Instant Reaction: K-State survives Tulane scare

welcome into kstate online I am Mason V that is Derek young Kate they get past two lane in 2024 something they weren't able to say in 2022 but there were shades of that 2022 game today trouble to convert frustrating defensive plays and kind of in addition to that you think about with K State today there were multiple times where it felt like okay maybe you're going to get your chance here they let tane right back in and despite the 34 to 27 win feels like there's still a lot more questions than answers about this kstate football team yeah they got a lot of areas to improve before they can think about beating someone like they have next week really and on Friday night when they host Arizona it's it's a mixed bag to me because I thought that this for most of the game I was like this team is not good enough to win this game and then and I also think about 2022 toan and and how that game felt probably felt a little worse than this one to be quite honest because you couldn't get anything going offensively in that game and this one I thought that dam broke a little bit offensively obviously DJ Gins continues to be a stud but I even thought Avery Johnson started to get it clicking there on a driver or two as well um especially in a second half so from last week I thought the offense started to do some things better that make me feel a little bit better about that unit overall moving forward at least on that excuse me on that side side of the ball uh some I thought some questionable play calling to be quite Frank but uh I thought that unit as a whole took steps forward for example I thought Avery Johnson throwing the ball was more or less better today than he was a week ago Keegan Johnson I thought was significantly better today than he was a week ago and he almost ended up with 70 total yards uh I think they need to utilize Dylan Edwards a little bit more especially on offense it's surprising to me that he's not the kick returner and jaay brown who fumbled last week is there's some things that really leave me scratching my head and then at the end of the day and and obviously I haven't even talked about the defense which you know similar to Iowa State game almost in terms of explosiveness uh not as drastic but not being able to stop the same pass over and over again is quite frustrating and pretty disappointing overall so I those are some of the takeaways off the top of my head but then again I'm like you know they lose that game two years ago and they still won a big 12 champ ship they found a way to win this week and what you are one week is not what you have to be the next week you can make significant Improvement and one of these teams that's quite frankly a pretty good example of that Tain despite the score was really bad last week head coach John summer all said I think you know immediately after the game or a few days later if we play like that again K State's going to blow the doors office well they didn't play like that way that way again they played really good today um if that is the claim that will be on the field throughout the season they are going to compete for perhaps to be that group of five team in the playoff if they continue to be consistent and throwout Duds like they did last week then it won't so it's just you know because Kansas State struggle defensively today doesn't mean they're going to be gashed by the Arizona def offense next week it will if they don't make improvements though yeah it and Chris kemman said afterwards that he didn't feel like they had a great week of practice from an execution standpoint not necessarily energy and some of this other stuff but execution and he said that's what makes it tough then in games like this is and maybe that's the worst way to have a bad week of practice is not executing because then you're kind of Flying Blind into a game like this and that's what it looked like for this kstate defense like they were Flying Blind today just to put it in perspective tan today had 15 big plays that's what the stat tracking system here would consider them for pass plays that is plays of 15 plus yards two lane had 10 such plays like that today they had 298 passing yards gained on that situation here are some of them that stand out 53 yards 36 37 47 are the big ones and then there are numerous others that are in the 20s and 30s it was a tough day for Kate defending the pass but at the end of the day they did eventually come through and the players made the plays and I think that's my biggest take away from this game is that the players stepped up and made the plays when you needed them Avery Johnson it was the first quarter and a half was not pretty for the kstate offense but Avery Johnson played a lot better from that point forward he missed some some balls there Sterling Lockett should have had a touchdown before the end of the half he had one to Jaden Jackson you go man I don't know how you you do that but he corrected it he got some other Playmakers I thought probably the most significant play of the day passing wise was that ball he threw to Keegan Johnson in front of the kstate sideline in the second half that should be the thing that you take with you to go okay maybe this kstate offense and receiving CP is going to pick things up but at the end of the day the players came through and made the plays the strip sack that led to Jack fabis running into the end zone to give K State the go-ahead score was massive that was just players making plays but I say all that to set up the fact that as I was standing there in the back of the end zone during the game I didn't ever have full doubt in the second half that the players couldn't get the job done but when kstate got the ball back there and they needed to put together a drive with just over 5 minutes left where they could milk clock at least play the field position game maybe milk this thing out Connor Riley came through with some very uninspiring stuff the fourth down play that ended up in a DJ gens touchdown I was sitting there I like I don't have confidence that the play is going to be right here and at the end of the day that is where the concern is moving forward for K State is that the play calling offensively still not there and Joe clander has a lot of work to do with his secondary because they got shredded today yeah I would agree Connor Riley's still finding his SE legs quite a bit there from an offensive play calling standpoint and I think they they hurt each other I think because then he knew the offensive line wasn't doing well and I think that affected what he felt comfortable with from a play calling standpoint and because of that then it put them in a disadvantage too so I I'll stop you right there though because then doesn't that make it confusing Chris kimman said at halftime that the offensive line was struggling Conor Riley obviously would understand that that makes what they did when they got the ball back with just over 5 minutes to play all the more baffling where it was just pretty vanilla handoffs to DJ Gins up the middle like your de your offensive line was not stepping up to finish those blocks like be at least a little bit more creative or do something a little bit different I get that you don't have to Chuck it in that situation that's the what I'm asking for but again I just feel like this all comes back down to disjointed is the word that I would use to describe the kstate offensive play calling right now and even some of the Personnel usage I mean you talk about Dylan Edwards I think we're all on board with that Dylan Edwards needs more touches in this offense because once again he was phenomenal when he had the ball in his hands today so I think there's just a lot of guys on this team right now coaching and players that are trying to find themselves and discover who and what they really are and that's led to some really shaky performances and not making things look all that good heading into next Friday's game with Arizona the lack of creativity is one of my criticisms for what how I would assess Conor Riley I think dial some good things up when he needs to really dial them up they are making plays when they need to make plays and very easily could have lost that game today but Austin rain makes the play punches the ball out Jack fabers picks it up runs it for a score Avery and DJ you know have the bubble play for that fourth down touchdown the bubble's not there they break it off improvise they get a touchdown out of it on fourth down they have guys making plays at least today they had guys making plays in critical situations that essentially turned what would have been a loss last year into a win today so that is I would say a positive takeway cuz I don't want to be completely negative I know not everyone's feeling crazy good about what they just saw but in the back of my not even in the back of my mind in my heart of hearts I think last year's team probably loses that game they Lo they lost every close game but this team found a way found some plays in there the Keegan Johnson one was another one um when they needed a play and had to have a play the most they got it last year they did not yeah that's a great point I I said at one point that there were shades of Texas last year Missouri Iowa State any of those games that you want to point out that K State lost last season Oklahoma State where they they did enough to get back into those games and battle and be in position to be in position but they didn't ever get over the top and that's what we've seen over the climbing era is so many of these games that look like this they get back into it but they don't get the lead today they got the lead and somehow someway they help held on VJ pay makes the interception he steps up secondary despite the troubles today they made enough plays in the end to win the game pass defense needs to get better it it did improve in the second half really when they started to get to the quarterback so but they had to generate that pass rush they didn't get it organically so defensive line needs to be a little bit better I think the offensive line took a I won't say take a step back maybe they were the same this is a bump up in competition they had a solid task in front of him tan is a good defensive line but they didn't they didn't dominate today and it's it's hard to play good offense when you don't have an offensive line that's winning that battle and in the passing game I think took a step forward needs to take more steps forward but really the biggest things to carve out they got to clean up those pass defense airs they will they will not be in the game with Arizona if that is sustainable I will say just because it seemed like miscommunication just stupid stuff stupid you ask the players stupid airs ask the coaches stupid airs things that can be correctable in a day or two um this is not something that's a three or four week fix so it's not something that has to persist into the week where they play Arizona yeah Chris kimman after the game I thought said about what you wanted to hear him say he took a lot of accountability on every I think everybody on this team he put the struggles of the day on them he was more than happy for a win he you got to keep that perspective as the coaches the players the fans us the the win is the most important part here and they found a way to do it and again we've said it multiple times already they didn't find ways to do that last year but and winning on the road is hard in general it is hard you're not going to play your best on the road the other team's going to play their best so you have to hope your B or C game is enough to beat their a game yeah but you do think with how everything kind of played out today and and you look at everything on the face there there were some issues and some some problems there but Chris kimman said afterwards that the coaches have to be better but the players also are going to have to be better about letting the coaches do what they need to do like both sides need to come together and be better and I think that goes to what you're talking about with the secondary where they're dumb they're dumb errors for the most part those could be fixed and kind of slide back into place in a week or two but you really need him to slide back into place in 6 days because Arizona is not the team you want to see with a struggling secondary right now so we'll see what the cats have in store on Friday when they host Arizona and that Prime Time showdown at Bill Snider Family Stadium but the big news the cats are 2- 0 they found a way to get it done not pretty by no means should anybody feel good about the state of Kate football right now but there were little signs of positivity after really this team's been knocked down a peg or two from what the preseason perception was so we'll see how it plays out over the course of the week and we'll do it all right here at kstate online whether it's it's here on the YouTube and you can follow along with any press conferences and video content or over it on three find Kate online.com great insight and stories all week long from Dy and Drew as well as recruiting updates and everything else that you need so for Kate online I'm Mason V that's Derek young the cats win it 34-27 from yman Stadium here in New Orleans back to Manhattan we go