K-State wins 34-7 vs. Washington State

The defense brought their own fireworks with Wendell Gregory getting two sacks and three tackles for loss. DT Travis Bates also recorded a sack and TFL to complement Gregory’s dominant defensive performance.

Despite a couple of turnovers, both sides of the ball were all Cats and another confident win in the Colin Klein era.

1st Quarter

The first quarter was a full-on stalemate for both groups. K-State’s first drive took almost nine minutes off of the clock, ending in a Luis Rodriguez field goal. It was clear from the jump that K-State’s offense was going to struggle far more than last week against Nicholls. Washington State’s run defense was as stout as last week, especially from the secondary.

For Wazzu, Caden Pinnick had a nice first drive leading the Cougs to a field goal attempt, but K-State’s special teams showed out with a tipped field goal keeping WSU at zero points. The Cats chewed so much clock that by the time each team had shared the field, there was only a minute and a half left for K-State to start their second drive.

2nd Quarter

K-State was starting to speed up the offense with Johnson finding Joe Jackson for a few chunk plays, putting K-State back in WSU territory. Avery Johnson then had his first miscue of the game, throwing a short interception on an out route that turned into a 31-yard return.

Though Johnson had his fair share of miscues, the defense was able to pick up the slack, causing Wazzu to turn over on downs in a four and out and put K-State right back on their own 36.

From that point on, K-State found their groove as Johnson found both Josh Manning and Joe Jackson for touchdown passes, extending the Cats lead to 17 with a minute left in the half. Meanwhile, Washington State was one of five on third down and really struggled to get the passing game going, with Pinnick coming under pressure every time he dropped back to pass.

Though the first half was a success for the Cats, they wouldn’t leave it unscathed. Coach Klein tried to get aggressive with less than a minute on the clock and 90 yards in front of his offense. In doing so, Avery Johnson threw his second interception to Jaylen Thomas, who ended up taking it to the house to put the Cougars on the board right before halftime. In spite of the last second mistake, K-State still led 17-7 with WSU’s offense putting up zero points in the half.

3rd Quarter

Following an extra-long halftime due to a weather delay, the second half kickoff felt like the start of a new game. With sunshine filling the Bill, Washington State had a chance to change the momentum with the ball now in their hands. K-State must’ve missed the memo, as they picked up right where they left off.

For WSU, what started with a false start call ended with a punt back to K-State and an immediate 75-yard TD run from Rodney Fields Jr. From there, it felt like Washington State was spinning in the mud as they never got close to entering K-State territory.

While the Cougars were stalled, K-State extended their lead to 27-7, entering the fourth with more points than Washington scored against the Cougs last week.

4th Quarter

The fourth quarter ended the game a lot like it started, with a lot of defense. After Brandon White scored a touchdown to give the Cats a 34-7 lead, Caden Pinnick and company continued to struggle. If he wasn’t handing the ball off, Pinnick was escaping a collapsing pocket or a Wildcat breathing down his neck.

After White’s touchdown, the offense took their foot off of the brakes and backup QB Jacob Knuth got some extra reps after a fourth quarter TD in the win against Nicholls.

K-State officially moves to 2-0 with the defense still not allowing a touchdown in eight full quarters. With Tulane entering Manhattan on parent’s week next week, the Cats have one more home stand before they take to the road against Cincinnati to end the month.