Kansas State’s offense was fluid from the start and the defense was an impenetrable wall after the first drive as the Wildcats rolled to a 31-7 victory over the Arizona Wildcats on Friday night at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan.
Avery Johnson accounted for 266 yards of offense and two touchdowns, while the defense did not let Arizona into the red zone after their touchdown on the opening drive.
Arizona won half of the first quarter with a 14-play drive, opening the scoring mode with a 1-yard touchdown run by Quali Conley. The drive was relatively methodical and K-State didn’t allow any real “big plays”; the key was a conversion on 4th-and-1 on the K-State 31. Desmond Purnell had a big tackle for a loss of yardage and with a little luck the drive could have gone the other way; Arizona recovered a fumble and Austin Moore nearly grabbed a pick-six.
From their own 34-yard line, K-State tried fourth down and the bunch managed to push Avery Johnson through. Johnson found Dante Cephas right in the middle of the field, but it was a drop; Johnson ran 19 yards himself on the next play. A pass to Jadon Jackson enabled 2nd-and-2, but Johnson threw Jackson in the end zone on the next play. DJ Giddens ran 5, 18 and then 8 to get K-State within the ten, then picked up another first down with a couple of one-yard runs. A great fake from Johnson to Dylan Edwards enabled a three-yard touchdown pass to Will Swanson, and the game was tied after the PAT was blocked but still went between the goal posts.
K-State forced a three-and-out, and then lightning struck. Edwards intercepted a one-hop punt, found the sideline and ran 71 yards for a 14-7 lead.
Arizona got into K-State territory immediately when Tetairoa McMillan beat Keenan Garber on a 38-yard run, but a holding penalty on the next play gave Arizona a long first down. On third-and-3, Noah Fifita threw into the end zone, but Garber redeemed himself with a perfect read, jumping the route for an interception. Garber ran the ball out, perhaps unwisely, but he made it to the 24, so the decision was overall positive.
A 24-yard run by Edwards brought K-State close to the halfway line, then a nice pass from Keagan Johnson on 3rd and 9 extended the drive again. But the drive stalled, and Chris Tennant missed a 48-yard pass and came up empty.
Arizona moved back and forth on the next drive. They started at the 31, got to the 41, then moved back to the 31, then crossed the center line and were then penalized twice for holding, pushing them back to 1st-and-30 at their own 34, three yards from where they started. Fifita led them back to the K-State 47, but an incomplete pass on 3rd-and-11 forced them to punt, giving K-State a chance to extend the lead before halftime.
K-State methodically worked its way down the field and an Arizona penalty gave them a first down at the 14. But with 24 seconds left on third down, Johnson was forced out of the pocket and took off running. He made a critical error in his thinking by using his legs to look for yardage instead of throwing the ball away; he ran out of bounds, but the clock ran out as he ran.
The opening drive of the second half was just awful for K-State, a three-and-out with -5 yards. Simon McLannan fired a 55-yard punt to at least keep Arizona inside the 30, and the defense returned the three-and-out favor.
Arizona declined a holding call, allowing a 3rd-and-12 at the K-State 25-yard line, but Johnson completed a 48-yard pass to Jayce Brown, Edwards gained eight yards and another 10 for a facemask; Johnson then hit Brayden Loftin on a fade to give K-State a 21-7 lead.
Brendan Mott finally managed to sack Fifita, but two plays later Fifita hit McMillan for 26 to save the drive. Jordan Riley nearly intercepted a pass as the K-State defense put heavy pressure on Fifita, and then even more pressure led to an incomplete pass on 3rd-and-8, forcing a punt.
The offense was back in full swing, tirelessly gaining ground and killing time. Johnson ran for 34 yards on three carries during the drive and Giddens managed 17 on four carries – including the one-yard run that extended the lead to 28-7.
A 22-yard pass from Fifita to McMillian put Arizona in K-State territory, and two plays later they had 3rd-and-1 at the 37. Two plays after that, K-State had the ball at the 37 because the defense simply said “nope.”
Johnson took the lead with his legs and fought his way down the field, eventually coming up with a fourth down at the Arizona 17-yard line. Tennant came up and kicked a 32-yard run, and the lead was extended to 31-7. Arizona dunked in a futile attempt to score more points, but stalled at the 23-yard line and lost the game on downs.
With a 24-point lead, the call was, “Just give DJ the ball.” K-State had to punt with 1:41 left, but other than the fuss, it was all over.
Johnson was 14-23 for 156 yards and two touchdowns, and also ran for 110 yards on 17 carries. Giddens stayed under 100 yards for the first time in ten months, gaining 86 on 17 contacts and scoring a touchdown. Edwards had 41 yards on six carries, plus a catch for three and the big punt return touchdown.
Jayce Brown was the top receiver with three catches for 60 yards, while Loftin also had three, for 45 yards and a score. Keagan Johnson and Will Swanson both had two catches, with Swanson putting six on the scoreboard.
For Arizona, Fifita was 26-42 for 268 yards but no touchdowns and one interception. McMillan had 11 catches for 138 yards and Montana Lemonious-Craig had seven for 75. Arizona was held to 56 yards on the ground.
There were penalties tonight. K-State was penalized just three times for 20 yards, while Arizona picked up nine penalties for 74 yards. Arizona had possession 30-41-29-19, but over a quarter of Arizona’s TOP came on the opening drive.
WHAT WE LEARNED
1) Avery Johnson is not a pocket passer… yet.
Johnson repeatedly drops back for a designed pocket pass and completely misses his target. Conversely, Johnson has been pretty good at hitting his receivers when he’s rolling out or running. We’re confident Matt Wells will fix that, but it definitely needs to be a focus.
2) Avery Johnson is still learning.
We can’t sugarcoat it: The mistake at the end of the first half was egregious. As a quarterback, you have to have the clock on your retinas at the end of a half, and his decision not to throw the ball away was clearly a mistake.
After the game, Chris Klieman took the blame for that play, but as a quarterback, you still have to be alert. But hey, it’s his fourth ever start in college. He’s a smart guy. He won’t make that mistake again.
3) Avery Johnson can walk!
Yes, we knew that, of course. But after two games of not doing much with his legs, Johnson was able to break free tonight. He seems more comfortable doing Michael Bishop’s thing now and just going for it when he sees space; a lot of his yards tonight came on obvious passing plays.
4) Tonight the old principle “bend but don’t break” came into play again.
What is important, however, is that the “bend-but-don’t-break” strategy was not broken, apart from the opening drive. In particular after which resulted in Arizona never setting foot in the red zone again.
Think about it.
Even in garbage time, when Fifita wanted to score out of pride, the defense was still in control.
5) The secondary school system has improved significantly since last week’s debacle.
While Fifita did gain XXX yards, very little of that was due to botched coverage or missed assignments. Perhaps more importantly, Arizona didn’t gain many of the passing yards after the catch, relatively speaking; passes were caught, but the secondary was there when it happened. Add to that Garber’s beautiful interception in the end zone and another excellent play by Colby McCallister that forced a turnover, and the secondary’s grade went up significantly tonight.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Oh, Avery Johnson is at the top of the list again this week, of course. On defense, it was Austin Romaine who again thwarted Arizona’s efforts, although he didn’t have a special play on the night.
NEXT
Big 12 play begins next Saturday when K-State travels to Provo to kick off at BYU at a ridiculous 9:30 p.m.
