How to Get Another Wildcat Victory: Missouri
After four straight games of increasing challenge, K-State doesn’t really get a break. While Missouri doesn’t have their own Heisman hopeful, they are good. The first game against a conference opponent is out of the way and the Wildcats sit at 4-0 with some national attention. However, if the team gets too excited about that and doesn’t focus in on the Tigers coming to town, that ranking could be gone in a poof. Continue reading to get the info on how K-State needs to perform on each side of the ball to get yet another Wildcat Victory and leave your prediction.
Offense – Another week, another set of plays! Bill Snyder (know to Bob Davies and pretty much only Bob Davies as the “Scheme Doctor”) has consistently opened up the playbook with each game and I’m excited to see what gets added for Missouri. The most successful addition from last Saturday was the Wildcat formation that utilized Angelo Pease taking the snap. Pease is a former quarterback which means there might be a pass or two coming from this set eventually but for now I’d be happy with keeping it as is.
I think the biggest key to winning Saturday vs. Missouri is going to be all about Colin Klein. Klein can run. There’s no doubt about it. He has been solid in his decision making on read plays and has been great on seeing the field and running through open spaces. He lacks the speed to go all the way but that’s the only chink in the running armor of Klein. On the other hand, Klein cannot pass. It’s not that he hasn’t made some big throws when necessary but let’s not pretend his arm is just waiting to develop. Against Baylor, Klein attempted 28 passes, which is way too many. To compound the problem, plenty of those came on first down which put K-State in a lot of 2nd and long situations. For an offense built on pounding out 3-4 yard runs with the occasional big break, 2nd and long is a killer. Let’s rope that in a bit and see another 250+ yards on the ground to continue winning the possession battle and grind Mizzou’s defense into oblivion. Open up the playbook a bit more, run the ball 3 times for each pass, finish drives with points, and K-State will be fine.
Defense – Missouri has shown that they have ability, which is why this game is no guaranteed win by any means. The jumped ahead quickly in the Oklahoma game 14-3 before watching 28 straight points go to the Sooners. In the loss, they still threw for 291 yards and rushed for 241 putting them over 500 yards of total offense against one of the nation’s best defenses. That’s enough to scare any team. Clearly, the K-State defense is still going to have to perform at a high level. Arthur Brown continues his dominance and knack for being right where he needs to be in the clutch and the rest of the unit is coming right alongside him. Saturday against Baylor was another positive sign moving forward. This week’s game brings the test of balanced offense. Missouri has the bonus of coming into this game after a bye week and with their passing proficiency I am expecting to see the balanced offense lean a little more towards throwing the ball. If the defense can shut down any running game, then that will take care of the dreaded play action and let our DBs focus on not getting burnt which has become an all too familiar problem. It’s going to take a stepped up effort from Garret, Zimmerman, Malone, Chapman, and Hartman. Surely Cosh has something up his sleeve?
Special Teams – Last Saturday Anthony Cantele helped his cause by making some big kicks for K-State including the game winner. I was happy to see that attempt coming with a few minutes remaining instead of having him give it a try as the final play. I had mentioned I wasn’t real confident in any game coming down to the foot of Cantele and while that hasn’t changed, my confidence has gone up. The area that remains a constant worry is covering kick-offs. Baylor took the opening kick straight up the heart of the coverage to midfield and it just seems like every time K-State’s kicking, something bad is possible. Cantele either kicks it low and short, or out of bounds for a penalty. Sean Snyder has to get this under control or I’m afraid its going to eventually cost the Wildcats a game. My only request for this unit is to not allow Missouri to start past the 50 at any point. The defense can take over as long as no points are put on the kick teams head.
Prediction – Like last week, I’m giving the win to K-State. It’s incredibly helpful to be playing a second consecutive Big12 game in Manhattan (which hasn’t happened since 1996 I believe) and that’s going to be a huge edge. Included is also the motivation of not wanting to lose what could possibly be the final conference match-up of the two teams. I think K-State uses that to it’s advantage and once again moves up in the polls Sunday morning. I’m not expecting a huge point differential but the Wildcats send Missouri home 0-2 in conference play.