K-State Outpaced by Texas, Falls 40-34 in 2OT

AUSTIN, Texas – Running back Chris Warren III's 2-yard run in the second overtime lifted Texas to a 40-34 victory over Kansas State at Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday night.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The K-State defense came prepared early as Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger came out slinging on the first play from scrimmage of the game, but was intercepted by safety D.J. Reed. Reed was able to jump the deep Texas pass, and record the sole Wildcat takeaway of the game. Following the interception, the Wildcats were able to get into scoring position on their second offensive possession, as kicker Matthew McCrane drilled a 54-yard field goal to put K-State on the scoreboard first.

After holding the Longhorns on a fourth-down attempt, K-State was able to march the ball 97-yards down the field on the strength of an 82-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jesse Ertz to wide out Dalton Schoen. Ertz connected with Schoen across the middle of the field, and Schoen was able to use his speed to outrun the Texas defenders.

The second quarter served as a shootout between the teams, as there were 35 points scored in the quarter. The Longhorns connected on a misdirection pass from Ehlinger to Warren, who was able to find open space on a wheel route, giving Texas the lead going into halftime, 21-17.

In the second half, Ertz left the game with an injury, and was replaced by sophomore Alex Delton. Delton added a rushing spark, that led to his first career rushing touchdown on a two-yard scat that found the end zone. The Wildcats would add a McCrane field goal on the subsequent possession.

Leading 27-24 with only minutes remaining, Texas was able to get into scoring position to knot the game at 27 behind a 34-yard field goal by Joshua Rowland.

With the game tied at 27, K-State was forced to punt with under a minute left. The Longhorns marched down the field and attempted a 45-yard field goal from the right hash mark, that sailed right of the uprights. The game was tied at 27 at the end of regulation.

In overtime, Texas received possession first and scored on their first play from scrimmage, on a strike from Ehlinger to Jerrod Heard. K-State responded with an eight-yard rush from Delton to force a second overtime at 34-34. The Longhorns would hold the Wildcats to a missed 53-yard field goal, and score a game-winning touchdown on the subsequent drive, taking the game 40-34.

OFFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE GAME
Sophomore wide receiver Dalton Schoen had a career day, hauling in a career-high 128 receiving yards on 5 receptions and two touchdowns. Schoen's 82-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter was the longest play from scrimmage this season, topping his 70-yard reception against Central Arkansas on September 2. Schoen hauled in his second touchdown reception of the game on a 12-yard pass from Ertz in the second quarter, setting a career-high in touchdown receptions.

Quarterback Alex Delton added a threat to the running game when he came in for Ertz, adding 79 rushing yards on 12 attempts and two touchdowns. Delton went 2-for-5 through the air for 30 yards.

Ertz accounted for 224 yards through the air on 12-for-18 passing and two touchdowns.

DEFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE GAME
Junior defensive back D.J. Reed snagged his fifth career interception on the first defensive play from scrimmage. Reed jumped the deep pass from Ehlinger, marking his second interception of the season.

After allowing Texas to get into the red zone in the first quarter, the K-State defense came up with a critical hold on fourth down, as the Longhorns attempted to go for it on fourth-and-one in Wildcat territory. The defense forced an incompletion on fourth down to take over possession, the first since September 2nd against Central Arkansas.

The Wildcat defense was led by a trio of tacklers that hit double digits in tackles, as Denzel Goolsby, Jayd Kirby and Trent Tanking all reached 11 tackles in the game. The total marks the career high for the three defenders, and marked the second time Tanking reached double digits in tackles this season.

SPECIAL TEAMS STARS OF THE GAME
Last week's Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week, Matthew McCrane picked up where he left off, connecting on a 54-yard field goal in the first quarter marking a career-long, and the eighth-longest field goal in school history. McCrane also added a 33-yard field goal in the fourth, and connected on all of his extra points, going 4-for-4 in the game. Last week against Baylor, McCrane went 4-for-4 in field goals, one shy of the single-game school record by a kicker.

Freshman AJ Parker came up with a huge play on the punt team, as punter Nick Walsh booted the ball deep into Texas territory, as Parker tip-toed the end zone line and pinned Texas at the one-yard line. The aware play by Parker led to a Texas punt.

STAT OF THE GAME
Matthew McCrane's 54-yard field goal on the Wildcat's first possession marks the eighth longest field goal in school history. McCrane's 54-yarder also marks a career long.

SEASON RECORD UPDATE
K-State 3-2 (1-1 Big 12)
Texas 3-2 (2-0 Big 12)

IN THEIR WORDS
K-State Head Coach Bill Snyder
On his thinking on the last play of the game…
"Well, we wanted to try — we needed 30 yards to put ourselves in a position where we could attempt a field goal. That's what I wanted to do. We got — just had some difficulty trying to do it, quite obviously. And then we end up running the ball out of bounds when we probably should have kept it inbounds, which would have reduced the clock considerably. Even though we may have had to punt it, which we did, we still would have had some field position and very little time so they couldn't move the ball as well as they did. At least they didn't have enough time to get it down in field goal range."

On how Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger's rushing abilities impacted the game…
"I think it was major in the ball game. That's the thing I've been concerned about all week, regardless of which one it happened to be, which quarterback, was his ability to bring the ball out, either the quarterback draw or scrambles. And when he did scramble, if we let him get on the edge, then he and his receivers, those receivers do a nice job as well, and they got — you know, I was concerned about it. In fact, I think I said it in the press conference about how the receivers work the boundary any time that he scrambles, and they did today, and they got some big plays out of it. Then, of course, when he just brought it straight up the middle and we're not around."

On the big play capacity of Dalton Schoen and what he has shown…
"Well, I thought today was — and he had one score, I think, in an earlier ball game. What I like about him, because he's not the fastest guy on the watch, but still he didn't allow the guys that's a little faster than him to catch him. So that's a lot of heart that went along with playing well. But then he had a couple later on in the ball game that would have been nice plays but just didn't quite make them?

On how sophomore quarterback Alex Delton played…
"Alex played well. A few things that popped up in the ball game while he was in there that he really hadn't had an opportunity to work on. Consequently, it created a couple of bad plays. But overall, he played very well. Ran the ball well. Threw the ball well. Yeah, did well."

On whether the Texas offense showed what he expected…
"Well, you always expect the best out of everybody that you play against. They hadn't had really that kind of success before, and we gave them the opportunity — they had 300 yards, or 298 in the first half of the ball game. That's an awful lot of yardage to give up in a half of a ball game. My hat goes off to them.

I think the young quarterback came in and really did a nice job, made some big plays. I haven't fully looked at the sheet around here someplace, but he had to have pretty close to 300 yards himself, 250, or whatever the case may be, throwing and running the ball as well. He did a nice job."

On how the defense played…
"It was a collective loss. It wasn't just one side or the other. But we just gave up too much. I thought we did — the first drive of the ball game, where they take the ball down there — well, the first one was three and out. Then they take the ball down there, and we held them on whatever it is, the 1 yard line or 2 yard line. I thought that was a great stand for us.

But we had a number of times where they just were able to move the ball and get the ball down in there, so consequently set up the opportunity for scores anyway. We just didn't get them stopped where we needed to get them stopped on the field and gave them opportunities to be in -- what do you want to call it? Red zone opportunities down there, where field goals and touchdowns are available to them."

On whether he liked the progress of the offense…
"Well, collectively, no. I thought we — there were good things that we did certainly. We made some good plays in the passing game. We kept some drives alive in the running game. But collectively, it still wasn't what I think we're capable of and what we need to be and what we need to do in order to be successful in a ball game like that."

On what he tells the team after a loss such as this…
"Well, I — there's certain things we felt we needed to do during the course of the ball game, and part of it dealt with our approach, you know, the commitment to what we're trying to do, the discipline, and the toughness it takes to bring about the kind of discipline that's needed to play a game throughout the four quarters plus.

I think — and as I shared with our players after the ball game, I don't think anybody gave up. I appreciated the fact that our youngsters fought back when the tide turned, as it did. So that was pleasing and encouraging.

But it all boiled down — it wasn't about effort. It wasn't about caring, and it wasn't about all those kind of things. It boiled down really to execution, and we didn't execute the things that we needed to do, and we've got to do a better job of getting them invested and doing the right things that it takes to do in any given snap, in any given scheme. That's certainly our responsibility as coaches.

I didn't -- I don't think they did anything to -- from an attitude, effort approach, to cause the loss or defeat, but there's just a lot of things that we need to do better."

Sophomore quarterback Alex Delton
On emotions after the game…
"It is tough. We gave it everything we had. Any time you take an L it is tough. It's not easy to handle it. I feel like at this point we have to move forward. We can't focus on the negative too much we have to learn from this."

On whether he practiced with the mindset that he could play this week…
"I feel like that every week. I go through practice getting a lot of reps. I feel that I have to have this 'next man up' mentality. In this game that is just how it is. I was ready as I was every other game this year. My number was called and I just went out there and executed the game plan."

On his overall play….
"Offensively, I feel like we did some things well. We hurt ourselves in some certain situations but I feel like we were routing the ball well. We got some good looks out there and we were throwing the ball decent. I just executed the game plan. I wasn't trying to do too much, I was just ready on the sideline executing what they gave me."

Sophomore wide receiver Dalton Schoen
On what he is doing to get open…
"I'm doing a good job right now of reading coverages. Trying to adjust once the defense does something to work the open area and find a zone to find a good spot for Jesse [Ertz] to give me the ball."

On if he expected to be featured like that today…
"Not exactly. I knew certain plays we were looking for certain things. Especially with the second one at the goal line, I knew when they called that play I liked the look and figured it was coming to me before that play started. It is about knowing certain plays and how the defense would react to it. We knew certain plays we liked from that spot."

On the post route for 82 yards…
"Right at the snap I saw the safety above me and he ran a cover two look. I knew I had to beat the nickel and there was no one left. Once I caught it I was just making sure I didn't get caught."

Senior linebacker Trent Tanking
On what was different about this Texas team…
"It's hard to say. They're really good, they knew what they needed to do and they did it with passion they did it with heart. That quarterback had a great game, didn't play like a freshman at all, did a great job."

On where this game puts Kansas State right now…
"Well we're 3-2 against two top-10 teams. We can't dwell on this long. We have to turn around and watch this game tomorrow and turn our focus on TCU on Monday."

Junior defensive back Kendall Adams
On comparing the styles of play of Texas' two quarterbacks…
"Yeah I think so, they're pretty similar in playing styles so there wasn't much of a difference in the game plan for each QB."

On Sam Ehlinger's running abilities…
"As far as speed, they're probably about the same. But the other QB ran with some power. He's breaking tackles and keeping plays alive and it kept their offense going."

On the last play of the night…
"It was frustrating. We knew they were going for a cheap shot field goal if we didn't go for a turnover. I feel like we could've gotten them down but we were going for the strip and eventually he got in there. It was definitely a frustrating play."

Junior defensive back D.J. Reed
On what is going through his head after the game…
"It is frustrating. It was a close game. Double overtime. We worked so hard for things to go our way but they didn't. Everyone is just really in shock right now. We just have to bounce back. Get back to work on Monday. Get ready for TCU."

On the defense…
"I think we played alright. Obviously we gave up too many points in the first half. It is unacceptable for our defense. We couldn't stop the quarterback from scrambling. That was a big problem. We have to get back to the drawing board and make adjustments for next week."

On Texas' play…
"I don't think we were ready for the freshman quarterback to be a good scrambler like that. We didn't expect him to be that fast or run that much. We have to get back to the drawing board and just watch film to see what we can do defensively up front and in the back."

Texas Head Coach Tom Herman
On the game…
What a two weeks for our team to really rely on each other when one side of the ball is not playing, maybe, great. The other side of the ball is playing well and has their back. That was -- we went into halftime and they had 18 yards rushing, and, obviously, we didn't defend the pass very well, but then they came out and their wildcat quarterback and didn't handle it very well.

The one thing that was so very encouraging was there was never any dejection on defense. There was never any head hanging, there was never any finger pointing. It was just let's get this fixed. The same thing on offense. There was no, here we go again. There was no head hanging. It was just, hey, we've got to go pick our brothers up and we did. That was a heck of a football team that we just played. As physical as it gets in the country, probably. They played till the very end, and we did as well.

I was just so proud of our guy's response to the things that happened throughout the course of that game. On offense, you know, that defense is designed to stop the run. I don't know where they were in the country in rush defense, but it was pretty high up there. I think they were first in the conference in rush defense. You know, all of that stuff they do is designed to spill to the corner safeties and make plays.

So we knew we were going to have to throw it a little bit, and we responded, especially in the second half when they were coming after us and playing a lot of zero coverage, and you can't run the ball into zero coverage. You've got to throw it, and throw screens and quick games.

I thought Sam and the O-line, and the wideouts handled that well. There are things they could do better, but in conclusion, really proud, again, of the way this was such a team win. Really the last two weeks how much we've grown up, and we're going to celebrate this for a couple hours with our friends and families, and wake up tomorrow and get ready to play our rival in Dallas.

WHAT'S NEXT
K-State will return home on Saturday, October 14 to take on the TCU Horned Frogs at Bill Snyder Family Stadium at 11:00 a.m. The game will air on Fox Sports.

Next Event

Team Stats

Jesse Ertz

Alex Delton

Players Mentioned

Kendall Adams

Alex Delton

Jesse Ertz

Denzel Goolsby

Jayd Kirby

Matthew McCrane

AJ Parker

D.J. Reed

Dalton Schoen

Trent Tanking

Nick Walsh

Players Mentioned

Kendall Adams

Alex Delton

Jesse Ertz

Denzel Goolsby

Jayd Kirby

Matthew McCrane

AJ Parker

D.J. Reed

Dalton Schoen

Trent Tanking

Nick Walsh

Kansas State University Athletics