FINAL: Kansas State Wildcats 41, Cincinnati Bearcats 15

Mostly flawless football, five stops on fourth down and Avery Johnson finding his feet again were key factors as the Kansas State Wildcats rolled to a huge 41-15 Senior Day win over the Cincinnati Bearcats tonight at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

Things started well. The Bearcats (5-6, 3-5 Big 12) went 3-and-out and botched their punt, allowing K-State (8-3, 5-3 Big 12) to start at their own 35. Johnson immediately went 33 yards on a goalkeeper to ignite the stadium. A few plays later, he rolled 21 yards on another keeper to put K-State on the board.

The Bearcats ran seven plays on the next drive. Every single drag went for a negative target and they were forced to tip again. The Cats marched down the field again, but a missed block led to Johnson being stopped for no gain on 3rd down, leading to a 28-yard field goal attempt by Chris Tennant. Snap and hold were good for a change and K-State went up 10-0.

Cincinnati managed to get downfield on their third down, but on 4th and 1 at the K-State 45, Brendan Sorsby tried a keeper and was thrown — literally — behind by Cody Stufflebean and Austin Moore short of the line for the win. Two plays later, DJ Giddens ran for the 20 and caught a pass for the 18 to end the quarter. The Cats stalled again, but got a 32-yarder from Tennant.

Again, Cincinnati had some success, but a Chiddi Obiazor sack made it 4th and 8 at the Wildcat 33. Too far for a field goal, too close to punt, the Bearcats went for it; Sorsby threw wildly incomplete and K-State had its second turnover on downs of the half.

Johnson found Jayce Brown for 15, after which Giddens took 20 on a flea-flicker. On the next play, heran 30 yards for a touchdown. Four plays, 67 yards, and it even ate 2:02 off the clock; The Cats went up 20-0.

The defense lost its ability to defend the run as Corey Kiner put up runs of 26 and 24 around an end for no gain where VJ Payne flat out murdered Tony Johnson as soon as he caught the ball. But Sorsby continued to overthrew his receivers badly, leaving the Bearcats with 4th and 9 at the 23. Nathan Hawks came in and converted a 42-yard field goal to end the shutout.

The Cats just went back to it, even though it asked them to hold penalties, including a call that wiped out a 30-yard run by Joe Jackson. The drive stalled after that, and K-State had to punt with a minute left in the half. Cincinnati’s half ended with a Brendan Mott interception that took the ball to the Bearcat six with 18 seconds left. Ten seconds later, Johnson found Tre Spivey in the back of the end zone and the Cats took a 27-3 lead — and would have the ball to start the second half.

Unfortunately, they went 3-and-out and a bad bounce on the punt gave Cincinnati the ball near midfield. On 4th and 4, Jacob Parrish – for about the fourth time on the night – covered Xzavier Henderson perfectly, forcing another turnover on downs. And then the Cats went 3-and-out.

Cincinnati drove and caught a 9-yard touchdown pass to Tony Johnson. The Cats got into Cincinnati territory and then things got crazy. On 4th and 13 from the 35, K-State went for it because punting would be meaningless. Johnson found Spivey for a first down; Spivey fumbled after reaching the sticks, but the ball rolled out of bounds. Giddens followed with his second touchdown, from 17 yards out, to put K-State up 34-9.

Once again in fourth place, Cincinnati went for it; Parrish once again kept Henderson from doing anything, and K-State took over on fourth downs. A few minutes later, Johnson hit Will Swanson from eight yards out to absolutely bury the dagger.

With a 32-point lead, the defense went into coast mode, so Cincinnati was able to get a 33-yard completion to Jamoi Mayes, which led to a 6-yard touchdown pass to Tony Johnson, but another failed two-point conversion made it a 41-15 game. That got the ball back in the hands of the offense with 5:09 left.

Johnson sat out the rest of the game and Ta’quan Roberson took over to burn the clock, but Roberson only picked up seven yards on 3rd and 8, so the Cats had to punt. However, Cincinnati had also had enough by this point, and inserted Brady Lichtenberg at quarterback; nothing else really mattered. With less than two minutes remaining, Tobi Osunsanmi sacked Lichtenberg on fourth down and only the clock remained. Three carries by Evan Cantu gained a first down and drained the final seconds.

STATISTICS

Johnson wasn’t great throwing the ball, going 13-23 for 147 and two touchdowns. But he added 72 yards and a touchdown on the ground for 219. Giddens had 143 yards on 15 carries with two scores and Joe Jackson added 47 yards on 10 carries. Spivey led receivers with five catches for 63 yards and a score. Giddens and Cephas each had three catches, while Brown and Swanson each had one, including Swanson’s touchdown.

The Cats outgained Cincinnati 428-374 and outgained the Bearcats 281-174. Penalties weren’t a big factor, but three other things were: K-State converted 2-2 on fourth down, while Cincinnati turned the ball over on all five of their attempts. The only turnover was the interception, which led to K-State’s touchdown to end the first half. Finally, K-State had four sacks to none for the Bearcats. Time of possession was mostly even, 31:14-28:46 for the Cats.

WHAT WE LEARNED

1) Avery Johnson being able to run is a big help for DJ Giddens.

We’ve been beating the drum for constantly running Gidden’s Counter A is bad, and we’re not denying that.

But man, having Johnson willing and able to run safe opens up Giddens. It also doesn’t hurt that Cincinnati is bad against the run anyway, but if you watch the tape closely, you can see how having Johnson on the loose changes the defense.

2) Brendan Sorsby helped K-State win this game.

For basically three quarters, Sorsby had a case of Bad K-State Quarterbacks knocking over everyone by a mile. That made the secondary look really good for 35-40 minutes until Sorsby stopped rolling.

That said, it was still a decent effort by the secondary, as when Sorsby had the line, he usually found a defensive back who knocked the ball away or shielded the receiver from being able to get to it. Jacob Parrish, specifically, had Xzavier Henderson on lockdown.

3) Joe Jackson is possibly the second best running back on the roster.

This is not a knock on Dylan Edwards, who is out with an injury. But Johnson, carry for carry, has done about as well as Edwards on the ground. Rod Gilmore, on the air, kept talking about how Giddens was going to carry the full load with Edwards out, and… what? Plug and play, baby.

4) Last week’s appearance of Spivey and Cephas was not a mirage.

Something has clearly happened; maybe Johnson just found his groove with the pair. With Keagan Johnson and Jadon Jackson joining Edwards on the sidelines due to injury, this was a necessary result of sorts – but they rose to the challenge and delivered. For once, the wide receiver space looks to be an asset.

5) Honestly, not much else.

We saw K-State play how K-State usually plays after several weeks of bleh.

PLAYERS OF THE GAME

DJ Giddens running after a hundo is blasé at this point, so we’re going to spread the love big and give the offensive honors to Tre Spivey, who had a pretty nice night. Defensively, with a nod to Brendan Mott for his near-six, we have to go with Jacob Parrish. Parrish has been a bit under siege this season, but tonight he was spot on as he held Henderson at bay.

(As an aside, tight end Joe Royer was not assigned an individual defender, but he was held to one catch for 13 yards. This is relevant because he entered the game three catches unafraid to match Travis Kelce’s single-season school record for catches, and still left it two shy.)

NEXT

Ames. Farmageddon. The entire Big 12 race hinges on the outcome.