FINAL: Baylor Bears 35, Kansas State Wildcats 34

Hard questions have to be answered about an incompetently-managed sequence, and someone has to be accountable.

Summarized by AI ⓘ

What is the story about?

An absolutely inexplicable pair of plays as Kansas State was in position to salt the game away utterly backfired, and the Baylor Bears defeated the Wildcats 35-34 at McLane Stadium on a final-minute 53-yard field goal by Connor Hawkins followed by a blocked field goal attempt by Luis Rodriguez

The loss overshadowed what had been a very fine performance by the K-State (2-4, 1-2 Big 12) offense and an adequate performance by the defense. Baylor (4-2, 2-1 Big 12) quarterback Sawyer Robertson got his

stats, but the Cats held Bryson Washington — who’s been averaging over 98 yards a game — to 65 yards on the ground. The Wildcat offense gouged Baylor for 501 yards, and moved the chains nine times out of 16 third downs, but it was all for naught.

The Cats lost the toss again, and the opening drive was the Joe Jackson and Garrett Oakley show to start, both players moving the chains a couple of times each. Then Johnson took off on a draw play and raced 31 yards to paydirt to open the scoring.

Baylor moved the ball, as Baylor will, but on 3rd-and-4 Tobi Osunsanmi dropped Caden Knighten for a loss and Baylor had to settle for three on a 30-yarder from Connor Hawkins.

The next drive was not like the first. Monterrio Elston fielded the kickoff five yards deep, and managed to get back out to the 30, but a block in the back flag took ten yards off that. Then the Blake Barnett experience came back for an encore. But Barnett fumbled on the first play, then Jackson got swallowed up for a loss, then a deep ball to Jayce Brown was broken up by LeVar Thornton, and then Simon McClannan punted badly and Baylor took over at the K-State 40.

Baylor drove, but Sawyer Robinson got got trying to throw a fade to Kole Wilson, but Daniel Cobbs caught it instead. He was ruled down at the two, and the quarter ended with Jackson picking up nine to get out from under the goal posts. But they didn’t move the chains again, and McClannan had another bad punt. VJ Payne got flagged for pass interference, and a couple of plays later Bryson Washington got loose… but Kanijal Thomas dispossessed him and Asa Newsom fell on the ball for another turnover.

But the Cats got nowhere again. This time, McClannan almost got blocked, but at least the punt was decent. But then every snap, Baylor got at least 10 yards, culminating in a 30-yard touchdown pass from Robertson to Kobe Prentice — who caught a touchdown pass against K-State in the Sugar Bowl three years ago — and Baylor took a 10-7 lead.

The next drive started poorly, but Johnson escaped the pocket and hit Jaron Tibbs for 21 on 3rd-and-10, and then found him again for 30. But they only got three more yards before Luis Rodriguez was called on to kick a 49-yarder, tying the game again, but Baylor just waltzed downfield and appeared to score on a 17-yard catch by Michael Trigg, but it was ruled incomplete on review. So Michael Turner slipped through a blitz and ran it in instead.

But the Cats got it back before halftime. Johnson led a fine chunk-yardage drive, and the Cats got a break when Johnson was hit late out of bounds (bowling over sideline reporter Tori Petry in the process), before hitting Oakley for a 9-yard touchdown pass to tie the game again.

K-State got off the field on Baylor’s opening second-half drive, but were pinned at their own three. On third down, under severe duress, Johnson managed to weave and bob his way past the sticks. Four plays later, facing 4th-and-1 at their own 42, the Cats went for it with Barnett taking the snap, and he rolled over the line to move the chains. Johnson then hit Jayce Brown on a slant and picked up 30. Jackson ran for 9, then Johnson was almost picked off. On 3rd-and-1, Johnson picked up three and almost went all the way but he slipped. After 97 yards and nearly seven minutes, Brown caught a 12-yard pass to give the Cats a 24-17 lead.

On Baylor’s first play, Knighten got stuffed at the line and tried to make something of it; instead, he was chased backward and lost 11 on the play. Two plays later, Robertson was sacked at the four and Baylor had to punt; Lockett fielded and was downed at Baylor’s 44. Three plays later, Will Anciaux had to fight over the ball but came down with a 25-yard gain; Dylan Edwards then bounced his way in from five yards out to put the Cats up by two touchdowns.

Baylor scooted downfield, but were left facing 4th-and-7 at the 15. Robertson overthrew Wilson in the end zone, and the Cats took over. They didn’t do much, but McClannan finally did McClannan things, booming a 56-yard punt which kept Baylor inside their own 20. But Robertson launched two bombs to Trigg, the second a one-handed grab with one foot inbounds. On the next play, Robertson found Washington for an 11-yard score, followed by Robertson running in a 2-point conversion to cut the Wildcat lead to 31-24.

Elston got absolutely mauled on the kickoff return, and was ruled to have fumbled, but the replay booth came to K-State’s rescue again. Johnson did a great job keeping the chains moving, but finally made a mistake. Jacob Redding picked him off and raced 58 yards for a pick-six, and Baylor took a 32-31 lead.

Johnson immediately hit Brown for what would have been a 76-yard touchdown, but Brown’s helmet was pulled off and the play was blown dead at the 28 yard line. Baylor was flagged, however, moving the ball to the 14, but the erased touchdown would be the difference in the game. Johnson handed the ball to Jackson three times and ate clock, but then an inexplicable pair of passing play calls left the Cats with 4th-and-goal at the 4, and Rodriguez kicked a 22-yarder to make it a 34-32 game.

Baylor got into K-State territory, and on 4th-and-9 with 36 seconds to go Hawkins lined up for a 53-yard field goal.

He made it.

Johnson tried to rally downfield, and a pass interference call on Baylor helped, and Rodriguez was able to line up for a 56-yard field goal with five seconds left.

It was blocked.

Johnson was 29-45 for 339 yards, with two touchdowns and an interception. He also ran for 72 yards and a score on 10 carries. Jackson added 61 yards on 13 touches, plus five catches for 41 yards. Edwards, who was reportedly frustrated on the sideline about his usage, had 26 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries, and two catches for 16.

Oakley had 7 catches for 54 yards and a score, Tibbs went 6-80, and Brown went 4-106 with a score. K-State outgained Baylor 501-443, 339-345 passing and 162-98 on the ground. As noted above, K-State ultimately converted 9-16 on third down while holding Baylor to 3-9. K-State scored zero points off two Baylor turnovers; the Bears scored 7 off K-State’s one. The Cats scored on every trip into the red zone, 4-4; Baylor was only 3-5. Time of possession? K-State had the ball for over 37 minutes.

And because someone is an idiot, K-State lost.

WHAT WE LEARNED

1) Someone is just a damned idiot.

Coming out of the 2-minute timeout, K-State had 2nd-and-goal at the four. Baylor had two timeouts.

YOU RUN THE DAMNED BALL THERE. PERIOD.

Baylor kicked the winning field goal with 31 seconds left.

There is no 2-5 today. This decision was so infuriating that it’s all we should be talking about. This was malpractice, incompetence, and inexcusable.

PLAYERS OF THE GAME

We’re going to go with Joe Jackson on offense, who accounted for 102 yards and who caught five of the six balls thrown at him. (We can’t give it to Johnson, because K-State also wins if he doesn’t throw that pick-six.) On defense, although looking at the box score might confuse you, we’re going with Qua Moss, who was all over the place today.