In a game that served as the first real test that the #8 Kansas State Wildcats have faced this year, they were found to be woefully lacking, as Landry Jones passed for 505 yards and the Oklahoma Sooners scored 44 unanswered points en route to a blistering 58-17 thrashing of KSU in Manhattan. Ryan Broyles had 14 catches for 171 yards and a score, and Jaz Reynolds caught two TD’s as well as the Sooners ended up with 690 yards of offense in the massive victory.
Coming off a heartbreaking loss to Texas Tech that knocked them out of the conversation to be the number one team in the nation, Oklahoma came into this game needing to make a statement, and that is exactly what they did. Facing an undefeated Kansas State squad on the road, the Sooners continued their trend of strong bounce back games (they haven’t lost back-to-back games since 2003) and really opened things up on both sides of the ball. They held Kansas State to 240 yards of offense, and they obviously had a huge offensive day as well.
All of that offense came even after losing leading rusher Dominique Whaley to a broken left ankle that will likely end his season, and after that horrible first play, it was all golden for the Sooners. In addition to Jones’ school record setting day (he set the career mark for passing yards in Sooner history, as well as the single game passing record), several other players stood out. Roy Finch rushed for 73 yards and a touchdown, and fullback Trey Millard only had one carry, but made it count as he rumbled 61 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. Finally, Kenny Stills caught four passes for 101 yards, and he was one of the nine Sooners who caught passes in this contest.
As for Kansas State, this game was an opportunity to show the nation that they were a legitimate threat for the Big 12 crown, as most folks didn’t seem to think that they were. Unfortunately for them, the game wasn’t only 30 minutes long, as they looked very solid in the first half, even having a 17-14 lead at one point. Quarterback Collin Klein rushed for two scores in the first half, and their offense looked like it had finally gotten in sync after going down 14-0 early. That all came unraveled in the second half, as the Wildcats couldn’t muster anything resembling an attack, and ultimately their inability to stop Oklahoma on either side of the ball became too much to bear, and the final score was an accurate representation of their ineptitude.
The Wildcats’ road won’t get any easier, as next week they will have to travel to Stillwater to take on the 3rd ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys. Those same Cowboys have hung up 59 points on Baylor today, and Justin Blackmon has 13 catches for 172 yards and two touchdowns in the contest. If the Wildcats can’t figure out how to slow down the Cowboy passing attack led by Brandon Weeden better than they fared against Jones, then we could be looking at numbers that most of us have never seen before on the statsheet.
Meanwhile, the Sooners, who ended up out-passing the Wildcats 520-58, will host the Texas A&M Aggies next week in Norman. The Aggies were in the driver’s seat today against the Missouri Tigers, but they weren’t able to hold on and ended up losing to Mizzou in overtime. Oklahoma will look to make another statement against them as they try to force their way back into the National Championship picture.