Sports > Kansas State Wildcats

Posted on Sun, Nov. 01, 2009

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Oklahoma holds off Kansas State

BY KELLIS ROBINETT

The Wichita Eagle

NORMAN, Okla. — The Kansas State football team came to Oklahoma as a big underdog. After a forgettable first quarter in which the Wildcats fell 21 points behind, the prospect of an upset seemed almost impossible.

But in the face of a big deficit and 84,021 fans rooting against them, the Wildcats fought back and made things extremely interesting before falling to the Sooners 42-30 on Saturday.

How interesting?

Interesting enough that the term "moral victory" was tossed around like Halloween candy when the game was over.

"We can build on this," said K-State running back Daniel Thomas, who rushed for 88 yards, and passed for 41 yards and scored a touchdown. "It's a great motivating factor for next week."

The Wildcats (5-4, 3-2 Big 12) are still in the lead of the Big 12 North with an important home game against Kansas coming up next.

They still control their own destiny, and after a performance like this, that's never been more meaningful. If K-State can play the way it did during the final three quarters Saturday, it will have a chance to win every game remaining on its schedule.

Just look at the stats. K-State scored more points against Oklahoma than any team has all season. BYU, Texas, Kansas and Miami, who were all ranked when they played the Sooners earlier in the yearæ.æ.æ. none of them could muster more than 20 points against OU.

At home, Oklahoma had allowed seven points all season. The Wildcats scored 30 in the final three quarters.

"Offensively," wide receiver Brandon Banks said, "That was the best we've played all season."

Banks was a big reason why. The senior caught nine passes for 156 yards and took a fourth-quarter kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown.

Quarterback Grant Gregory, who threw for 80 yards last week against Colorado, completed 19 of 30 passes for 174 yards. K-State's offense suddenly looked explosive, amassing 364 yards.

"This proves we can move the ball against anybody," Thomas said.

Maybe, but K-State must now figure out how to start games stronger. The entire team appeared lost during the first quarter against Oklahoma, and the Sooners led 21-0 less than 11 minutes into the game.

Things looked so lopsided that after one quarter, a good number of Oklahoma fans left early.

"We got flustered out there," defensive end Jeffrey Fitzgerald said. "We had to slow down. There were a lot of calls we didn't get as a defense. (We weren't) on the same page."

Afterward, many K-State players said their 66-14 loss at Texas Tech earlier in the season was creeping into their minds.

But they never let Oklahoma pull away. After the first quarter ended, they outscored the Sooners and twice cut the lead to five points.

Thomas ran in a touchdown from two yards away to make the score 28-23 with 4:35 remaining in the third quarter, and shortly after that it looked like K-State truly could come all the way back.

A string of penalties forced Oklahoma into a first-and-45 situation near midfield. If K-State could have forced a punt, it would have had the ball with the chance to take the lead.

But Landry Jones led the Sooners out of the jam. The freshman quarterback, who threw for 294 yards and four touchdowns, hit Ryan Broyles for a 25-yard completion on third-and-24 to convert the first down.

DeMarco Murray caught a touchdown pass moments later to make the score 35-23.

It looked like the Sooners (5-3, 3-1) were finally going to pull away, but then Banks unleashed his touchdown return and the Wildcats were back in it. The game was a toss-up from there, but Murray ran in a three-yard touchdown to end things for good.

K-State missed out on beating a ranked team for the first time all season, ending the nation's longest home winning streak and gaining loads of respect.

"We're disappointed," Gregory said. "We had the chance to do something that hadn't been done in a long time. We gave a good effort but we didn't get it done."

K-State coach Bill Snyder likes that attitude.

"I hate moral victory-type comments," Snyder said. "For our young people, for this program to grow, you've got to have tremendous disappointment when you lose a ball game regardless of how you played. That's what I'm looking for first. If that takes place, there will be growth for our upcoming ball games."