Photo by Charlie Reidel, AP

K-State beat Kansas 55-14 on Saturday afternoon to get their 12th victory in a row against KU.  Phillip Brooks, Deuce Vaughn and even Will Howard all had big games for the Cats.  Let’s take a look at what went down….

“Kansas State Football pounds Kansas, wins Sunflower Showdown for record 12th straight time.”…Headline, Manhattan Mercury

JM:  This is the longest win streak by either team in the series.  K-State won 11 straight from 1993 to 2003.  KU fans are mostly silent about this fact.

“At the end of the first quarter, the Wildcats (4-1, 4-0 Big 12) led just 7-0. They had 55 penalty yards — nearly as many yards as they had offensively (63). But the good news was their defense had held the Jayhawks to only 51 yards in the period, which included a pair of three-and-outs.”…Ryan Black, Manhattan Mercury

JM:  Sometimes the final score doesn’t tell the whole story.  K-State fans were sweating this one at the end of the first quarter.  WAY too many penalties for the Cats early in this game.

“Phillip Brooks returned a first-quarter punt 55 yards for a touchdown. He capped the first half with another, this one from 52 yards, to give the Wildcats a 34-7 lead at the end of the first 30 minutes.”…Ryan Black, Manhattan Mercury

JM:  The first return gave the Cats a 7-0 lead and his second return was good enough to put the Cats in field goal position to go up 10-0.  The return touchdown at the end of the half came when KU had to punt back to K-State with very little time left on the clock.  Everyone at the watch party I attended was perplexed that Les Miles punted the ball to Brooks again…

“Asked why, in the final moments of the first half, true freshman punter Reis Vernon didn’t angle his kick away from Brooks — remember, the 5-foot-7, 167-pounder returned it 52 yards for a score as time expired — Miles indicated that was the plan.  “I think some of those were directional kicks out of bounds, so that’s the problem,” Miles said. “We were looking for out-of-bounds only, and some of those punts didn’t go out-of-bounds only.”…Matt Galloway, Topeka Capital Journal

JM:  Miles indicated in his comments that the KU punter was supposed to kick it out of bounds?  Was this a miscommunication with the punter or was Miles not being truthful?

“Brooks finished the day with 189 punt-return yards, setting a single-game school record; David Allen previously held the mark with 172 yards versus Texas in 1998.”.…Ryan Black, Manhattan Mercury

JM:  To this day if you ask me who is the best returner in K-State history I will always answer David Allen.  Heck, I even have a jersey with his number on it.  K-State has always had some excellent returners: Jordy Nelson, Tyler Lockett, Andre Coleman come to mind along with many more.  This is quite a record to break.

“Justin Gardner had a 25-yard pick-six in the second quarter, marking the second straight game a K-State defensive back returned an interception for a touchdown.”.…Ryan Black, Manhattan Mercury

JM:  This pick six was an awful pass by KU’s quarterback, but still a great play by Gardner.

“K-State’s offense, which was limited to one touchdown and two field goals in the first half, got rolling after intermission. The Wildcats managed just 150 yards before the break, but rolled up 220 in the third quarter alone.”…Arne Green, Topeka Capital Journal

JM:  Phillip Brooks’ touchdown at the end of the first half sparked the K-State offense in the second half.  The rout was on.

“Deuce Vaughn is not human.”…Chris Watkins, Twitter

JM:  Check out Vaughn juke Gavin Potter out of his jock on this run.  Just unreal. https://twitter.com/580Sportstalk/status/1320069637724397570.  This kid is special.

“When we were at North Dakota State, we were better than everybody offensively and defense,” Wildcats coach Chris Klieman said, “so why would we waste a chance at roughing a kid on special teams. Here, it’s much more competitive, so you better find an advantage on a week-in, week-out basis. That has to be the edge.”…AP

JM:  Who needs a special teams coach, anyway?  It’s quite apparent this staff understands the importance of special teams even though there is no special teams coach on staff.  Impressive.

“Kansas State quarterback Will Howard excelled in the Sunflower Showdown. The true freshmen getting his second career start completed 17/24 passes for 243 yards and two touchdowns, including 6 carries for 23 yards rushing.”…WIBW

JM: Howard started slowly, but ended up having a pretty good game.  He’s getting better every game and will have to continue that trend for the Cats to keep winning.

570?s=20https://twitter.com/580Sportstalk/status/13200696377243 k kj klj  “We’re a good football team, we’ve got talent and good coaches, and we’re going to put it together.”…Les Miles, post game press conference

JM:  Are you buying what Les is selling?  (That’s a rhetorical question.)

There’s a big game coming up next week at West Virginia, who lost this week to Texas Tech 34-27.  This season is going better than expected.  Hope you’re enjoying the ride as much as I am.