K-State Blows Game Wide Wide Open, Up 52-7 Over West Virginia After Three Quarters
By Dave Thoman
Charles LeClaire-US PRESSWIRE
Kicking off the second half, Tavon Austin (almost) does it again after choosing to take the kick off out of the end zone, blowing past multiple Wildcats, and finally being taken down at the 45. However, a holding call brings it back to the nine yard line.
First play from scrimmage, Arthur Brown gives K-State the ball back by intercepting a tipped pass that got more hang time than most punts. He was seriously just standing around waiting for the ball to drop. Why is this significant? It’s the first interception of the season for Geno Smith. It’s K-State ball at the 24 now. Two plays later, Chris Harper comes down with a twenty yard pass despite initially bobbling the ball and being sandwiched by two defenders. Doesn’t matter for this kid. (If the Chiefs’ receivers had hands this good, maybe they’d win some games.) KSU up 38-7 at this point.
On West Virginia’s next possession, two straight sacks on bring the Mountaineers back to fourth and 21 on the one yard line. A false start penalty moves the ball to about the half yard line, and really adds more insult than injury at this point. The hurried punt goes about 45 yards, and Tramaine Thompson returns it to the 16. West Virginia is definitely starting to hit dirty. Frustration has fully set in by now.
Hubert is taking some major punishment tonight. Most of his runs are ending with head-t0-head tackles dished out by linebackers and linemen. I’m sure the guy just wants to be stopped by a shoestring tackle by a cornerback once or twice. Or to be the guy that scores. But Hubert can’t catch any glory tonight. After providing the rushes to put K-State in possession to score, Klein goes and records another rushing touchdown. K-State up 44-7. Remember when Geno Smith was the undeniable Heisman frontrunner?
K-State’s defense has become a strictly prevent unit at this point, and is allowing lots of little plays. West Virginia uses short runs, dinks, and dunks to gain yardage, but it doesn’t matter. K-State can allow their opponent to get first downs and even score a couple times as long as they’re chewing up clock in the process. And West Virginia takes some good time off the clock on the subsequent drive in getting to the Wildcat 20 yard line. This is where the magical Ty Zimmerman puts a stop to the silly notion of the powerful Mountaineer offense scoring tonight, hauling down the second Geno Smith interception of the night.
Haha – Snyder has decided not to let up on the gas. More passing plays. Deep passing plays. Collin Klein can’t be stopped trough the air. I know the West Virginia pass defense isn’t greatly respected, but I assumed they were just naturally giving up passing yards as teams ran hurry-up offenses to try to score points and keep up with West Virginia. To an extent, this may have been true. Tonight, however, K-State is just making it look easy. Klein is not only 19-21 passing, but averaging 15.4 yards/attempt. ATTEMPT! The rushing attack has also completed its resurrection, as K-State has 150 yards on the ground and averaging 4.7 yards/rush. Have I mentioned it’s a good night for this team yet?
At the end of three, West Virginia is deep in K-State territory and threatening to score, but the Wildcats can pretty safely give up a couple scores at this point. That’s what 52-7 leads buy you – a whole lotta security.