From The Couch – K-State Moves To 3-0 In The Big 12 With Victory Over TCU
K-State entered the TCU game yesterday as nine point underdogs and were able to pull off a 21-14 upset. It took a defensive stand at the end of the game to seal the victory. It was a nail biter, but a big win for the Wildcats. Let’s dig in and take a look at some of the details.
“We got the win,” (Will) Howard said afterward. “That’s always what matters to me. I’m happy as heck that we got the win, but there’s a lot to clean up. You all know that, we all know that. It was far from perfect, but like I said, we got it done.”…Drew Davison, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
JM: Howard was efficient enough in this game to get the win. His 80 yard run in the first quarter set up a K-State field goal to put them up 3-0. His numbers were far from gaudy. 8/19 passing for 117 yards and an interception. 13 rushes for 86 yards and a touchdown. Take away that 80 yard run and it shows that he ran a LOT for little yardage.
“Facing a third-and-1 from the TCU 48 with 1 minute, 19 seconds left, Howard kept the ball and had space to gain the first down but tripped on his own for no gain. “Believe me, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about that,” Howard said. “You can laugh about it now that we won, but it’s … it was a read play, I made the right read. It happens. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that happen. It’s never happened to me. I couldn’t tell you what really happened. You know fatigued legs, and tripped up a little bit, which obviously can’t happen, but we’ll get it ironed out. Obviously we got the win, put it all behind us, it’s all good.”…Drew Davison, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
JM: The play in which Howard tripped should have iced the game for K-State. With a lot of open field in front of him, he tripped behind the line of scrimmage and fell to the turf, ending the drive and resulting in K-State punting the ball back to TCU up seven with a little over a minute left in the game.
“TCU took over on its own 4 with 1:05 left. The Frogs had a couple Hail Mary attempts to win it at the end, the second courtesy of a roughing-the-passer penalty by K-State defensive end Wyatt Hubert, but neither succeeded.”…Drew Davison, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
JM: This game should have been over before TCU even had a chance to attempt two Hail Marys.
“This game would have been over without the timeout he called.”..Tim Brando, Fox
JM: K-State was up 21-14 with 1:27 left. They had 2nd and one and a first down would seal the game. Chris Klieman called a timeout prior to the 2nd down play, which was very perplexing to me. If you run a play there, TCU might call a timeout after the play, but you would burn a good 5-10 seconds of clock time. Why stop the clock in that situation and help TCU? On the ensuing play after the timeout they ran a QB sneak for zero yards and on 3rd and one Will Howard tripped short of the first down and the Cats had to punt. This gave TCU the ball back with one timeout left and more time on the clock than they otherwise would have had. They had a first down near midfield with one second left in the game. The game should have been over at this point, but TCU had two opportunities, because of a defensive penalty, to throw a hail mary pass to tie the game. Nobody in the media asked Chris Klieman about this timeout in the post-game press conference. This could have been a huge blunder, but it worked out in the end.
“K-State had only 70 yards of offense in the second half, but it was enough to get the win.”…Drew Davison, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
JM: 70 yards in the second half? Thank God for the defense yesterday.
“He was amazing,” K-State tight end Briley Moore said. “His composure in the huddle … it’s an amazing thing. It gives a team confidence no matter what the situation is.”…Drew Davison, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
JM: It’s a very good sign that the players have confidence in true freshman Will Howard to lead the team.
“Parker played a whale of a game against the Horned Frogs, finishing with a team-high six tackles and delivering the game’s decisive score. He has settled in nicely to his new role at nickelback after opening the season outside at corner.”…Kellis Robinett, Wichita Eagle
JM: AJ Parker was huge in this game. His pick six ended up being the difference in the score at the end of the game.
“They played relentless. They did a great job rushing the passer. They did a great job covering guys. We got a big pick six by A.J. Parker on a play where they tried to go fast. I think it confused their own team on it. I couldn’t be happier with the resolve on a bunch of guys that came in here when nobody expected us to be successful except for the guys in that locker room.”…Chris Klieman, post-game
JM: Klieman had high praise for the defense after the game. I also like the “chip on our shoulder” comment that nobody expected them to win except the players in the locker room. Hope they can keep that chip the rest of the season.
“It was bizarre to see Malik Knowles and Joshua Youngblood finish without a catch while D.J. Render, a converted defensive back, was targeted throughout the game.”…Kellis Robinett, Wichita Eagle
JM: I commented during the game “who is Render?” The ex-defensive back has converted to wide receiver. He had a couple of nice catches while Knowles and Youngblood have disappeared from the offense. Just another perplexing thing about this game. Whatever works.
“The Wildcats also took a 5-4 edge in the series since TCU joined the Big 12 in 2012”….Drew Davison, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
JM: I found this kind of interesting. K-State fans (allegedly) almost had TCU coach Gary Patterson as their head coach when Bill Snyder retired the first time in 2005, but Snyder and Klieman have had a winning record against Patterson.
JM: I love that K-State fans come up with stats like this. Awesome!
JM: K-State is ranked number 22 in both the USA Today coaches poll and the AP poll.
“We’ll talk about Skylar on Monday. He wasn’t available today.”…Chris Klieman, post-game presser
JM: This doesn’t sound good, but we’ll see what Klieman has to say about Skylar Thompson’s status tomorrow.
K-State has next Saturday off and plays KU in Manhattan on October 24th to try to get to 4-0 in the Big 12. Stay tuned!
