Monday Rewind: Kansas State 44, Texas Tech 38

Lingering thoughts from Kansas State’s 44-38 victory over Texas Tech on Saturday at Snyder Family Stadium:

1. D.J. Reed’s pick six was exceptional.

Sophomore defensive back D.J. Reed made the best play of his young K-State career when he jumped a screen pass in the first half for an interception and returned it 35 yards for a touchdown.

It was also the best play from a K-State corner in recent memory.

Texas Tech actually called a play that should have neutralized Reed. When Kliff Kingsbury saw K-State’s coverage, he signaled in a new play expecting it to pick up big yardage.

As you can see, the Red Raiders had two receivers to the left of quarterback Patrick Mahomes, and Reed is nowhere near the slot receiver, who is supposed to get the pass and cut up field after a block from the wide receiver.

Kingsbury liked the play so much he defended the strategy afterward.

“It was a hard corner,” Kingsbury said. “We had a guy blocking and he missed his block. It was a designed play. We had what we wanted. Their corner made a good play, but we should have had him blocked.”

Again, that shows how good Reed was on this play. After watching nearly 10 hours of film on Texas Tech last week, he sensed a screen was coming, juked out the wide receiver and zoomed in front of the slot receiver. K-State coach Bill Snyder said he didn’t know Reed could break on the ball that fast.

But he did.

West Virginia successfully picked on Reed a week ago and Texas Tech had early success against him, as well. But he proved to have a short memory and came through with an exceptional play that led to a strong game.

The result was an interception.

“We were all disguised in cover four, but we were really in cover two. So I just had nothing but the flats,” Reed said. “I just told myself before the play happened, ‘If something goes to the flats I am going to break on it.’ One of their receivers tried to block me and I just gave him a juke. I didn’t think I was probably going to get a pick, but I got my hands on it and it was history from there.”

2. Charles Jones was good, but he could have been better.

K-State running back Charles Jones looks a foot taller, a step faster and 10 pounds more muscular whenever he plays Texas Tech. Jones had a strong showing against the Red Raiders a year ago and followed it up with a career high 128 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries Saturday.

That’s the type of production K-State needs from him on a consistent basis. Not just against the league’s worst defense.

We will see if he can build off this game next week when K-State heads to Oklahoma.

One thing he still needs to improve is his field vision.

Here’s an example. Late in the first quarter, he made his way through a nice hole and had all kinds of room to run in the secondary with just one man to beat.

But instead of cutting to his right, where there is an abundance of room, he cuts left, directly into the lone Texas Tech defender trying to tackle him.

The play resulted in a 26-yard gain, so it’s hard to complain too much about it. But, as someone on Twitter pointed out in my mentions immediately following the play, most starting running backs in the Big 12 finish that play with a touchdown.

3. This game showed the importance of good coaching.

Texas Tech had the far superior offense in this game, but it didn’t matter. Not when Kansas State was scoring on special teams and on defense.

And not when Kingsbury insisted on going for it on fourth down twice in the second half when a field goal and a punt would have given his team a 34-31 lead.

K-State denied Texas Tech on both plays and went ahead 38-31, permanently swinging momentum its way.

There’s a reason Snyder has a winning record against Kingsbury, and it has little to do with talent.

This story was originally published October 10, 2016 at 10:22 AM with the headline "Monday Rewind: Kansas State 44, Texas Tech 38."