Kansas State University Athletics
Kansas State University
3-1 , 1-0
Baylor
0-5 , 0-2
K-State Opens Big 12 Slate With Win Over Baylor, 33-20
Sep 30, 2017 | Football
HOW IT HAPPENED
K-State received the opening kickoff and had a sense of urgency early, scoring on their first possession only 1:43 into the game, propelled by an Alex Barnes 38-yard run down the Baylor sideline. The Barnes rush led to a K-State touchdown on an acrobatic reception from sophomore Isaiah Zuber, as K-State would maintain the lead for the following 58:17.
The only turnover for the Wildcats would come on a punt return, which provided Baylor the football in the red zone. With Baylor threatening, the K-State defense came in clutch with a sack on third down and a blocked 44-yard field goal on fourth down.
On the following Wildcat possession, K-State marched down the field in a six-play, 73-yard drive capped off by a 1-yard Winston Dimel touchdown rush. The Wildcats added a field goal to go into halftime with the lead, 20-3.
In the second half, Baylor running back John Lovett broke off a 74-yard rush against the Wildcat defense, bringing the score to 20-13. The Wildcat offense stalled on consecutive possessions before the defense recovered a fumble in Baylor territory. Ertz would get the offense rolling again with a 15-yard touchdown rush to push the lead to 27-13.
Baylor responded with a 70-yard touchdown pass to Denzel Mims to pull within a touchdown again (27-20) in the fourth quarter, but the Cats never relented.
Leading in the fourth quarter, the Wildcats would call upon McCrane to tack on two field goals, including a 49-yarder to make it a multi-possession game.
K-State accounted for 344 yards of total offense, 225 of which came on the ground.
OFFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE GAME
Sophomore Alex Barnes got out of the gates fast with a 38-yard run on opening possession, marking the longest rush of his career. Barnes was a factor for the Wildcats offense, carrying 13 times for 80 yards. In addition to Barnes' day, quarterback Ertz led the team in rushing, carrying 12 times for 95 yards, eclipsing 1,315 career rushing yards to establish himself as the third leading quarterback rusher in K-State history.
Zuber led the Wildcats in the receiving department, hauling in four passes for 79 yards and a touchdown.
DEFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE GAME
Defensive backs Kendall Adams and Duke Shelley led the Wildcats defensively, as Adams led the team with eight total tackles. Shelley contributed with five tackles, all of which were solo. Adams also helped ice the game with less than three minutes left, picking off a Baylor pass in the red zone, effectively ending the Bears' day.
Defensive lineman Tanner Wood provided two crucial pass deflections on the defensive line, leading the team in the category. Wood also accounted for six total tackles.
Late in the third quarter, with the Wildcat offense struggling, the defense caught a break on a ball that was snapped over Baylor quarterback Zach Smith's head and later recovered by Kyle Ball on the 14-yard line. This recovery would lead to a touchdown early in the fourth quarter.
SPECIAL TEAMS STARS OF THE GAME
The K-State special teams unit played a well-rounded game that included a 34-yard punt return by Byron Pringle. Pringle's return was made possible by several key blocks, setting up the Wildcats with a 37-yard field goal by McCrane. The special teams unit was headlined by McCrane, who would go 4-for-4 on the day, including two crucial field goals in the fourth quarter, one of which was from 49 yards out. McCrane's four field goals tied a career-high, previously set against West Virginia on Nov. 20, 2014.
The K-State special teams unit also prevented points from being scored, as sophomore Reggie Walker broke through the Baylor field goal unit to block a Baylor field goal attempt in the first half. The block marked the first of Walker's career, and the first for K-State this season.
STATS OF THE GAME
58:17, the amount of time K-State led in the game after scoring on their opening drive. The Wildcats rushed down the field in a 1:43, four-play, 75-yard drive that resulted in a Zuber touchdown. The largest lead for the Wildcats was at halftime, as they led 20-3.
SEASON RECORD UPDATE
K-State 3-1 (1-0 Big 12)
Baylor 0-5 (0-2 Big 12)
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
K-State Head Coach Bill Snyder
On the Matthew McCrane's impact during Saturday's game…
"It goes back some. He has missed a couple of substantial field goals but you look at the entirety of his career and he has been very good. Considering how difficult that is…as I have said so many times, that is probably – outside of snapping the ball – the hardest thing in the game of football itself and he does it quite well. It takes a lot of focus and a great deal of discipline on his part. He works at it and it is important to him. He has done well with it."
On the offensive performance during Saturday's game…
"It was very, very inconsistent. We made a few big plays but we need to be more of a big play offense. Not collectively a big play offense, but that needs to be part of the balance that we have and we do not have quite enough of those. In the second half, we were not a very good third down football team, but a lot of that is Baylor. Baylor has been very successful on some of the things that they have done on third downs so my goes off to them. I think they played well but nevertheless it is not about them, it is about us. We just have to be better. There is a lot of things that I can go through and define that are issues or problems that we had as I could in any other ballgame. Those are the things that we have to go to work on. Sometimes they are the same and sometimes they are totally different from the previous ballgame. It is the nature of the game."
On Baylor's improved second half offense…
"I think it was big plays. They had 10 yards rushing in the first half and then we pin them down there 85 yards away from the goal line. They hand it off and it is like we have never been around before and the guy runs it 74 yards for a touchdown. That did not sit very well. It is just being out of position, being someplace other than where you are supposed to be. That goes back to discipline and quite obviously we need to be a far better disciplined football team than what we are in some areas."
K-State Defensive Tackle Will Geary
On what worked for the defense against the Bears…
"I would just say we had good carry over from two games ago. The defensive line and the defensive front seven played really well and the defense as a whole and the coaches were stressing to us that you cannot just take it for granted, we have to practice well all week, stay focused, and come out and try to do it again."
On the defensive performance in the first half…
"I would say it is good because you obviously want to make teams one-dimensional and you know, we pride ourselves on trying to stop the run early on and trying to make them go to the air so I feel like we did that well."
On collecting two sacks in one game…
"I just want to say our coverage was well, the defensive backs locked them up and gave me enough time to get back there."
K-State Kicker Matthew McCrane
On connecting on all of his kicks…
"It always feels good when I do my job. Last week kind of stung a little bit. The wind was tough today. I think the long in pregame was 42 (yards), so when I went out there to hit the 49 (yards) I was a little worried but I kicked it well and luckily it went in."
On using last week as motivation…
"Yeah of course, I mean especially on social media and stuff, people that tag you and are hateful to you, so yeah it is a confidence booster especially when I started off missing two. I wanted to go one hundred percent so, from this kick on, if I can go one hundred percent that is what I want to do."
On how tough the wind was…
"Yeah it was not fun. If you watch on kickoffs, the other direction was a touchback every time and then into the wind it was ten, fifteen yard line on kickoffs so it takes about ten to fifteen yards off a kick so I hit the 49 well, it kind of knuckled a little bit, and went into the wind but I struck it well and it went in."
K-State Wide Receiver Isaiah Zuber
On his first quarter touchdown catch...
"They jumped off-sides and in practice we just automatically run a fade, and he (Jesse Ertz) threw a perfect ball and I made a great catch."
On improving the passing game from Vanderbilt…
"We watched film and went over our mistakes. We corrected them and had a better day."
On the shift from the passing game in the second half…
"It was the play calling. We were up and the running game started working well in the second half, so we went with the run game more. Running backs started breaking away, so we just turned into blockers."
K-State Defensive End Kyle Ball
On K-State's defensive performance...
"I felt like we let up those two big plays. When you take those away we held them to not very many yards today. I felt like we rushed the passer well. Like I was saying last week, by doing that, the coverage, it gave them some time. I just felt like we were playing well across the board except for those two plays."
On Baylor hanging around in the game...
"I feel like defensively that is how we felt. We just see them take that big run or that big play and we were just like, 'Wow! How did that happen? What went wrong?'. We could not get down, but we just kept coming back and we kept fighting all game. I feel like we really stomped them out. We held them under 100 yards running or somewhere close to that and I felt like we came to play and wanted to prove ourselves."
K-State Runnning Back Dalvin Warmack
On the overall rushing offense...
"We made some pretty big plays, but I always thing we could have done a lot better. There were a lot of execution errors that we did not have and there were some penalties that we need to get taken care of too. But I thought we played decent."
On progress from the prevoius game...
"I would definitely say I am impressed, but I feel like we have a lot more we can display. As long as we continue to grow each week, I know this group can do some big things."
On today's overall performance…
"I am extremely disappointed in today's result. I am proud of how we played in the second half, but I am also really disappointed in the second half. I reverted back to some of the penalties and that showed up some in the second half. For the fifth straight game we had the ball in the fourth quarter with a chance to take the lead. We had the snapped ball over the quarterback's head and had a dropped punt. Obviously, we had two huge miscues that put the game out of reach. I thought the offense fought at the end and had a chance to make a play until (Kendall) Adams made that nice play.
"There are areas getting better, but at the end of the day there are five, six, seven or eight plays that are preventing us from winning. We have not been able to make those plays. A lot of credit to Kansas State and a lot of credit to their quarterback. I thought he was special in the red zone. We could not stop him in the red zone. We were not able to get in the in zone from the red zone. I think we might have had a lot more yards than them and a lot more time of possession, but there was not enough to show for it and that was the tale of the game."
On comments from Bill Snyder following the game…
"He told me before the game, 'Matt, I know what you are doing and I know how you are building it. I like the way you are doing it and I like the way your team is getting better. Every week, I see a better football team.' Afterwards, he said 'Please share with your team I really respect their ability to fight back, and I really respect their ability to play hard until the end.' I take those words from a man like that with encouragement. It does not mean we are happy. Those kids in there are pretty broke up right now, because we expected to come in here and find a way to win. I do think that from a man I respect, that he sees these kids are fighting. They are giving everything they have got and for a brief respite in the fourth quarter that was a lot of fun. I thought we were going to make enough plays to find a way to win. We are going to go rest, recover and come back and hopefully be a better football team against Oklahoma State."
On defensive adjustments in second half…
"I thought the defense played a lot better. Phil (Snow) made some adjustments. We kept some of the zone pressures on. They were lining up and unbalancing it, trying to get us out of some of our blitzes. The biggest thing in the first half was we were not real physical and they were running through us. We challenged them at halftime to be the more physical team. I thought they certainly tried to do so."
Baylor Freshman Running Back John Lovett
On his long touchdown run…
"I saw the linebacker blitz off the edge. I thought my quarterback was going to pull the ball and throw ."
it. I am glad he did not though, so when I saw the guy blitzing I just cut off of him and everything happened."
On the team's play in the second half…
"We made the plays that we knew we needed to make. We said that this game was going to go in to the fourth quarter, but we needed to win the third quarter. We won the third quarter, but came up short in the fourth quarter. We have a lot of work to do."
Baylor Sophomore Wide Receiver Denzel Mims
On this touchdown catch…
"I saw it once the safety bailed and the other safety went down to play the slot receiver on the other side. I knew that it was going to be open. It was a really good pass. He delivered it right there in my chest, let me catch it and make a play and score."
On the team's second half success…
"We all just picked it up and said we need to step it up. We came out slow and we all just needed to pick it up. I came out slow and I told myself I need to turn it up in order to win this game."
On losing five straight close games…
"When you do not get wins, it is always going to be a little frustrating. But we just have to come to practice every day and keep working until we can make those plays to win the game."
K-State hits the road for their second conference battle of the season, as they take on the Texas Longhorns in Austin, Texas on October 7 at 6 p.m., the game will air on FS1.
Team Stats
BU 0, KS 7
KS - Zuber, Isaiah 16 yd pass from Ertz, Jesse (McCrane, M. kick) 4 plays, 75 yards, TOP 1:43
BU 3, KS 7
BU - Martin,Connor 38 yd field goal 13 plays, 53 yards, TOP 7:11
BU 3, KS 10
KS - McCrane, M. 37 yd field goal 7 plays, 18 yards, TOP 3:24
BU 3, KS 17
KS - Dimel, Winston 1 yd run (McCrane, M. kick), 6 plays, 73 yards, TOP 3:20
BU 3, KS 20
KS - McCrane, M. 21 yd field goal 14 plays, 61 yards, TOP 4:41
BU 6, KS 20
BU - Martin,Connor 27 yd field goal 16 plays, 65 yards, TOP 7:15
BU 13, KS 20
BU - Lovett,John 74 yd run (Martin,Connor kick), 4 plays, 85 yards, TOP 1:04
BU 13, KS 27
KS - Ertz, Jesse 15 yd run (McCrane, M. kick), 2 plays, 14 yards, TOP 0:41
BU 20, KS 27
BU - Mims,Denzel 70 yd pass from Smith,Zach (Martin,Connor kick) 4 plays, 79 yards, TOP 1:38
BU 20, KS 30
KS - McCrane, M. 49 yd field goal 9 plays, 41 yards, TOP 4:48
BU 20, KS 33
KS - McCrane, M. 23 yd field goal 5 plays, 11 yards, TOP 2:13
