From The Couch – Deuce Is Loose, But It’s Not Enough Against Baylor
K-State lost to Baylor 20-10 on an emotional senior day at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. With the loss, K-State is now 7-4 overall on the season and 4-4 in the Big 12. While the loss is disappointing, Baylor is ranked as one of the best teams in the country for a reason. Let’s unpack what went right and what went wrong for the Wildcats….
“We still have a good football team. We got beat by a better football team.”…Chris Klieman, post-game
JM: This quote sums up the game for me. My question is what does K-State have to do to improve the program and become a consistent upper-echelon team in the Big 12 instead of a middle-of-the-pack program?
“Oklahoma State was the best team we’d played so far this year, and coming into this game I thought (Baylor) could be the next-best team we’d played this year. It was definitely true.”…Chris Klieman, post-game
JM: Hey, Baylor is good. That’s why I don’t have any major complaints about this game. Baylor’s defense set the tone early, laying hits on Skyler Thompson from the get-go. A FoxSports graphic showed Thompson was knocked down on six of his first nine pass attempts in the game. Yikes.
“Brooks..MUFFED! Picked up by Baylor! Baylor recovers!”…Aaron Goldsmith, FoxSports
JM: Baylor got the ball to start the game and K-State’s defense held them to a three and out. This muffed punt return by Brooks gave the ball to Baylor in great field position and they were able to capitalize and score a touchdown to go ahead 7-0. Unfortunately, K-State can’t afford to make mistakes like this, especially against a team as good as Baylor. Baylor still may win the Big 12. They’re that good.
“We got behind early on the miscue and we went down seven to nothing and just couldn’t get out of that hole and struggled to get any rhythm offensively throughout the day until the big run with Deuce (Vaughn). I also thought we struggled to get off the field on defense.”…Chris Klieman, post-game
JM: Deuce Vaughn had another great game, rushing for 128 yards and catching five passes for 37 yards. Unfortunately, K-State couldn’t get much else going offensively.
“We stopped them a couple of times but not significantly enough, so they won the time of possession and won the play count and if you were to tell me we were going to have 51 plays and they were going to have 83 plays I would’ve thought we’d be beat 50-10.”…Chris Klieman, post-game
JM: The play count discrepancy in this game was insane. I commented during the game that it seemed like the Baylor offense was on the field the entire game. Baylor won the time of possession battle 36 minutes to 24 minutes. You’re not going to win many games if you can’t get the opposing offense off the field.
“Offside, number 25. That is enforced. Five yards from the previous spot. Results in a first down.”…Referee call after a K-State punt in the 2nd quarter.
JM: This was a huge mistake by Baylor because on the next play Deuce Vaughn ran 65 yards for a touchdown.
“Big hole for Vaughn! Hig steppin’ into Baylor territory! And you can KISS…DEUCE VAUGHN…GOODBYE!”…Aaron Goldsmith, FS1
JM: This was a great call by Goldsmith. You can view the video at the link below…
Deuce Vaughn passed the one thousand-yard mark on the season and has an opportunity to become the first Big 12 player in history to rush for 1,000 yards in a season and have 500 receiving yards in the same season.
“I thought that kid (Blake Shapen) did a really nice job. We didn’t have much of a scouting report on him. He hasn’t played I believe and we didn’t know what they were going to do with the passing game or the rushing game.”…Chris Klieman, post-game
JM: When Baylor starting quarterback Gerry Bohanon suffered a non-contact hamstring injury with Baylor ahead 14-7, I thought this might be a good thing for K-State. You never want to see anyone injured, but it was quite apparent to me that Bohanon would not return to the game. Shapen came into the game and played great for Baylor, completing 16 of 21 passes for 137 yards and rushing for 48 yards on five carries, an average of 8.8 yards per rush.
“True freshman kicker…it’s no good. Wide to the right.”…Aaron Goldsmith, FS1
JM: If Chris Tennant had made this kick, K-State would have cut the lead to 20-13 with a little over nine minutes left in the game. Instead, the Cats remained down 10 points. Even though the game was within reach and appeared close on the scoreboard, Baylor dominated the game statistically. It wasn’t as close as the scoreboard indicated, but K-State still had ample opportunities to win this one.
“And Thompson is down again…”…Aaron Goldsmith, FS1
JM: Thompson was injured with a little over four minutes left in the game when K-State was behind 20-10. He did not return. Jaren Lewis replaced him and threw an immediate interception. Ballgame. Has Lewis replaced Will Howard as K-State’s number two quarterback or is Chris Klieman trying to preserve Will Howard’s possible redshirt year? Either way, I’m very concerned about the quarterback position going forward.
“I don’t know anything about (Thompson’s) injury right now.”…Chris Klieman, post-game
JM: Thompson was helped off the field, but seemed to be walking ok. We’ll find out early this week what his status is for the Texas game.
“Oh yeah, very emotional. Very emotional just because K-State honestly did change my life and made me a better person. It’s like I said last week in my interview. I appreciate everything everybody has done around here. You
interview guys, coaching staff, students, fans. K-State is such a great place and that’s why it was so emotional because it’s going to be tough to not play here anymore. I wish I could’ve been here for years, man, I love it and I appreciate it. It taught me so much.”…Reggie Stubblefield, post-game
JM: I love Reggie Stubblefield. Wish we had him longer than one season.
Up next for K-State is the Texas Longhorns this Friday at 11:00 AM in Austin, Texas. The game will be broadcast on Fox. Get your Black Friday shopping done early!
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