From The Couch – K-State Gets Ugly Win In Stillwater
K-State eked out a victory over Oklahoma State on Saturday by a score of 14-6. K-State was a heavy favorite coming into the game, as most betting services had them as 19 or 20-point favorites. Oklahoma State was 1-8 overall and had lost all six of its conference games by lopsided scores. The closest conference game they had was a 17-point loss to Kansas. They lost by 42 to Texas Tech, 32 to Cincinnati, 22 to Houston, 28 to Arizona, and 18 to Baylor. This is not a good Oklahoma State team. They are coached by an interim coach, Doug Meachum, who, in all fairness, got his team motivated enough to give K-State all they could handle yesterday.
K-State’s defense won this game, forcing two fumbles and three interceptions by the Cowboys and keeping them out of the end zone, but they still allowed a significant amount of yardage. Oklahoma State had been averaging 298 yards per game on offense. They had 373 against K-State.
Offensively, K-State struggled most of the game. Oklahoma State’s rush defense gives up 170 yards per game on average and K-State could only muster 107 yards on the ground. Oklahoma State’s pass defense gives up 274 yards per game, and K-State could only gain 177 yards passing against the Cowboy defense.
The mantra “a win is a win” is an old adage, but it fits for what happened on Saturday. I have seen many ugly football games in my life, and this one ranked right up near the top of the list. Despite the ugliness, there were enough positive plays throughout the course of the game that allowed K-State to get the win.
K-State took a 7-6 lead in the second quarter on this touchdown pass from Avery Johnson to Jayce Brown.
JM: Perhaps I am being too picky, but why did Brown slow down at the five-yard line? To showboat? What was there to showboat about?
Brown was injured on a catch later in the half and came out of the locker room after halftime in street clothes and a sling on his shoulder. It doesn’t look good for Brown playing the remaining two games, but we will find out more this week.
JM: Jackson’s fourth-quarter touchdown would be the last of the scoring. The K-State defense came up big to preserve the win, perhaps no bigger play than this Daniel Cobbs interception of a halfback pass.
“We had to all wake up. I feel like we were out there sleepwalking. To be out there, just to be out there. Wasn’t taking care of our small details so that’s what it was.”…K-State running back Joe Jackson, post-game
JM: For whatever reason, K-State didn’t show up for this game. They really had no reason to overlook Oklahoma State, even though they are terrible. The Wildcats still needed to win two games to become bowl eligible, so this was a much-needed win for them. The play-calling by offensive coordinator Matt Wells in the first quarter was putrid, and it didn’t get much better throughout the game.
“I wasn’t finishing throws. Receivers, we didn’t do a good job finishing catches like we have in the past. So thought we were shooting ourselves in the foot a lot today.” …K-State quarterback Avery Johnson, post-game
JM: A slight dig at the receivers by the quarterback? Hmm.
“But definitely not satisfied with that. Today was one of my worst games I think I played in my college career, and I got to figure out what I can do better, because if I play like that in Utah, we won’t have the same outcome.”…Avery Johnson, post-game
JM: Johnson had some terrible throws in this game. I suppose the self-criticism is a positive sign, but this is the worst defense in the league, and he looked like a below-average quarterback
“Hard-fought game, hard-fought win; didn’t play very well offensively throughout the day. [I] give Oklahoma State credit – they stuck with the defense that they’d been playing maybe 30 percent of the time. They’ve been a 70 percent four-down team and a 30 percent three-down team, and they stuck with the three-down. It gave us some fits, I thought.”…K-State head coach Chris Klieman, post-game
JM: Translation: “We got outcoached.”
“We didn’t play very well at all on offense, but we found a way. I told the guys in the locker room, ‘Guys, I’ve been [at Boone Pickens Stadium] in 2019, 2021, and 2023 and lost games here.’ This is a hard place to play, so we’re going to enjoy this win. I’m not apologizing for winning in Stillwater, because it’s hard to win here.”….Chris Klieman, post-game
JM: It’s a hard place to play when Oklahoma State has a good team. This season, the Cowboys have one of the worst teams in the country, and their stadium is mostly empty. The K-State fans in attendance were louder than the hometown fans.
“On the flip side, that was a dominant defensive performance. The biggest reason it was dominant is that we gave up some plays – we didn’t play great between the 20 [yard line] and about the plus-30 [yard line] – we got to that high red zone and then low red zone, and our guys showed up. Our guys made play after play after play. Strip sacks by Ryan [Davis] and Cody [Stufflebean], trick play interception by [Daniel Cobbs], get a hand on another play that we pick off with Zashon [Rich]. We needed every one of those plays and we found a way to get a win.”…Chris Klieman, post-game
JM: Klieman’s definition of “dominant” is different than mine.
“The last drive or the second to last drive, we went for it twice on fourth down; a field goal in my mind was not going to do it. We were not going to try to win that game 10-6, we needed to get up 14-6 and make [Oklahoma State] score, because I thought that they were going to have a hard time getting into the endzone. I knew that they could kick field goals, I thought they’d have hard time getting into the endzone on us.”…Chris Klieman, post-game
JM: They had to go for it on fourth down to win the game. Glad they were successful, or this game may have had a different outcome.
“It was a poor game up front. We’ll go back and look at the film, and I know they did some stunts and stuff, so let’s give those guys some credit. They blitzed their linebackers an awful lot, but we got beat at the line of scrimmage, bottom line.”…Chris Klieman, post-game
JM: One thing that really stuck out to me watching this game is that Chris Klieman will have to recruit a lot of players who are a lot better than the ones he currently has. If the worst team in the league can push you around, that’s an indictment of the coaching staff.
“I worried about it, for sure. We talked about it; we hammered about it. You get up at six in the morning, and we told them on Monday, ‘We’re getting up at six in the morning, guys, and we’re going to have pregame and we’re going to have a walkthrough and we’re getting on a bus for an hour and 15 minutes and then we’re going to go out and get active warmup.’ There are no excuses. They knew what the routine was, and I was disappointed because I didn’t think that we played to our capabilities on offense.”…Chris Klieman, post-game
JM: K-State has a huge problem with its offensive coordinator. I am disappointed in Matt Wells. I thought he would be much better as offensive coordinator than he has been. If I had to describe his play-calling in one word, I would describe it as “nonsensical.”
“I really feel like our guys felt like ‘If we make these guys drive it 80 yards in 10 plays, they’ll make a mistake,’ and they did.”…Chris Klieman, post-game
JM: Bad teams beat themselves, and that’s what Oklahoma State did. They moved the ball successfully on the K-State defense most of the game, but made way too many mistakes (five turnovers) that K-State took advantage of which allowed them to come out on top.
JM: The game Saturday against Utah could be another frustrating one unless K-State can figure some things out and improve this week. I hope they do.
