The Cats simply failed today.
On a day with heavy rain and a nearly hour-long kickoff delay due to thunderstorms, Kansas State suffered from two special teams disasters on bad snaps and the offense just couldn’t sustain anything as Avery Johnson threw two interceptions — the second of which led to a late Houston touchdown. That score gave the Cougars the lead as they upset the Wildcats 24-19 at TDECU Stadium in Houston, Texas.
The Wildcat rushing attack was completely bottled the entire game, with only two carries resulting in double-digit yardage. The passing game was more effective, but Johnson was off-target frequently, either throwing too high or too low; multiple passes were knocked down at the line of scrimmage. As a result, the Cats were still under pressure late, with the lead, and disaster struck.
On the opening drive, the Cats methodically pushed their way downfield; a late hit penalty on Houston for laying Keagan Johnson out on a pass which had already long since sailed past him helped, but only on yardage as that was a first down play. But after a nice run by Avery Johnson set up 2nd-and-four (not goal) from the four, consecutive incompletions necessitated a 23-yard field goal by Chris Tennant to salvage points.
Houston did manage a first down on their first drive, but immediately lost yardage on each of the next three plays, including Brendan Mott’s Big 12-leading eighth sack of the season, and punted. In an amusing moment, as Houston was waiting to down the ball, Ty Bowman snuck in and grabbed it to try and return it; he didn’t get far, but he did get a couple of yards K-State wouldn’t have otherwise had.
The Cats still ended up eight yards further back after three horrible plays, and had to punt themselves; the back-and-forth netted the Cougars 12 yards as they took over again at their own 46. On 4th-and-2 from the Wildcat 46, Zeon Chriss hit a wide-open Joseph Manjack for 45. Donovan Smith came in at quarterback for a keeper and scored, giving Houston their first points ever against K-State.
Dylan Edwards bobbled the ensuing kickoff, but recovered. Johnson’s first pass was dangerously batted down at the line. Giddens went nowhere, then Johnson hit Giddens in the helmet before he’d turned to see the pass; the mistake was exacerbated by Keagan Johnson being wide open at the sticks. Houston took over at their own 41 after the punt.
On 3rd-and-2 from midfield, Chriss hit Devan Williams for 33 yards. A sack by Austin Moore and Desmond Purnell (with an early assist from VJ Payne) pushed the Cougars back a bit, and three plays later the Cougars had to settle for a 22-yarder from Jack Martin to go up 10-3.
Edwards fielded the kickoff at the goal line and slipped, but he recovered and got out to the 30. On 3rd-and-4 Johnson had to scramble and threw downfield to Giddens incomplete, but a holding penalty on Houston gave the Cats a first down they desperately needed. Two more followed, then on 4th-and-3 a completion to Garrett Oakley moved the chains again and got into the red zone. Another first down catch by Jadon Jackson led to a 2-yard touchdown run for Giddens, but a bad hold led to Tennant’s extra point being blocked, preserving a 14-13 lead for Houston. For his part, Tennant himself recovered the ball, preventing a scoop and score.
After a 28-yard run by DJ Butler got Houston into Wildcat territory, Tobi Osunsanmi forced a fumble which Purnell fell on, giving K-State the ball at midfield with 38 seconds left. A Johnson-to-Johnson connection got the Cats down to the 22 with all three timeouts. On third down, a bullet to Oakley moved the chains, and K-State and then Houston both called successive timeouts with 13 seconds left in the half. Johnson went to Johnson again for a 7-yard score, allowing K-State to head to the locker room with a 16-10 lead.
Jordan Riley secured a huge sack for a nine-yard loss on third down to doom Houston’s opening drive of the second half to 3-and-out. The punt hit Bowman, creating a free ball, but Edwards covered it up. The Cats moved into Houston territory, but a bad read on an option cost Johnson five yards, and a bad snap on a 53-yard attempt by Tennant gave Houston possession at their own 45.
A nine-yard gain on 3rd-and-10 brought Smith back into the game, but he was stuffed on 4th-and-1 by Austin Romaine to give the ball back to K-State at their 47, but the drive went nowhere. Houston started again at their own 27. They also couldn’t get going and punted. K-State took over on their own 15, and — while being hit from behind — Johnson found Jayce Brown for a 61-yard gain down to the 23. A holding call made it 1st-and-20, but wet ball issues forced a field goal attempt. Tennant drilled it from 47 to extend the lead to 19-10.
Houston went 3-and-out, but pinned the Cats at the 10 with a 65-yard punt. Two plays later, Johnson threw a very bad pick on a checkdown, resulting in Houston taking possession inside the Wildcat 10. Three plays later Chriss hit Maliq Carr on a one-yard pop pass to close the gap to 19-17 as the rain really started coming down.
Two short runs were followed by a pass to Giddens, who fumbled out of bounds. A bad punt left Houston at their own 30. The Cats made big 3rd-down stop two plays later, but an offsides penalty on Moore gave the Cougars a first down. An ankle tackle by Mott forced a 4th down three plays later, and Houston chose to punt. The Cats went 3-and-out thanks to some terrible miscommunications, giving Houston the ball at midfield.
On the first play, Keenan Garber got called for pass interference. On the next, Chriss broke loose for the first time in the game, running 41 yards for the go-ahead score. But the rain had finally slowed.
A few plays later, Johnson threw another pick at midfield with 1:43 to go and that was effectively it. The Cats did force a 3-and-out, but took over on their own 15 with no timeouts and 35 seconds to go. Johnson got the Wildcats down to the Houston 39 with three seconds left, but his final desperate heave was batted out of the back of the end zone.
Johnson was only 23-39 for 238 yards, a touchdown and two picks; he had 18 yards on the ground. Giddens, who came into the game needing 55 yards to reach 1000, only had 50 on 17 carries. Edwards had 31 on eight. Keagan Johnson led the team with six catches, accounting for 76 yards and a score; Giddens caught five balls for only 16, Brown had three for a team-leading 86 yards, Oakley had three for 29, Jackson had two for 24.
The Cats outgained Houston 327-232, but lost the ground game 121-89; neither team broke three yards per carry on the day. Penalties weren’t really a factor, and both teams were awful on third down but 1-2 on fourth. Both teams were 3-3 on red zone opportunities, and K-State won time of possession 31-29.
WHAT WE LEARNED
1) The running game did get shaken up a bit, but not enough.
Last week, we observed that Giddens hadn’t been running outside at all for weeks. Tonight, they did call a couple of edge runs, but they were slow-developers that went horizontally and nowhere. Giddens is still not running off-tackle, and Houston held the Cats to 2.6 yards per carry.
2) Keagan Johnson has finally asserted himself.
It’s not that he had a great game, but the Iowa transfer was the go-to receiver when a big first down was required and he mostly delivered. He doesn’t appear that he’s ever going to be the big-play guy; that’s Brown’s role. But KJ was dependable tonight on a night when so, so many other offensive players weren’t, and had the biggest catch of K-State’s final drive.
3) The defense was great for 57 1/2 minutes, and then again for 90 seconds.
That’s all we’ll say.
4) This team has a frustrating tendency that’s becoming apparent.
That tendency: playing to the level of the opposition for three quarters or more. There is no excuse for tonight’s performance. Houston is not a bad football team, but they are not a good one either. This game should have been a comfortable win.
5) Bonus: Willie Fritz has our number.
We should’ve hired him in 2005.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Well, Tennant’s the only one who did nothing wrong today, so he gets it all by himself for the second week in a row.
NEXT
A week off to feel like crap over this one and maybe be unranked the whole time, then Arizona State comes to town.