Things looked bad, but the Wildcats clawed back and won in true Wildcat fashion.
A 59-yard scoop-and-score by Jack Fabris and an interception by VJ Payne at the goal line with five seconds left led Kansas State to a 34-27 comeback victory over the Tulane Green Wave at Yulman Stadium in New Orleans.
The Cats struggled early, going into halftime on the wrong end of a 20-10 score, but surged back in the second half, tying the game twice before the critical endgame sequences.
Tulane penetrated into Wildcat territory on their opening drive, but Damian Ilalio stuffed Shadie Clayton-Johnson on a 4th-and-1. Two plays later, however, a sideways pass from Avery Johnson slid right through the hands DJ Giddens. It was initially ruled an incomplete forward pass, and the play was blown dead. The review resulted in the play standing, but there’s not much that could have been done even if it was ruled a backward pass because nobody ever recovered it.
Ultimately, it was still a three-and-out, as Johnson and Giddens simply were not on the same page.
The Green Wave blasted back into K-State’s side of the field on a 39-yard run by Makhi Hughes, but the defense again got a stop as Austin Moore forced a bad throw by Darian Mensah on 3rd-and-11. Johnson was more on the mark on the following drive, hitting Keagan Johnson for eight and Garrett Oakley for 10, which along with Giddens’s legs got the Cats into Tulane real estate. Then Johnson took off himself for 18. After a false start, the drive stalled; K-State settled for a 48-yard field goal by Chris Tennant to get on the scoreboard first.
Tulane got a 53-yard shot from Mensah to Dontae Fleming, who was somehow triple-covered by three Wildcats, none of whom were within five yards of him. That was followed by a three-yard run by Hughes to give Tulane a 7-3 lead. Pinned inside the 10 after a holding call on the kickoff, the quarter came to an end as Oakley nearly picked a pass nearly off the ground to create a 3rd-and-1; on review, it was overturned, and K-State ended up punting from their own end zone. It was not great, and Tulane took over at the Wildcat 38.
Three snaps later, Mensah avoided a blitz and hit a wide open Alex Bauman, who’d been left completely alone by Keenan Garber, for a 36-yard score and Tulane had a 14-3 lead.
Giddens responded, slipping through the line for a 51-yard scamper, and on the next play Johnson hit Joe Johnson for a 24-yard touchdown — but it was called back for ineligible receiver downfield. A couple of plays later, Johnson dumped off to Jayce Brown, who went airborne to get a first down and drew a targeting call on Tyler Grubbs. Replay overruled it, however.
Two plays later, a patient Johnson located Will Swanson in the end zone for a seven yard strike, closing the gap to 14-10.
Mensah completed a 37-yard pass to Mario Willians, a result of yet another completely blown coverage by Garber. Then he found Williams again for 17, and the Green Wave took to the ground. and got inside the 10. On 3rd-and-goal from the 8, Ilalio got Mensah into trouble, and he tried to throw the ball away. Intentional grounding was called, but on review Ilalio was instead credited with a sack. Jacob Barnes hit a 40-yarder to salvage the drive for Tulane.
The Cats went three-and-out, and Mensah again found a wide-open receiver, this time a 28-yard pass to Yulkeith Brown, and the booth called for a review for targeting on VJ Payne; it wasn’t. Tulane got into the red zone; K-State immediately started playing defense again and forced another field goal attempt. Barnes hit from 41, and Tulane took a 20-10 lead.
Johnson quickly moved the Cats upfield, getting to the Green Wave 35 with six seconds left in the half and setting up a 53-yard attempt for Tennant. It was no good, but surprisingly it was because it was short, not off-target.
Both offenses went three-and-out to start the second half, but K-State got moving on their second drive. A deep ball to Keagan Johnson drew a flag for pass interference, then Keagan picked up eight on a jet sweep. Dylan Edwards ran for ten, and then 27 to get into the red zone. Giddens got the ball down to the seven, but a horrible telegraphed call to give him the ball again resulted in a loss of three on 3rd-and-2, and Tennant had to kick a 28-yarder to make it 20-13.
A holding call and a sack by Austin Romaine gave the Cats another three-and-out, and a few plays later the Cats faced 4th-and-1 in Tulane territory. K-State converted — with a 45-yard scoring pass from Johnson to Giddens, and the game was tied.
Tulane got out to near midfield on the kickoff, and a great pass breakup by Keenan Garber was erased by a holding call on Tulane. Barnes fumbled on the next play, but the Green Wave managed to recover. An illegal snap penalty pushed them back another five, but after an incompletion Mensah hooked up with Williams, wide open again, for a 47-yard completion. A sack by Brendan Mott resulted in Mensah having to leave the game with a leg issue, which appeared to be just a cramp, and the quarter ended.
Ty Thompson came in the game for one play, running for nine before Mensah returned. A 13-yard touchdown to Bauman followed and the Green Wave retook the lead at 27-20.
Avery and Keagan hooked up for 33, followed by an 11-yard completion to Swanson. Giddens then carried three times for 18 yards to eclipse 100 yards for the sixth game in a row, getting into the red zone. Edwards took it in from 13 to tie the game up again.
Mensah immediately hit Williams for 22 after the kickoff, then two plays later Hughes sliced through for 32 yards and into the red zone. Williams lost a couple on what looked to be a double-pass play, and a false start pushed the Wave back to the 25. Austin Romaine then got through and sacked Mensah, who fumbled… and Jack Fabris scooped it up and put a 59-yard defensive touchdown on the board. Suddenly, K-State had a 34-27 lead.
On the kickoff, Clayton-Johnson fumbled, but was called down on the field. It very much appeared on replay that his knees and elbows were still off the ground when the ball came loose, but the play stood. Austin Moore sacked Mensah, the fifth of the day for the Cats, but on 3rd-and-9 Mensah hit Fleming for 17 yards to extend the drive. But another almost-sack by Tobi Osunsanmi, again on 3rd-and-9, forced a punt, giving K-State the ball with the lead and 5:10 to go.
But the Cats went three-and-out, and another over-blitz resulted in a dump pass to Hughes which went for 26 yards. VJ Payne got called for pass interference, getting Tulane to the 21. Mensah overthrew Williams in the end zone, then overthrew Brown in the end zone — but that was wiped out by a holding penalty, giving Tulane 2nd-and-20. Hughes got nine of that back on the ground, then Mensah ran for five, setting up 4th-and-6 with 54 seconds left.
Mensah ran it again and gained 15 yards, down to the Wildcat 2 with flags all over the field — a defensive holding penalty on Jacob Parrish. Tulane had the ball on the 1 with 27 seconds left.
But then Mensah completed a pass to Brown for six — but Fleming was called for offensive pass interference, erasing the score and pushing the Wave back to the 16 with 17 seconds to go.
An incompletion took another four seconds off the clock, and after a Wildcat timeout, Mensah dropped back to pass, looking for Brown in the end zone.
He found VJ Payne instead. Parrish was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct for his celebration, but it didn’t matter as only five seconds remained, and Johnson knelt out the win.
Avery Johnson was 15-23 for 181 yards and two touchdowns, adding 40 on the ground. Giddens had 114 yards on 19 carries, with no touchdowns on the ground — but he got one in the air among his team-leading four catches and 63 yards. Edwards had 54 yards on only four carries, with a score.
Keagan Johnson led the non-Giddens receivers with three catches for 51 yards; Swanson had two for 18 and a score, and Tre Spivey had two catches for 12. Four other receivers combined for four catches and 37 yards.
For Tulane, Mensah was 19-29 for 342 yards, two touchdowns, and the game-ending interception. Hughes had 128 yards on 21 carries and a touchdown; Williams caught six balls for 128 yards.
The Wildcats were outgained 491-396, but outrushed the Green Wave 215-149. The Cats were perfect in the red zone (3-3), while defensively they held Tulane to 4-6. K-State had seven penalties for 55 yards, compared to 9-80 for Tulane. The Wave also won the time of possession battle 33:16-26:44, for all the good it did them.
WHAT WE LEARNED
1) Halftime adjustments are the bomb.
This time, it was Matt Wells reworking the game plan during the intermission. The results themselves weren’t markedly different between the first and second halves, but whereas the first half scoring was the result of a couple of big plays, the offense moved more consistently in the latter half of the game.
Klanderman also adjusted, although not without second-half issues. The secondary was still porous, but the Wildcats backed off the send-the-house rush and got more conservative in the second half, and it was much more effective.
2) The front six on defense are still killing it.
Look, we can sum this up by just mentioning two stats: five sacks, eleven tackles for loss, and a forced fumble.
And it could’ve been even more eye-popping, because five other times Mensah escaped a sack.
3) The secondary is killing us.
Chris Klieman actually put the blame on the players missing assignments during a sideline interview, and it’s so out of character for him to say something of that nature that we’re going to have to take it at face value.
Something’s got to be done to get them on the right page, because there was clear and obvious miscommunication going on everywhere, and just bad play all around — except perhaps for Marques Sigle, who did look bad a couple of times but it also appeared he was only in those situations because he was forced to cover for someone else’s mistake.
4) Avery Johnson is getting there, but he needs to hurry.
Johnson was very, very shaky early in the game. His first two passes to Giddens were nightmarish disasters, and he didn’t truly get on track until the second half.
But that second half was exemplary. The only Wildcat drives in the second half which failed were both “run three times” drives. It’s still far too early to say Avery’s got a handle on the passing game. But his progression from the first to second halves of the first two games shows that at the very least he warms up; the issue is that he’s got to start being warmed up from the opening gun.
5) Don’t blame Chris Tennant for that missed field goal.
He was sent out there to attempt his career-long into the wind. It was a bad kick, but it was kind of a dumb decision, since K-State got the ball back to start the second half anyway. May as well have just aired it out instead.
PLAYERS OF THE GAME
On offense, it’s DJ Giddens again, with 177 yards of offense and a score. Austin Romaine gets the nod on defense, both in the impact and the production sense. The sophomore was everywhere today, and forced the fumble which led to what ended up being the game-winning score.
NEXT
It’s a home game on Friday night as the Cats welcome new Big 12 colleagues Arizona for a non-conference game. Don’t think about it too hard.