As Kansas State fans, we’ve all seen the Wildcats get outplayed or outplayed by opponents at certain points in the game, yet still find ways to win through special teams, taking advantage of mistakes or other strange occurrences.

But I’ve never seen anything like what BYU pulled off in just five minutes of play Saturday night in Provo against Kansas State. That was all the Cougars needed to score 28 straight points thanks to three turnovers and a shambling 90-yard punt return, and the shell-shocked Wildcats never recovered after a 38-9 loss.

Despite the mistakes we’ll get to later, Avery Johnson still did a lot of good things, rushing for 74 yards on 11 carries and throwing for 130 yards, even with some extremely frustrating drops. Coaching didn’t seem to help him, as K-State made some confusing decisions running the ball on third down and looked a little too predictable against a hyped-up BYU defense that dared Johnson to throw for most of the game.

It’s hard to remember now, but in many ways the Wildcats dominated the first 28 minutes of this game. They largely controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, methodically moving the ball down the field on the kind of long drives we’ve come to expect from Chris Klieman and Bill Snyder teams.

Unfortunately, both drives stalled in the red zone, where penalties helped keep the Wildcats out of the end zone. Of course, credit must also be given to the Cougars’ defense and their crowd, which certainly made it difficult to operate closer to the stands and in tighter quarters near the goal line.

After Kansas State forced a quick three-and-out with two incompletions, Johnson drove the Cats 55 yards on 11 plays. But before KSU could execute the 12th play, an illegal snap penalty set them back 5 yards and Giddens still got the call on 3rd and 9, falling 6 yards short of the first down to set up Chris Tennant’s first field goal.

BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff had some success passing the ball on his next drive to pick up four first downs, but the K-State defense stepped up at just the right time to force a punt, which the Cougars did well at the 5-yard line. Once again, a run-heavy drive cost the clock and moved the ball downfield, culminating in Avery Johnson’s 30-yard run where he couldn’t quite beat the safety in the open field.

But again, it all came to a halt shortly after a penalty, this time a holding call on first-and-10 from 12 yards. Passes on second and third down were incomplete as Johnson was under intense pressure, and Tennant settled for another field goal at the end of a 16-play, nine-minute drive.

It’s worth noting that at this point we were already nearly halfway through the second quarter, even though both teams had only had two possessions. Kansas State must have felt like the scoreboard wasn’t reflecting how well they were in control of the game.

More clean passes from Retzlaff put BYU in the red zone for the first time and the Wildcat defense nearly saved the shutout by stopping a fourth-and-1, but the Cougars held on. A sack by Brendan Mott on the next play kept BYU from reaching the end zone and Will Ferrin made it 6-3.

From there, Kansas State had just two minutes left, but instead of showing a sense of urgency to score before halftime, the Wildcats began to slowly move the ball down the ground again. Just three plays into the drive, DJ Giddens fumbled the ball on a run to the right side, BYU’s Tommy Prassas took a friendly bounce and took it 30 yards, signaling the beginning of our nightmare.

Poor throwing by Johnson on either side of halftime led to interceptions that set up short, quick scoring drives, only to have BYU blow a point. Except, of course, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the Cougars, as the ball took an awkward bounce, K-State defenders chased too hard, and Parker Kingston got to the rim in time to run 90 yards down the sideline for a score.

We don’t really need to go into detail about what happened next, other than to note that after its final field goal drive in the third quarter, Kansas State outgained BYU by over 100 total yards of offense… and trailed by 22. Even the one break Kansas State got, the officials not overturning a fourth down call when it appeared Avery stepped out of bounds before scoring a touchdown, didn’t feel like a break because a holding call nullified the touchdown and Klieman elected to wave the white flag by punting rather than going for a 4th and long.

The Wildcats’ defense only got worse, hitting a low point when a true freshman broke several tackles and went 21 yards for BYU’s touchdown. Kansas State couldn’t find any success throwing downfield and the running game largely fizzled out, with DJ Giddens coming up just shy of 100 yards on 93.

Retzlaff finished 15-21 for 149 yards and, crucially, 0 interceptions, while BYU rushed for 92 yards on 27 carries. Hilariously, the Cougars were not called for a single penalty until they intentionally called a delay of game call early in the 4th quarter, compared to KSU’s 8 penalties for 50 yards.

WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED

1) Avery Johnson is actually only a sophomore.

We all wanted to believe that Avery Johnson’s immense talent would make him immune to the effects of a college quarterback facing a truly difficult road game for the first time. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case and Johnson seemed seriously shaken when things went BYU’s way. He’ll grow from this and do better next time around, but man, that was tough to watch and he needed more support from his teammates and coaches.

2) The time you have the ball in your possession doesn’t tell the whole story.

We all love it when Kansas State can control the clock, and that felt really good for about 25 minutes of this game. But if the Wildcats can’t convert every one of those snaps into points, it won’t do much good. A one-dimensional offense is easier to stop in the redzone, so K-State needs to develop some better passing options to keep defenses off balance when they have less ground to defend.

3) Dealing with adversity can be a challenge.

Sure, Kansas State responded well to some tough situations in Tulane, but this felt different for so many reasons. The BYU crowd was loud and created a challenging atmosphere, plus the Wildcats saw a couple of bounces go their way, and the response was abysmal. That’s probably as much on the coaches as it is the players, and maybe it was a completely unrepeatable five minutes, but there are surely lessons to be learned from this situation to ensure something like this never happens again.

4) The passing game still has a long way to go.

Whether it was the protection, Johnson’s accuracy, Johnson’s decision-making, or receivers not catching passes, there was a little bit of everything wrong with the Wildcats’ passing game tonight. Obviously, we don’t expect this group to suddenly morph into an air raid offense, but KSU needs to find a way to develop a more reliable passing game. Until then, we expect defenses to consistently fill the box, leaving Johnson, Giddens, and Dylan Edwards with little room to find open space for explosive plays with their legs.

5) The away games in the Big 12 are going to be tough.

Ultimately, the defense played respectably and the offense was dismantled by some very avoidable mistakes. However, this team now understands that the margin for error will be much smaller on the road this season. With four road games remaining, K-State cannot afford to be complacent in any of them. Yes, not even that one game in Houston.

PLAYERS OF THE GAME

Do we really have to pick one? Yes? OK, we’ll go with Chris Tennant. He’s been a source of frustration this season, so it was actually great to see the senior kicker make all three field goal attempts and look good on kickoffs. No one else did his job as reliably and successfully as Tennant did Saturday. Yeah, that was a pretty low bar.

NEXT

Kansas State returns to Bill Snyder Family Stadium for what now appears to be a Big 12 elimination game against Oklahoma State, which looked abysmal offensively for most of Saturday’s 21-15 home loss to Utah.