D
Derek Young
Guest
OFFENSE
We can probably keep this fairly short and simple. They were unable to move the ball in the first half, at all. Kansas State even had a drive begin at the Texas 37-yard line in the first half and were unable to come away with points. They also only came away with 64 total yards in the first half, while they accumulated 62 yards alone in the first drive of the second half with Skylar Thompson under center.
Unfortunately for Delton, they weren’t able to really run the ball well either. And on his throws, he was missing open receivers. He missed both Isaiah Zuber and Dalton Schoen a couple times. He typically only goes through one read, so if someone breaks open, they will not be seen.
In the first half, only Isaiah Zuber, Alex Delton and Alex Barnes touched the ball. They were very limited in what they wanted to do and could do and that made it difficult for the offensive line because of their predictability. However, the offensive line did have one of their better halves of the season.
The offense was much more prolific with Skylar Thompson at quarterback today. He led them on a touchdown drive to open the third quarter and followed it up with a drive at the beginning of the fourth quarter where he threw a ball was dropped by Dalton Schoen but should have been a touchdown. But, in his defense, Schoen made up for it the rest of the drive, making some tough catches on some great throws in tight windows by Thompson. The one on fourth down in the red zone was a beauty.
It may be looking into it a bit too much and without some appropriate context, but it appeared the mentality of the players on offense shifted when Skylar entered the contest. They played with more emotion, nastiness, effort and attitude in the second half with Skylar at quarterback. Whether or not it mattered who was at quarterback, they played harder with Thompson in the game.
The last point would be how complicated it is for Kansas State when they don’t have a productive play on first down. They’re so limited in what they are able to do and how they do it if they don’t have a positive play to begin the set. They are unable to convert, on nearly every attempt, when it is a second and long or a third and long situation. They don’t have the ability to play from behind the sticks or off schedule.
Evidence of that would be that they only averaged 1.8 yards per play on first down in the first half. To compare, they averaged 6.4 yards per play on the first drive of the third quarter.
Finally, the decision to go for it on fourth down at the end of the first half will likely be scrutinized. I don’t think it was a bad decision on the surface, but as Matt Hall explained, it is tough to believe you can come away with six when you weren’t moving the ball the entire half. It was also three points that would have been very valuable later in the game. But hindsight is 20/20.
You can say hindsight is 20/20 as well when it comes to Bill Snyder’s choice on who to play at quarterback.
DEFENSE
Kansas State pitched a shut-out in the second half. The defense also was only responsible for 10 of the 19 points in the first half. The other nine were from a special teams score and a safety.
Sam Sizelove seemed to be stripped of his starting role in favor of Justin Hughes and we would agree with that decision and are surprised it didn’t come any sooner than this. In all actuality, Hughes was Kansas State’s best linebacker today.
Speaking of linebackers, a re-occurring issue is Da’Quan Patton’s poor tackling.
Other players that really had strong days were Jonathan Durham at the nickel and Duke Shelley at corner. Shelley did surrender the only touchdown the defense gave up all day but it was a short yardage situation where he was at an extreme size disadvantage.
Reggie Walker was also much more active of a defender today. A.J. Parker had an excellent first half but had some errors in the second half.
There’s no question that the defensive line played their best game of the season. It may not even be a stretch to say that they handled the line of scrimmage much more than the Longhorn offensive line. The biggest proof of that is the six tackles for loss recorded by Kansas State today.
The Texas offense also made matters worse by the amount of penalties that they committed.
Simply put, the defense kept the Wildcats competitive and are largely responsible for the performance and opportunity that K-State had to win the game.
The two points of criticism we would have with the K-State defense were their inability to get many stops in the first quarter and their inability to get off the field at the end of the game.
But still, hats off to Blake Seiler and his unit.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Andrew Hicks had a fantastic punt early in the contest but it was all for not. The coverage over-ran their assignments and the Longhorns housed it for a score. If you take away that non-offensive touchdown for Texas and they’re in a boatload of trouble in Manhattan. K-State did respond to that by inserting Isaiah Zuber and Duke Shelley into coverage as the gunners the rest of the game.
A.J. Parker blocked a punt near midfield but the Wildcats were unable to turn it into points. Kansas State went for it on fourth down against Texas on the Longhorns’ side of the field. It worked one of the two times. Perhaps the absence of Blake Lynch may have played into some of those choices.
PERSONNEL
Blake Lynch missed today’s game due to injury. We did not see a field goal attempted but Nick McLellan handled the extra points and the kickoffs. Quarterback Ryan Henington was not used in kickoff and punt coverage for the first time all season.
Elijah Sullivan suited up today but did not play. Kyle Ball started instead of Wyatt Hubert at defensive end. Jordan Mittie started at defensive tackle but Joe Davies still played more today than he did the past couple of weeks.
Kendall Adams did start at safety despite some concerns that he would be unable to go. Eli Walker is still the starter in place of Denzel Goolsby at safety. Kevion McGee did play but did not see a ton of snaps.
Justin Hughes seemed to unseat Sam Sizelove as the second linebacker in K-State’s base defense.
And obviously, Skylar Thompson replaced Alex Delton as the starting quarterback in the second half. Delton was limping pretty badly towards the end of the first half.
On sideline but inactive: Blake Lynch, Devin Anctil, Maxwell Poduska, Cartez Crook-Jones, Mike McCoy, Walter Neil, Hunter Rison, Daniel Green, Luke Sowa, Darreyl Patterson, Ekow Boye-Doe, Denzel Goolsby and Seth Porter.
We can probably keep this fairly short and simple. They were unable to move the ball in the first half, at all. Kansas State even had a drive begin at the Texas 37-yard line in the first half and were unable to come away with points. They also only came away with 64 total yards in the first half, while they accumulated 62 yards alone in the first drive of the second half with Skylar Thompson under center.
Unfortunately for Delton, they weren’t able to really run the ball well either. And on his throws, he was missing open receivers. He missed both Isaiah Zuber and Dalton Schoen a couple times. He typically only goes through one read, so if someone breaks open, they will not be seen.
In the first half, only Isaiah Zuber, Alex Delton and Alex Barnes touched the ball. They were very limited in what they wanted to do and could do and that made it difficult for the offensive line because of their predictability. However, the offensive line did have one of their better halves of the season.
The offense was much more prolific with Skylar Thompson at quarterback today. He led them on a touchdown drive to open the third quarter and followed it up with a drive at the beginning of the fourth quarter where he threw a ball was dropped by Dalton Schoen but should have been a touchdown. But, in his defense, Schoen made up for it the rest of the drive, making some tough catches on some great throws in tight windows by Thompson. The one on fourth down in the red zone was a beauty.
It may be looking into it a bit too much and without some appropriate context, but it appeared the mentality of the players on offense shifted when Skylar entered the contest. They played with more emotion, nastiness, effort and attitude in the second half with Skylar at quarterback. Whether or not it mattered who was at quarterback, they played harder with Thompson in the game.
The last point would be how complicated it is for Kansas State when they don’t have a productive play on first down. They’re so limited in what they are able to do and how they do it if they don’t have a positive play to begin the set. They are unable to convert, on nearly every attempt, when it is a second and long or a third and long situation. They don’t have the ability to play from behind the sticks or off schedule.
Evidence of that would be that they only averaged 1.8 yards per play on first down in the first half. To compare, they averaged 6.4 yards per play on the first drive of the third quarter.
Finally, the decision to go for it on fourth down at the end of the first half will likely be scrutinized. I don’t think it was a bad decision on the surface, but as Matt Hall explained, it is tough to believe you can come away with six when you weren’t moving the ball the entire half. It was also three points that would have been very valuable later in the game. But hindsight is 20/20.
You can say hindsight is 20/20 as well when it comes to Bill Snyder’s choice on who to play at quarterback.
DEFENSE
Kansas State pitched a shut-out in the second half. The defense also was only responsible for 10 of the 19 points in the first half. The other nine were from a special teams score and a safety.
Sam Sizelove seemed to be stripped of his starting role in favor of Justin Hughes and we would agree with that decision and are surprised it didn’t come any sooner than this. In all actuality, Hughes was Kansas State’s best linebacker today.
Speaking of linebackers, a re-occurring issue is Da’Quan Patton’s poor tackling.
Other players that really had strong days were Jonathan Durham at the nickel and Duke Shelley at corner. Shelley did surrender the only touchdown the defense gave up all day but it was a short yardage situation where he was at an extreme size disadvantage.
Reggie Walker was also much more active of a defender today. A.J. Parker had an excellent first half but had some errors in the second half.
There’s no question that the defensive line played their best game of the season. It may not even be a stretch to say that they handled the line of scrimmage much more than the Longhorn offensive line. The biggest proof of that is the six tackles for loss recorded by Kansas State today.
The Texas offense also made matters worse by the amount of penalties that they committed.
Simply put, the defense kept the Wildcats competitive and are largely responsible for the performance and opportunity that K-State had to win the game.
The two points of criticism we would have with the K-State defense were their inability to get many stops in the first quarter and their inability to get off the field at the end of the game.
But still, hats off to Blake Seiler and his unit.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Andrew Hicks had a fantastic punt early in the contest but it was all for not. The coverage over-ran their assignments and the Longhorns housed it for a score. If you take away that non-offensive touchdown for Texas and they’re in a boatload of trouble in Manhattan. K-State did respond to that by inserting Isaiah Zuber and Duke Shelley into coverage as the gunners the rest of the game.
A.J. Parker blocked a punt near midfield but the Wildcats were unable to turn it into points. Kansas State went for it on fourth down against Texas on the Longhorns’ side of the field. It worked one of the two times. Perhaps the absence of Blake Lynch may have played into some of those choices.
PERSONNEL
Blake Lynch missed today’s game due to injury. We did not see a field goal attempted but Nick McLellan handled the extra points and the kickoffs. Quarterback Ryan Henington was not used in kickoff and punt coverage for the first time all season.
Elijah Sullivan suited up today but did not play. Kyle Ball started instead of Wyatt Hubert at defensive end. Jordan Mittie started at defensive tackle but Joe Davies still played more today than he did the past couple of weeks.
Kendall Adams did start at safety despite some concerns that he would be unable to go. Eli Walker is still the starter in place of Denzel Goolsby at safety. Kevion McGee did play but did not see a ton of snaps.
Justin Hughes seemed to unseat Sam Sizelove as the second linebacker in K-State’s base defense.
And obviously, Skylar Thompson replaced Alex Delton as the starting quarterback in the second half. Delton was limping pretty badly towards the end of the first half.
On sideline but inactive: Blake Lynch, Devin Anctil, Maxwell Poduska, Cartez Crook-Jones, Mike McCoy, Walter Neil, Hunter Rison, Daniel Green, Luke Sowa, Darreyl Patterson, Ekow Boye-Doe, Denzel Goolsby and Seth Porter.
