It wasn’t a disaster, it was just death by papercut.
With nothing to play for but pride and perhaps a decent bowl assignment as a result of earlier results, the Kansas State Wildcats still tried their best, but came up short in a 29-21 loss to the Iowa State Cyclones at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames.
Turnovers were the difference, as the Cyclones scored 14 points off two Wildcat turnovers, and K-State — presented with the opportunity for at least two and perhaps three pick-sixes — dropped all of them.
The opening of the game was marked by absolute incompetence by the officiating crew. The first play of the game was an option pitch to Dylan Edwards which Edwards did not catch, and it was ruled a fumble which Iowa State recovered. After a lengthy review to determine whether it had been a forward pass, the play stood, and FOX’s rules analyst Mike Periera was beside himself that it was not reversed.
Three plays later, the officials gave Iowa State a first down on a play where the receiver was tackled two yards short; another review ensued, but the first down was reversed. Rocco Becht moved the chains on 4th-and-2, and two plays later hit Jayden Higgins for a 15-yard touchdown pass to get on the board first.
The offense did nothing, and had to punt, but the Cyclones got nothing either. Avery and Keagan Johnson combined for 28 yards and two first downs to get to midfield, then Jayce Brown got 13 after a couple of ineffective carries by DJ Giddens. Johnson was unable to get to the sticks on third down, setting up 4th-and-2 at the 28; Johnson hit Brown for a touchdown to tie things up.
Two plays later, Austin Romaine experienced psychological agony as he dropped a sure pick-six, and then an incomplete pass forced another Cyclone punt. The Cats were offside, but since it wouldn’t result in a first down Matt Campbell declined the penalty rather than kick again.
K-State went nowhere, and almost had another disaster as the offensive line completely collapsed, allowing five Iowa State defenders a clear shot at Johnson. He tried to throw the ball away and it was batted, but fell safely to the ground. Jaylin Noel had a 26-yard punt return, though, and the Cyclones started at midfield.
Another 4th-down conversion took the game into the second quarter, and a couple of minutes later Kyle Konrardy kicked a 41-yarder to put Iowa State back up 10-7. Two plays later, Johnson connected with Johnson, but Keagan fumbled and the Cyclones recovered at the K-State 30. A few plays later, Becht hit Noel again from 9 yards out to make it 17-7. A penalty after the score resulted in a 15-yard penalty, assessed on the kickoff.
Johnson found Garrett Oakley for a 21-yard gain to start the drive, but the Cats then faced 4th-and-1 at the 29, and Johnson had to throw the ball away under pressure.
Two plays later, Desmond Purnell also dropped a clear pick-six, then Chiddi Obiazor sacked Becht to force a punt. Johnson immediately hit Brown for a 65-yard touchdown, and the Cats narrowed the deficit to 17-14.
After a pair of punts, Iowa State jinked their way downfield and Becht scored on a 5-yard run. Jacob Parrish was called for roughing the kicker on the extra point, and Jace Gilbert kicked a squib instead of going deep; K-State took over at their 21 with just 35 seconds left in the half. They did not score, and punted with 10 seconds left. Iowa State took a 24-14 lead — and receipt of the second-half kickoff — into halftime.
Iowa State got past midfield in two plays, but then the K-State defense held. A 22-yard pass to Oakley on 3rd down saved the drive, and then Johnson ran for 12 before Giddens got loose for a 36-yard run down to the Cyclone 5. But the Cats could not get into the end zone, precipitating a 21-yard field goal by Chris Tennant… which was blocked.
A 3-and-out followed, and K-State took over at their own 41. Johnson again hit Oakley deep for 28, then ran it himself for 21 down to the Cyclone 7. Two plays later, Oakley caught a seven-yard touchdown pass. On the extra point, the snap was bad again, and the kick was blocked again — but somehow found its way through the uprights, and the Cats trailed 24-21.
The Cyclones raced downfield and got inside the 10, but Parrish broke up a pass in the end zone on 4th-and-2 from the 7 and the Cats took over on downs. But a few plays later, the offensive line collapsed again, and Johnson was chased back into the end zone, where he tried to throw it away. But he didn’t get the ball back to the line of scrimmage, so it was ruled intentional grounding — which is a safety when committed in the end zone.
Straight downfield the Cyclones marched, helped by a 3rd-down pass interference penalty on Keenan Garber. On 3rd-and-goal from the 2, Parrish batted a pass and nearly picked it off, forcing a 20-yard field goal by Konrardy and keeping it a one-score game, technically, at 29-21.
The Cats didn’t get a first down. On 4th-and-2, Oakley dropped a pass that was a bit behind him which would have moved the chains, and Iowa State took over at the 45. The Cyclones burned clock, and with 1:15 to go Konrardy missed a 37-yarder to give K-State one last gasp.
On 3rd-and-15, Johnson was forced out of the game after being slammed to the turf. Ta’quan Roberson came in and had to throw the ball away, and Iowa State took over to run out the clock.
STATS
Johnson was 12-28 for 220 yards and three touchdowns, with no interceptions. He added 64 yards on the ground, which was actually 86 adjusted for sack yardage. Giddens had 72 yards on 14 totes.
Garrett Oakley had 4 catches for 78 yards and a score, while Brown had 3 for 106 and a pair of touchdowns. Keagan Johnson had a pair of catches, while Swanson, Loftin, and Joe Jackson had one each.
The Wildcat defense made Rocco Becht terrible: 13-35 for 137 yards, but he did throw two touchdown passes and none of the half-dozen passes he threw which should have been intercepted were. Abu Sama, however, only ran for 81 yards on 15 carries, so K-State did do something right tonight.
The Cats outgained Iowa State 364-324, but were outgained on the ground 187-144. Penalties hurt a bit, as K-State had 8-65 compared to only 4-35 for the hosts. Third downs were a disaster for both teams, but Iowa State was better on fourth (2-3 to 1-4 for the Cats).
The real difference in the game, however, was turnovers. K-State’s two fumbles led to 14 Cyclone points, and that was more than the difference in the contest. Iowa State won time of possession 35:25-24:35.
WHAT WE LEARNED
1) K-State was plagued with just plain old bad luck tonight.
A couple of calls which could have gone either way, including the first play of the game. Three clear dropped interceptions and two others that could have been. Becht had an absolutely terrible game, and K-State just couldn’t get a break to take advantage of it.
2) The offensive line is just bad.
We have to accept it. When you have the same eight for most of a four-year stretch and most of them graduate, there’s going to be a backslide. But this line has been unable to open A Gap holes for Giddens for weeks, and tonight Avery Johnson spent a lot of time running for his life.
Of course, this brings us back to a previous complaint: not sure Conor Riley can be both offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at the same time, because both aspects of the game took a step backward this year.
3) Kinda weird that Jayce Brown announced he was transferring, then stopped dropping passes.
Nothing more to say there.
4) Despite everything, K-State played pretty well.
A lot of “bad” things in this game — not nearly all, but a lot — weren’t failures of execution for the most part. It’s hard for a defensive back to catch a ball they’re not really expecting to be there, for example. The opening fumble shouldn’t have been, because it wasn’t a backward pass. You get the idea.
Garrett Oakley was money for 55 minutes, and then dropped a pass. It wasn’t a perfect pass, but it was catchable. It just happened to happen at the worst possible time.
Stuff happens.
5) We also need perspective on the season.
Yes, K-State had a horrible, horrible loss to Houston, and an embarrassing loss to BYU. But that BYU loss, and the losses to Arizona State and Iowa State… well, those were “good” losses, if a loss can be a good one. It’s not like this team pulled a couple of wins over the conference’s best teams and then lost games they had no business losing.
This team was, it turns out, overrated to begin the season. But the thing is, we thought that before the season. Why were we expected to compete in the first place with a first-year starting quarterback, a bunch of offensive lineman graduated, and a suspect receiving corps which didn’t really start to gel until November?
It’s disappointing, and there’s work to be done, but as long as K-State doesn’t suffer a massive exodus to the portal, this team is primed to compete in 2025. Which is exactly the situation we expected in January of 2024.
PLAYERS OF THE GAME
Offense, Garrett Oakley gets the nod because we’re not giving it to someone who’s transferring. Jacob Parrish was actually brilliant the entire game on defense, so he gets the honors there.
NEXT
¯_(ツ)_/¯
A bowl game, somewhere.