Often times in life, I am reminded that it is little things that matter the most. Hearing hello from a friend you have not seen in a while, crisp fall mornings with a warm coffee, the pleasure of a home cooked meal.
K-State was humbly reminded that it is in fact the little things that matter most. Turnovers, not quite tipping a pass, not quite catching the tough one. All of these little things can accumulate and eventually become big things over the course of the game.
By the Numbers
K-State was never in control of this game. OU moved the ball up and down and the K-State offense performed well, but still displayed a few issues. It was nice to see Skylar back. K-State is a totally different team when he is out there which we already knew.
Rushing Yards- Oklahoma: 131 K-State: 100
3rd Down Conversions- Oklahoma: 57% (4/7) K-State: 53% (8/15)
Turnovers- Oklahoma: 1 K-State: 1
Penalties- Oklahoma: 10-85 K-State: 7-50
K-State had a tough time running the ball which was to be expected. OU really loaded the box and made it difficult to break free. I thought overall the offensive line played really well and gave Skylar some clean pockets to throw. Big difference than last weeks performance I will speak more to the offense a little below, but there were some promising takeaways.
Margin of Error
I alluded to it in my introduction paragraphs, the little things for a program like K-State can have such an outsized effect on a game. It was like this under Snyder and it continues to be that way.
Fumbling in the redzone, breaking the huddle with 12, committing pass interference on an offsides free play, missing sack opportunities. You give more talented teams 2nd and 3rd chances and they will make you pay. K-State’s talent deficiency creates such a small margin of error that overcoming these things can seem like a monumental feat.
Aggression
I was pleased to see the aggressiveness with the offense again. Yes, that was directly related to Skylar being back, but the vertical pass game threat really puts pressure on defenses to play back which allows Skylar to dump it to Deuce and move methodically down field. I thought Messingham called a good game and had a solid objective on what he was trying to accomplish.
Klieman going for it on 4th down was refreshing. I really hope this continues. If you want to win big games, you have to be willing to take outsized risks. Over time that should pay off. I hope our opponent does not dictate that decision and K-State continues to put pressure on teams by attempting 4th down conversions.
Lost in Space
The defense had another poor week. The three-man front continues to be questionable. OU really used their speed on the edges. Their screen plays gave them chunk yardage and Rattler really settled in and had a goodish game. Of course, OU gained patience this week on offense and did not have their usual freakout.
The defining play in my view was the 3rd and 15 conversion to Drake Stoops in the 3rd quarter. K-State did something that I had not seen all year which was play 0 coverage leaving the middle wide open. Usually, I am an advocate for this, but OU was out of field goal range by a few yards and that was about the worst thing that could have happened there. Oddly, I think K-State’s normal conservative approach on defense would have sufficed here.
Credit to OU, they had a nice play action pass play design which forced outside linebacker/nickel back to hold their feet, this allowed Rattler to hit wide open sideline stop routes for 10+ yards. This was a theme for this game.
Wrapping Up
Wyatt and Stan were comical after the game. They were scared to ask Klieman about the refs. Thats pretty soft. This really pissed me off so I thought I would share.
K-State seemingly continues their trend of playing to their competition. K-State has a really good opportunity to win out the rest of the year. Iowa State is suspect and who knows what Texas team we will get in November. Either way It should be a fun finish this last two thirds of the season.