Everything clicked for the Cats as they rolled to an easy win.
Mostly mistake-free football, a whopping five stops on fourth down, and Avery Johnson finding his legs again were major factors as the Kansas State Wildcats rolled to a huge 41-15 Senior Day victory over the Cincinnati Bearcats tonight at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
Things started well. The Bearcats (5-6, 3-5 Big 12) went 3-and-out and shanked their punt, letting K-State (8-3, 5-3 Big 12) start at their own 35. Johnson immediately went 33 yards on a keeper to ignite the stadium. A few plays later, he rolled 21 yards on another keeper to put K-State on the board.
The Bearcats ran seven plays on the next drive. Every single carry went for negative yardage, and they were forced to punt again. The Cats marched downfield again, but a missed block led to Johnson getting stopped for no gain on 3rd down, leading to a 28-yard field goal attempt by Chris Tennant. The snap and hold were good for a change, and K-State went up 10-0.
Cincinnati managed to get downfield on their third try, but on 4th-and-1 at the K-State 45 Brendan Sorsby tried a keeper and got thrown — literally — backward by Cody Stufflebean and Austin Moore short of the line to gain. Two plays later, DJ Giddens ran for 20 then caught a pass for 18 to end the quarter. The Cats stalled again, but got a 32-yarder from Tennant.
Again, Cincinnati had some success, but a Chiddi Obiazor sack set up 4th-and-8 at the Wildcat 33. Too far for a field goal, too close to punt, the Bearcats went for it; Sorsby threw wildly incomplete and K-State had its second turnover on downs of the half.
Johnson found Jayce Brown for 15, then Giddens picked up 20 on a flea-flicker. On the next play, heran 30 yards for a touchdown. Four plays, 67 yards, and it even ate up 2:02 off the clock; the Cats went up 20-0.
The defense lost its ability to defend the run, as Corey Kiner sandwiched runs of 26 and 24 around a completion for no gain in which VJ Payne flat murdered Tony Johnson as soon as he caught the ball. But Sorsby continued to badly overthrow his receivers, leaving the Bearcats with 4th-and-9 at the 23. Nathan Hawks came on and converted a 42-yard field goal to end the shutout.
The Cats just went right back at it, although holding penalties bit them, including a call that wiped out a 30-yard run by Joe Jackson. The drive stalled after that, and K-State had to punt with a minute left in the half. Cincinnati’s half ended with a Brendan Mott interception, taking the ball to the Bearcat six with 18 seconds left. Ten seconds later Johnson found Tre Spivey in the back of the end zone, and the Cats took a 27-3 lead — and would get the ball to start the second half.
Unfortunately, they went 3-and-out, and a bad bounce on the punt gave Cincinnati the ball near midfield. On 4th-and-4, Jacob Parrish — for about the fourth time on the night — covered Xzavier Henderson perfectly and forced yet another turnover on downs. And then the Cats went 3-and-out.
Cincinnati drove, and cashed in on a 9-yard touchdown pass to Tony Johnson. The Cats got into Cincinnati territory, and then things got crazy. On 4th-and-13 from the 35, K-State went for it because punting would be pointless. Johnson found Spivey for a first down; Spivey fumbled after reaching the sticks, but the ball rolled out of bounds. Giddens followed up with his second touchdown, from 17 yards out, to put K-State up 34-9.
Facing fourth down once again at the 50, Cincinnati went for it; Parrish once again kept Henderson from doing anything, and K-State took over on downs for a fourth time. A few minutes later, Johnson hit Will Swanson from eight yards out to absolutely bury the dagger.
With a 32-point lead, the defense went into coast mode, so Cincinnati was able to get a 33-yard completion to Jamoi Mayes, which led to a 6-yard touchdown pass to Tony Johnson, but another failed two-point conversion made it a 41-15 game. That got the ball back into the hands of the offense with 5:09 to go.
Johnson sat the rest of the game out, Ta’quan Roberson taking over to burn the clock, but Roberson only picked up seven yards on 3rd-and-8, so the Cats had to punt. Cincinnati had also had enough by this point, however, and put in Brady Lichtenberg at quarterback; nothing else really mattered. With under two minutes to go, Tobi Osunsanmi sacked Lichtenberg on fourth down, and all that was left was clock. Three carries by Evan Cantu got a first down and drained the final seconds.
STATS
Johnson wasn’t fantastic throwing the ball, going 13-23 for 147 and two touchdowns. But he added 72 yards and a touchdown on the ground, and thus accounted for 219. Giddens had 143 yards on 15 carries with two scores, and Joe Jackson added 47 yards on ten carries. Spivey led the receivers with five catches for 63 yards and a score. Giddens and Cephas each had three catches, while Brown and Swanson had one each, including Swanson’s touchdown.
The Cats outgained Cincinnati 428-374, and outran the Bearcats 281-174. Penalties weren’t much of a factor, but three other things were: K-State was 2-2 converting on fourth down, while Cincinnati turned the ball over all five times they tried. The only turnover was the interception which led to K-State’s touchdown to end the first half. Lastly, K-State had four sacks to none for the Bearcats. Time of possession was mostly even, 31:14-28:46 for the Cats.
WHAT WE LEARNED
1) Avery Johnson being able to run is a big help for DJ Giddens.
We’ve pounded the drum about continually running Giddens Counter A being bad, and we’re not standing down from that.
But man, having Johnson willing and able to run sure opens things up for Giddens. It also doesn’t hurt that Cincinnati is bad against the run anyway, but if you’re closely watching the tape you can see how having Johnson on the loose alters the defense.
2) Brendan Sorsby helped K-State win this game.
For basically three quarters, Sorsby had a case of the Bad K-State Quarterbacks, overthrowing everyone by a mile. That made the secondary look really good for 35-40 minutes until Sorsby stopped overthrowing.
That said, it was still a decent effort by the secondary, as when Sorsby did have the range, he usually found a defensive back batting the ball away or shielding the receiver from being able to get to it. Jacob Parrish, specifically, had Xzavier Henderson on lockdown.
3) Joe Jackson may be the second best running back on the roster.
This isn’t a knock on Dylan Edwards, who’s out with an injury. But Johnson, carry for carry, has performed about equally well as Edwards on the ground. Rod Gilmore, on the broadcast, kept talking about how Giddens had to carry the whole load with Edwards out, and… what? Plug and play, baby.
4) Last week’s emergence by Spivey and Cephas wasn’t a mirage.
Something’s clearly happened; maybe Johnson’s just found his vibe with the pair. With Keagan Johnson and Jadon Jackson joining Edwards on the sideline due to injury, this was a sort of necessary outcome — but they rose to the challenge and performed. For once, the wide receiver room appears to be an asset.
5) Honestly, not much else.
We saw K-State play how K-State usually plays after several weeks of bleh.
PLAYERS OF THE GAME
DJ Giddens running for a hundo is blase at this point, so we’re going to spread the love a big and give the offensive honors to Tre Spivey, who had himself a pretty nice evening. Defensively, with a nod to Brendan Mott for his near-pick six, we have to go with Jacob Parrish. Parrish has been a bit beleaguered this season, but tonight he was spot on as he kept Henderson in check.
(As a side note, no individual defender was assigned to tight end Joe Royer, but he was held to one catch for 13 yards. This is relevant because he came into the game three catches shy of equaling Travis Kelce’s single-season school record for catches, and left it still two shy.)
NEXT
Ames. Farmageddon. The entire Big 12 race hinging on the outcome.