Five turnovers led to 27 points for the visitors as Texas Tech Red Raiders rolled to a 42-20 win over the Kansas State Wildcats this afternoon at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
K-State (4-5, 3-3 Big 12) was
still in the game midway through the fourth quarter, but Tech got 14 points off two Wildcat turnovers in the space of two minutes to bury any chance of a rally.
Things started well. The Cats won the toss, and seven plays later Austin Romaine picked off Behren Morton near midfield. But Avery Johnson went deep on first down and was himself intercepted by Brice Pollock on a play where Johnson was flushed and really should have just run.
The K-State defense held, forcing a punt from midfield which the Red Raiders almost downed at the one, but it went into the end zone. A 28-hard completion to Garrett Oakley got the Cats into enemy territory, and after a false start the Cats got to 3rd-and-1. Johnson took off around the right end and rambled 46 yards for a score.
The Cats forced a 4th-and-4 near midfield, and Uso Seumalo sacked Morton for a 14-yard loss inside the Tech 40 to turn the ball over. Johnson threw three straight times to Jayce Brown; two missed and one was dropped. On 4th-and-10, Johnson missed Oakley too, and gave the ball back.
After an encroahment penalty on Tech, Daniel Cobbs made his second big play of the day for a two-yard loss, then Qua Moss blew up Reggie Virgil as soon as he caught the ball to force a punt. The first quarter ended on a Johnson run that resulted in 3rd-and-1 after a bad spot, but he picked it up on the next play. Brown picked up 13 on a reverse, but on the next play he got the ball punched out of his arms after a five-yard completion — but on review, it was ruled incomplete despite legitimately looking like a catch. The Cats had to punt a couple of plays later, pinning Tech at their own ten.
Tech chipped away, but then got a pair of big gains into the red zone. Ryan Davis got popped for hands to the face, giving Tech 1st-and-goal at the five, but after a no-gain Morton was sacked by Romaine and Desmond Purnell. Despite the Red Raiders looking utterly confused at the line, K-State called timeout; after a short gain Tech had to settle for a 29-yard field goal by Stone Harrington.
Two plays later, Brown again fumbled on a pass completion, and this time even though it clearly seemed to be an incompletion it was ruled a catch and a fumble. Cameron Dickey quickly scored on a 1-yard run and suddenly Texas Tech had a 9-7 lead — because Harrington’s PAT attempt clanged off the upright. Loudly.
K-State went 3-and-out on two nothing runs and a sack. Koy Eakin fumbled the punt, but recovered. The defense immediately forced 4th-and-1, but Tech picked it up at the expense of a lot of time off the clock; the Red Raiders had to call time with three seconds left to try a 54-yarder; Harrington’s first try hit the upright but went through, but K-State had called time as one does. Try number two went through, though, and the Cats trailed 12-7 heading into the locker room.
On the opening Wildcat drive of the second half, Tech forced another fumble after a catch, Oakley being the victim. VJ Payne almost had a pick, but it bounced right into Caleb Douglas’s hands; on the next play J’Koby Williams got loose around the right side and weaved his way 41 yards for a score, giving Tech a 19-7 lead.
K-State’s offense got unturned on the following drive, as a 56-yard pass to Brown set up a 18-yard run by Johnson to close the gap to 19-14. But the Red Raiders raced into the red zone, although the Wildcat defense did force 4th-and-1 at the 7 and made Tech burn a timeout. After a false start, Harrington had to come on to convert a 29-yarder.
But K-State again went 3-and-out, giving the defense only two minutes or rest. The defense forced another fourth down, but Tech went for it and got a 26-yard completion from Morton to Caleb Douglas, giving the Red Raiders 1st-and-goal at the one. It looked like a touchdown, but was upheld. Two plays later, Morton hit Douglas for a score and a 29-14 lead.
As the third quarter ended, Joe Jackson finally got free and rambled for 20 yards into Red Raider territory, and then Johnson ran it in from the 8 but Taylor Poitier got flagged for holding. Jackson caught a pass on the sideline, but got his clock cleaned and didn’t complete the play; there was targeting on the play, but that wasn’t upheld on review — however, they did rule the pass as complete, making it 2nd-and-goal from the 8. Jackson lost a yard, then Johnson fumbled the snap before hitting Oakley in the end zone. A flag was thrown, but the officials decided there was no holding and the score stood. The two-point attempt failed, leaving the Cats in a 29-20 hole.
The defense may not have gotten enough rest. Williams got loose for 34, but Amarion Fortenberry made a huge play, breaking up what might have been a touchdown pass and then immediately broke up another pass on 3rd-and-9. From the Wildcat 37, Tech punted, and only picked up 23 yards in the exchange after the ball took a Wildcat bounce.
One draw play later, Johnson had 16 of those 23 yards back. A couple of plays later, he danced five yards when the Cats needed four. On 3rd-and-8, Johnson hit Tibbs for 7, setting up a fourth down at midfield. But then Johnson took a loss of six on a keeper, and K-State gave up the ball.
Texas Tech gave it right back. Dickey got hit in the backfield by Damian Ilalio before he had a pitch in hand, and Ryan Davis smothered the fumble. But the Cats went 4-and-out when Oakley dropped a sure first down. Tech went 3-and-out in return.
Johnson was sacked, fumbled, and John Curry — a guy with a terrible name for any Wildcat fan who’d been making plays all day to have to hear repeatedly — scooped and scored to put the final dagger in K-State’s back. Then Johnson threw a pick, and that pretty much did it. Tech scored on a 19-yard strike from Morton to Douglas to make it 43-20, and Johnson didn’t come out for the next drive.
Johnson was a terrible 16-33 for 199 yards, one touchdown and two picks. On the ground, he added 88 yards on 15 carries and two scores. Oakley led the way with five catches and 62 yards and a score; Tibbs had three for 54 and Brown had two for 53.
Tech outgained the Cats 436-325, 249-199 in the air and 187-126 on the ground. But they did run 13 more plays, and led time of possession by seven minutes. Both teams had two sacks, penalties weren’t really a factor. But that 5-2 turnover margin… welp.
WHAT WE LEARNED
1) Tech’s run defense is unreal.
You might have gotten the idea that K-State ran the ball well, but take Johnson’s two touchdown runs out of the mix and K-State was sitting at 15 yards on 17 carries until Jackson’s 20-yard run late in the third. At the end of the day, aside from those three runs, it was 42 yards on 27 carries. Guys who aren’t Avery Johnson were 38 on 15, and that includes Jackson’s 20-yard escape.
Just brutal.
2) The Wildcat receivers were a problem today.
At one point, Johnson was only 3-9 for Not Much. One of those six incompletions was the interception, but the other five included two straight up drops by Brown and three balls which were catchable by open receivers who just missed. Receivers fumbled two completed passes. Johnson wasn’t entirely blameless here, and frankly he was just awful in the fourth quarter, but his stat line for the first 45 minutes was mostly someone else’s fault.
3) Don’t blame the defense.
Twice, K-State essentially made goal-line stands to force field goals. Texas Tech scored 13 points thanks to great field position after turnovers. They spent almost 2/3 of the first 39 minutes of the game on the field, and it wasn’t even their fault for the most part as by that point they had stopped Tech eight times on third down (and did so ten times overall). The defense’s issues today were largely tired legs resulting in big plays, and that was the fault of the offense and their inability to move the ball consistently.
And even at that, the defense absolutely did enough to win this game if the offense hadn’t been in such a giving mood.
4) Ultimately, Tech did not really outplay K-State.
The difference in this game was the turnovers. Both teams were about even on the ground, 4.3 yards a carry for Tech and 4.2 for K-State. K-State averaged 5.2 yards a play to Tech’s 5.7, which isn’t an insignificant difference, but again: 27 points off turnovers in a game you lost by 23 tells a story, especially when you were unable to capitalize on either of the other team’s miscues.
5) But really, let’s talk about the offensive line again.
This was a really stupid game, and despite all the myriad disasters that struck the Wildcats, they were still within reasonable striking distance midway through the final quarter. After that point, all you saw was Johnson running for his life in the backfield, over and over and over. There was no protection whatsoever. Just a pitiful performance.
PLAYERS OF THE GAME
On offense, it’s Johnson mostly by default because the only other players who did anything also had critical drops and turnovers. On defense, Daniel Cobbs didn’t put big numbers on the stat sheet, but his name got called on at least three big hits, and late in the fourth he didn’t tackle Dickey but he did hold him up enough for help to get there and set up another fourth down.
NEXT
A week off, the last until December. In two weeks, the Cats visit Oklahoma State, which… should be relaxing, at least. Right? Anyone? Hello?
