Joe Jackson and Avery Johnson each rushed for over 100 yards, bolstered by 66 from Rodney Fields, and the Kansas State Wildcats (4-2, 1-2 Big 12) survived leaving 20 points on the field to earn a 35-24 win over the Kansas Jayhawks (2-4, 0-3 Big 12) today at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan.
The Cats turned the ball over on downs twice inside the Jayhawk 12, and had to settle for two field goals after getting within the Kansas 10. Outside of those flaws, the Wildcats utterly dominated the stat
sheet, racking up 568 yards of offense on the day.
On the fourth play of the game, Johnson broke loose for a 59-yard run, brought down at the 4 — but he had to leave the game for a play after being winded. On that play, Jacob Knuth handed off to Rodney Fields for a touchdown and the early lead. It lasted 13 seconds. Bryson Hayes ran the kickoff back 95 yards to even the score again.
Johnson started the next drive with a 45-yard bomb to Derrick Salley, then Fields picked up 13 to get into the red zone. On 4th-and-4, Johnson threw incomplete to Josh Manning and the game remained tied. Kansas marched downfield, scoring on a 12-yard pass from Isaiah Marshall to Nik McMillan, staking Kansas to a 14-7 lead.
The return drive was a disaster. A pass interference call forced K-State into a 1st-and-20, and on third down Linkin Cure caught a 6-yard pass but fumbled, giving Kansas the ball at the 27. Marshall nearly scored, stepping out at the pylon, but a holding call put Kansas back at the 15. The Jayhawks had to settle for a 31-yard field goal from Martin Connington.
Cure redeemed himself in part on the ensuing drive, drawing a flag for pass interference and also catching a 10-yard pass. But the drive stalled and the Cats had to settle for a 22-yard Luis Rodriguez field goal. The Cats won the contest of “who’s going to play midfield defense first,” forcing a punt which resulted in K-State possession at their own 38. The drive wasn’t great, but Rodriguez hit from 51 to make it a 17-13 game.
The defense forced a 3-and-out, and a bad punt gave the Cats great field position again, but they had to punt from inside Kansas territory. Kansas was pinned deep, and ended up punting from their own 10. Except there was no punt. A bad snap led to the ball bouncing out of the end zone for a K-State safety, Brandon White returned the free kick back to the 50, and the Wildcats got into the red zone, where Rodriguez hit from 28 yards out to give K-State an 18-17 lead with 24 seconds to go before halftime, and Kansas gave up after Dylan Edwaards was dropped for a loss.
The Jayhawls effortlessly walked downfield to start the second half, scoring on a 3-yard Dylan Edwards run to retake the lead. But K-State responded in kind, finishing the drive off with a 8-yard run by Joe Jackson to retake the lead at 25-24.
The defense forced a 3-and-out, and a bad punt gave the Cats the ball near midfield. A holding penalty wiped out a good run by Johnson and pushed K-State back, but a 29-yard toss to Jaron Tibbs and a 15-yard run by Johnson found the Wildcats back in the red zone. The third quarter ended with a 3rd-down run by Jackson that stopped less than a foot from paydirt. Jackson was stopped short on fourth down.
The Cats had Kansas facing 3rd-and-9 from the 2, and Marshall threw incomplete, but Donovan McIntosh was flagged for pass interference all the way on the other side of the field. A 20-yard completion got Kansas fully out of danger, and two plays later they were across midfield. But the drive ended on a Logan Bartley interception.
Jackson immediately slipped through for a 64-yard gain, getting into the red zone, and a face mask on the next play moved the ball to the nine. Johnson found Tibbs for six, and K-State took a 32-24 lead.
Kansas scored on a 46-yard run by Marshall, but it was wiped out by a face mask penalty on Amir Herring which resulted in 3rd-and-26, and Marshall threw incomplete on the next play. K-State took over with 7:06 to go, and a 37-yard Johnson run put the Cats into the red zone. In the process, five minutes ticked off the clock, and with 2:00 left Rodriguez lined up a 34-yarder to make it 35-24.
Kansas got into Wildcat territory as the clock ticked, but on 4th-and-13 after two great pass break-ups, Marshall was flushed and chased out of bounds short of the sticks, and that was all she wrote. Johnson knelt the clock and K-State had the win.
Johnson was a fairly pedestrian 14-24 for 209 yards with a touchdown, but added 132 yards on the ground (11 yards a carry). Jackson ran for 159 yards on 27 touches with a touchdown and one catch for 13 yards, while Fields had 66 yards on 8 carries and a score, plus a catch for 15.
Tibbs led the receivers with 5 catches for 67 yards and a score, while Salley led the squad in yards with 70 on two catches. Josh Manning and Linkon Cure each had 2 catches, for 24 and 16 yards respectively.
K-State outgained the Jayhawks 568-319, and ran for more yards than Kansas gained (359-319). Johnson out-threw Marshall 209-151. Both teams had a turnover; K-State’s cost them a field goal while the Kansas turnover led to a touchdown. K-State won time of possession 36:26-23:34.
What We Learned
1) Finishing drives was a huge problem, and it needs fixin’.
K-State left 20 — twenty — points on the field today. On paper, this was a mauling. The scoreboard didn’t reflect it, because the Cats just couldn’t finish. Twice they turned the ball over on downs inside the red zone (once at the 1-yard-line); twice they had to settle for field goals after getting inside the 10-yard-line.
That seems like a play-calling issue.
2) Run game = good.
When Rodney Fields runs for 66 yards and it was only a fifth of the team total, you had a good day running the ball. Despite two all-Big 12 defensive ends on the other side of the ball, the offensive line did a great job opening holes for the Wildcat running game.
3) Run defense: got better.
A team with a mobile quarterback and Dylan Edwards only gained 168 yards on the ground, which is not a small number (and, in fact, Marshall had 117 yards which isn’t great), but it’s less painful than what’s been happening so far this year.
4) Third down was good for the defense, too.
Kansas was only 3-11 on third down, which is a pretty good number.
5) K-State still owns Kansas.
If next season’s game is scheduled after November 7, the streak will reach voting age.
Players of the Game
Joe Jackson earns the honors on offense, for obvious reasons. On defense, it’s Logan Bartley, who led the team in tackles and added a tackle for loss and a key interception.
Next
The Cats travel to Tempe to take on Arizona State, time yet to be announced.
