponent out of the end zone for the second week in a row as the Kansas State Wildcats comprehensively dominated Washington State in their first-ever meeting, a 34-7 win for the hosts at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
The first drive was an impressive methodical dismantling of the
Cougar defense. K-State exertied its physical and schematic dominance, consistently gaining plus yardage and moving the chains largely on the back of Josh Manning, who caught four passes on that drive alone. The drive did stall at the 13-yard line after eating nine minutes, but Luis Rodriguez converted from 31 yards out to open the scoring.
The defense was not so dominant, allowing Washington State to penetrate to the red zone. The Cougar drive was aided by a dubious roughing the passer call against Adrian Bryant, whose wrist incidentally contacted Caden Pinnick’s helmet to add 15 yards to a 12-yard completion. However, Jordan Allen got a hand on the 37-yard attempt by Jack Stevens to maintain the 3-0 lead.
The offense struggled a bit on their second drive, but got down to the 31 before facing a 4th-and-8. Unfortunately, Johnson uncorked his first true mistake of the season as the route to Brandon White got jumped by Jaylen Thomas, who returned the interception 31 yards into Wildcat territory. The defense then held, stuffin consecutive runs on third and fourth down, to nullify the impact of the turnover.
On 3rd-and-8, Johnson found a hole and picked up 22 yards, and a few plays later hit Manning for a six-yard strike to finally find the end zone and a 10-point Wildcat lead.
The game then opened up, as the defense forced a 3-and-out, aided by a huge Wendell Gregory sack, and White very nearly returned a punt for a touchdown for the second week in a row, being stopped at the 20 after a 62-yard jaunt. Under pressure, Johnson then dumped a short pass off to Joe Jackson, who scored from 21 yards out. Inside the two-minute window, the defense forced a punt with 37 seconds to go in the half; the Cats went into time drill practice, and with seven seconds left Johnson threw another pick to Thomas, who scored on a pick-six and reduced K-State’s halftime lead to 17-7.
The second half was delayed when a storm cell rapidly move in and there were lightning strikes near the stadium, resuming an hour later.
The defense forced the Cougars into a 3-and-out, and on the first play after the punt Rodney Fields broke loose for a 75-yard touchdown scamper, giving him his second consecutive 100-yard game. The defense got another 3-and-out courtesy of Gregory’s second sack of the afternoon. White flirted with disaster when he muffed the punt, but managed to fall on the ball. Johnson immediately hit Manning over the middle for 36 to get into the red zone, and after Johnson nearly threw another pick at the goal line the Cats settled for a 31-yarder from Rodriguez to take a 27-7 lead.
The defense did their job again, and Johnson ripped off a 26-yard run to start the next drive, but couldn’t move the chains again. Simon McLannan came on for the first time all day to pin the Cougars at their five. Wazzu did manage a first down, but the defense was otherwise solid, and a 35-yard run by Jackson put the Cats in business again. Jackson followed up with runs of 8 and 15 before Johnson hit White for a 9-yard score to go up 34-7.
The defense did soften slightly on the next drive, letting the Cougars get into Wildcat territory, but Kaleb Patterson forced a Kirby Vorhees fumble and for the second week in a row Darien Whitaker recovered a fumble, giving the Cats possession at their own 41, but they got nowhere. The Cats almost managed a safety on 3rd-and-11, but Pinnick escaped, and Washington State had to punt again themselves. Another bad handle by White and an illegal block in the back pinned the Cats at their own 10.
Johnson nearly threw another pick, and the drive went nowhere. The Cougars moved the ball in response, but still had to punt, and when the Wildcat offense came back out, it was the second team, and all Jacob Knuth did was hand the ball to Jay Harris to kill the clock.
The Cats outgained Washington State 487-166, 295-101 on the ground and 192-65 in the air. K-State had 24 first downs to 10 for the Cougars, were 10-16 on third down compared to 2-12. Both teams were 0-1 on fourth. The Cats were 5-5 in the red zone, won time of possession 34:20-25:40, but lost the turnover battle 2-1.
Hidden yardage? Washington State picked up 81 yards on interception returns and 5 more on kicks, while K-State had 69 yards on kick returns, so basically a wash.
Johnson was 22-34 for 192 yards with three touchdowns and two picks, along with 78 yards on eight carries. Fields had 105 yards and a score on 13 totes, while Jackson added 68 on 10 along with 4 catches for 48 yards and a score to total 116 yards of offense. Jay Harris tacked on another 28 yards on five carries to close out the game.
Manning led the way with 10 catches for 97 yards and a score, while White had 4 for 29 and a touchdown plus three carries for 11 yards. Interestingly for this team, only one pass went to a tight end, an early 6-yard completion to Will Anciaux.
What We Learned
1) Avery Johnson still needs some work.
He threw two bad interceptions, and almost a third. Nearly every deep ball he threw was long. He was still good enough to manage the game against an inferior opponent, but Collin Klein has to get him cleaned up before K-State starts playing games that really matter.
2) The offensive line ain’t bad.
The rushing yardage itself should be a solid indicator here, but it’s also worth noting that none of Johnson’s miscues were because he had white jerseys all over him. That this line is performing this well with three major contributors out due to injury is very encouraging.
3) Speaking of the running backs…
Fields is officially a beast. Jackson is still Jackson. And Jay Harris seems pretty good, too. This is K-State football.
4) Josh Manning is going to be a star.
Manning doesn’t feel like a major deep threat, but he definitely has the Curry Sexton energy and folks, that’s pretty good. He has sure hands, he gets open, and he can move with the ball. Looking for good things from him the rest of the season.
5) The defense has been brilliant.
Not perfect, but they’ve done their job about as well as can be asked. Ten Cougar drives — all but their first effort — ended in 6 plays or less, and the defense has only been responsible for six points so far this season, both on field goals.
Players of the Game
Offensively, our nod has to go to Josh Manning, with respectful nods to Fields, Jackson, and (overall) White. On defense, a nod to Whitaker, but the man today was Wendell Gregory, showing the spark that earned him defensive freshman of the year honors last year.
Next
Collin Klein celebrates his birthday with a visit from Tulane next Saturday, the final game in a 2-1 which started with the frustrating loss in Manhattan a few years ago.
