Who Had The Better Game: Tramaine Thompson V. Tyler Lockett

Scott Sewell-USA TODAY Sports

K-State’s receivers were stellar on Saturday, and Curry Sexton is developing into the receiver I wasn’t sure he could be, but is. Tramaine Thompson and Tyler Lockett were as good as always, and it was hard not to like what you saw as for the most part as the receivers caught the balls they should have without bad drops (except for an awful interception that bounced up in the air off the hands of Torell Mirrell’s and into the hands of a Lafayette defender). So of K-State’s top two performers, who had the better game – Thompson or Lockett?

I may be crazy for positing the question, as Thompson’s performance on special teams was phenomenal. He had just one kick return, and caught the ball rather than let it bounce out of bounds to give K-State good field position and promptly took it 94 yards up the field for a touchdown. He also had a great punt return for 79 yards that took the ball to the three yard line, and could have gone all the way if not for a facemask to take him down.

So with that sort of production, where is Lockett’s argument? In the traditional sense – as a wide receiver. Lockett had eight receptions for 111 yards, averaging 13.9 yards per reception. Thompson had just two receptions, although made the most of them with a 30 and a 16-yard reception, averaging 23 yards on his two catches. Lockett had one pass his way fall incomplete on the night, while Thompson was targeted twice on incomplete passes.

Lockett saw work on kickoffs as well, and the only reason Thompson fielded the ball he did was that the ball was kicked so far to the left sideline. Lockett had three returns for 64 yards, averaging 21.3 yards per return. However, even with those three returns, he fell 30 yards short of the yardage Thompson accrued on just one return. Add in the 94 total yards he had on punt returns (the 79-yarder discussed earlier, plus a 25-yard return), and Thompson had a significantly more productive day this weekend. Locket is still my favorite of the two, and if anything Saturday simply reinforced how dangerous this tandem can be.