A 59-yard scoop-and-score by Jack Fabris and an interception by VJ Payne on the goal line with five seconds left led Kansas State to a 34-27 comeback victory over the Tulane Green Wave at Yulman Stadium in New Orleans.

The Cats struggled at first and went into halftime with a 20-10 lead. However, they came back in the second half and managed to equalize twice before the decisive final phase.

Tulane pushed into Wildcat territory on its opening drive, but Damian Ilalio stopped Shadie Clayton-Johnson on a 4th-and-1. Two plays later, however, a lateral pass from Avery Johnson slid right through the hands of DJ Giddens. It was initially ruled an incomplete forward pass, and the play was blown dead. The review resulted in the play standing, but not much would have been done even if it had been ruled a backward pass, because no one ever recovered it.

In the end, it was still a three-and-out affair, as Johnson and Giddens simply weren’t on the same page.

The Green Wave exploded back to K-State’s side of the field on a 39-yard run by Makhi Hughes, but the defense was stopped again when Austin Moore forced a bad throw by Darian Mensah on 3rd-and-11. Johnson was more on target on the next drive, hitting Keagan Johnson for eight and Garrett Oakley for 10, which along with Giddens’ legs put the Cats in Tulane real estate. Then Johnson took off for 18 himself. After a false start, the drive stalled; K-State settled for a 48-yard field goal by Chris Tennant to get on the board first.

Tulane got a 53-yard shot from Mensah to Dontae Fleming, who somehow got covered three times by three Wildcats, none of which were within five yards of him. That was followed by a three-yard run by Hughes to give Tulane a 7-3 lead. Pinned inside the 10 after a holding call on the kickoff, the quarter ended when Oakley nearly picked off a pass off the ground to set up a 3rd-and-1; on review, it was overturned and K-State ended up punting from their own end zone. It wasn’t great, and Tulane took over at the Wildcat 38.

Three snaps later, Mensah dodged a blitz and fired a 36-yard score to Alex Bauman, who had been left all alone by Keenan Garber, to give Tulane a 14-3 lead.

Giddens responded, sliding through the line for a 51-yard dash, and on the next play, Johnson hit Joe Johnson for a 24-yard touchdown — but it was called back for an ineligible receiver downfield. A few plays later, Johnson dumped the ball to Jayce Brown, who flew through the air to get a first down and drew a targeting call on Tyler Grubbs. Replay, however, overruled it.

Two plays later, a patient Johnson found Will Swanson in the end zone for a seven-yard strike, closing the gap to 14-10.

Mensah completed a 37-yard pass to Mario Willians, a result of yet another completely botched coverage by Garber. He then found Williams again at the 17, and the Green Wave went to ground. and got within 10. On 3rd-and-goal from the 8, Ilalio got Mensah in trouble, and he tried to throw the ball away. Intentional grounding was called, but on review, Ilalio was credited with a sack instead. Jacob Barnes hit a 40-yarder to save the drive for Tulane.

The Cats went three-and-out, and Mensah again found a wide-open receiver, this time a 28-yard pass to Yulkeith Brown, and the booth called for a review for targeting VJ Payne; it wasn’t. Tulane entered the red zone; K-State immediately went back on defense, forcing another field goal attempt. Barnes scored from the 41, and Tulane took a 20-10 lead.

Johnson quickly put the Cats in front, reaching the Green Wave 35 with six seconds left in the half and setting up a 53-yard attempt for Tennant. It wasn’t good, but surprisingly, because it was short, it wasn’t off target.

Both offenses went three-and-out to start the second half, but K-State got going on its second drive. A deep ball to Keagan Johnson drew a flag for pass interference, then Keagan took eight on a jet sweep. Dylan Edwards ran for ten, then 27 to get into the red zone. Giddens got the ball back to the seven, but a terrible telegraphic call to give him the ball again resulted in a three-and-2 loss, and Tennant had to kick a 28-yarder to make it 20-13.

A holding call and a sack by Austin Romaine gave the Cats another three-and-out, and a few plays later the Cats were facing 4th-and-1 in Tulane territory. K-State converted — with a 45-yard scoring pass from Johnson to Giddens, and the game was tied.

Tulane nearly got to midfield on the kickoff, and a great pass breakup by Keenan Garber was negated by a holding call on Tulane. Barnes fumbled on the next play, but the Green Wave recovered. An illegal snap penalty pushed them back another five points, but after an incomplete pass, Mensah hooked up with Williams, who was wide open again, for a 47-yard completion. A sack by Brendan Mott resulted in Mensah leaving the game with a leg problem that turned out to be just a cramp, and the quarter ended.

Ty Thompson entered the game for one play, ran for nine before Mensah returned. A 13-yard touchdown to Bauman followed and the Green Wave regained the lead 27-20.

Avery and Keagan hooked up for 33, followed by an 11-yard completion to Swanson. Giddens then carried three times for 18 yards to surpass 100 yards for the sixth straight game, putting him in the red zone. Edwards took it from 13 to tie the game.

Mensah hit Williams for 22 right after the kickoff, and two plays later Hughes sliced ​​through for 32 yards and into the red zone. Williams lost a couple on what appeared to be a double-pass play, and a false start pushed the Wave back to the 25. Austin Romaine then came through and tackled Mensah, who fumbled… and Jack Fabris picked him up for a 59-yard defensive touchdown. Suddenly K-State had a 34-27 lead.

On the kickoff, Clayton-Johnson fumbled but was taken down on the field. It repeatedly appeared his knees and elbows were still off the ground when the ball came loose, but the play stood. Austin Moore tackled Mensah, the Cats’ fifth of the day, but on 3rd-and-9, Mensah hit Fleming for 17 yards to extend the drive. But another near-sack by Tobi Osunsanmi, again on 3rd-and-9, forced a punt, giving K-State the ball with the lead and 5:10 remaining.

But the Cats went three-and-out, and another overblitz resulted in a dump pass to Hughes that went 26 yards. VJ Payne was penalized for pass interference, sending Tulane to the 21. Mensah dumped Williams in the end zone, then dumped Brown in the end zone — but that was negated by a holding penalty, giving Tulane 2nd-and-20. Hughes got nine back on the ground, then Mensah ran for five, setting up 4th-and-6 with 54 seconds left.

Mensah ran it again, gaining 15 yards, down to the Wildcat 2 with flags all over the field — a defensive holding penalty on Jacob Parrish. Tulane had the ball at the 1 with 27 seconds left.

But then Mensah completed a pass to Brown for six points, but Fleming was penalized for offensive pass interference, erasing the score and pushing the Wave back to the 16 with 17 seconds left.

An incomplete pass cost him another four seconds and after a Wildcats timeout, Mensah went back to pass, looking for Brown in the end zone.

He found VJ Payne instead. Parrish was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct for his celebration, but it didn’t matter because with only five seconds left, Johnson knelt for the win.

Avery Johnson was 15-23 for 181 yards and two touchdowns, adding 40 on the ground. Giddens had 114 yards on 19 carries, with no touchdowns on the ground — but he did have one through the air among his team-leading four catches and 63 yards. Edwards had 54 yards on just four carries, with a score.

Keagan Johnson led the non-Giddens receivers with three catches for 51 yards; Swanson had two for 18 and a score, and Tre Spivey had two catches for 12. Four other receivers combined for four catches and 37 yards.

For Tulane, Mensah was 19-29 for 342 yards, two touchdowns and the game-ending interception. Hughes had 128 yards on 21 carries and a touchdown; Williams caught six balls for 128 yards.

The Wildcats were outscored 491-396, but outrebounded the Green Wave 215-149. The Cats were perfect in the red zone (3-3), while holding Tulane to 4-6 defense. K-State had seven penalties for 55 yards, compared to Tulane’s 9-80. The Wave also won the time of possession battle 33:16-26:44, despite all the good things it did.

WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED

1) Adjustments during halftime are great.

This time it was Matt Wells who revised the game plan during halftime. The results themselves were not noticeably different between the first and second half, but while the first half scored on a few big plays, the offense moved more consistently in the second half of the game.

Klanderman also adjusted, but not without problems in the second half. The secondary was still porous, but the Wildcats backed off the send-the-house rush in the second half and became more conservative, and that was much more effective.

2) The first six defenders are still great.

Look, we can sum this up by just mentioning two stats: five sacks, eleven tackles for loss, and a forced fumble.

And it could have been even more remarkable, because Mensah has already escaped being hanged five times.

3) The secondary is killing us.

Chris Klieman, during an interview on the sidelines, blamed the players for not following their orders. It is so unusual for him to say something like that that we have to accept it as true.

Something needs to be done to get them on the right track as there was clearly miscommunication and poor play everywhere – except perhaps Marques Sigle, who looked bad on a couple of occasions but it also seemed like he was only in those situations because he was forced to compensate for someone else’s mistake.

4) Avery Johnson is coming, but he has to hurry.

Johnson was very, very shaky at the start of the game. His first two passes to Giddens were nightmarish disasters, and he only really got going in the second half.

But that second half was exemplary. The only Wildcat drives in the second half that failed were both “run three times” drives. It’s far too early to say that Avery has the passing game down pat. But his progression from the first to the second half of the first two games shows that he’s at least warming up; the problem is that he needs to be warmed up from the beginning.

5) Don’t blame Chris Tennant for that missed field goal.

He was sent there to try his career-long shot against the wind. It was a bad shot, but it was kind of a dumb call considering K-State got the ball back to start the second half anyway. Might as well have just let him go.

PLAYERS OF THE GAME

On offense, it’s DJ Giddens again, with 177 yards of offense and a score. Austin Romaine is favored on defense, both in impact and production. The sophomore was everywhere today, forcing the fumble that led to what ended up being the game-winning score.

NEXT

It’s a home game on Friday night, as the Cats welcome new Big 12 comrades Arizona for a non-conference matchup. Don’t think about it too much.