WACO, Texas — The Kansas State football team has made a few Big 12 opponents look completely outmatched this season.
Add Baylor to the list.
The Wildcats easily defeated the Bears, 31-3, on Saturday at McLane Stadium in a game with conference title implications. With the win, K-State (7-3, 5-2 Big 12) improved its chances of earning a berth in the league championship game next month. Baylor (6-4, 4-3) will need to win and get considerable help the rest of the way to stay in the race.
Junior quarterback Will Howard took over for an injured Adrian Martinez late in the first quarter and led K-State to a dominant victory that featured big plays on both sides of the ball.
The Wildcats will look to continue their winning ways next week in a road game against West Virginia.
Until then, here are some thoughts on the action from Waco:
K-State should stick with Howard at QB
The offense simply looks better when Howard is at the controls and Martinez is watching from the sideline.
Collin Klein becomes a more aggressive play-caller, the team moves at a faster pace and the threat of a downfield passing attack opens up a lot of things for the Wildcats on the ground when Howard is on the field.
Howard once again played like he was K-State’s best quarterback on Saturday, and he gave the Wildcats an instant spark when he entered the game after Martinez was shaken up on a QB sneak late in the first quarter.
Had Martinez stayed healthy, there’s no telling how the rest of the game would have gone. But there is no question that Howard coming in was the best thing that could have happened to the Wildcats.
After looking stagnant on the majority of their first two drives, they began humming with Howard at the controls.
He completed 18 of 26 passes for 186 yards and three touchdowns, showing poise in the pocket even when Baylor kept sending blitzers his way from different angles and directions throughout the game.
Howard has only played in three games this season, and the offense looked terrific in all three. He led K-State to a 28-10 lead at TCU before he was briefly knocked out of the game with a shoulder injury and the Horned Frogs mounted a comeback. Then he guided the Wildcats to a 48-0 demolition of Oklahoma State. Then he carved up Baylor’s defense.
K-State has only relied on Howard when Martinez has been hurt, but that may need to change. The Wildcats pivoted back to Martinez last week against Texas. Though he played well against the Longhorns, he lost two costly turnovers and K-State was unable to win.
The plan was for Martinez to start every game this season as long as he was healthy, allowing Howard to play in no more than four games and retain his redshirt status. Preserving an extra year of eligibility is important for both Howard and K-State coaches, but the Wildcats are in the middle of a conference championship race. Playing the best quarterback should be the top priority moving forward.
Right now, that looks like Howard.
Ben Sinnott continues to shine
The 6-foot-4 sophomore from Waterloo, Iowa, can’t be stopped.
Few expected the Wildcats to target any of their tight ends heavily as pass-catchers this season following the departures of Briley Moore and Daniel Imatorbhebhe over the past two years. It didn’t seem like they had any versatile playmakers coming back at that position.
Well, Sinnott is surprising everyone by playing at a higher level than either of his predecessors. He added to his impressive season by grabbing seven passes for 89 yards and two touchdowns against Baylor.
His first score came on an pinpoint pass from Howard in between a pair of Baylor defenders in the first half. His second touchdown came over a defender in the right side of the end zone when he high-pointed the ball like Randy Moss.
After star running back Deuce Vaughn, Sinnott is arguably the best offensive weapon on the entire roster. He entered this game with 15 catches for 182 yards and one highlight hurdle over a Texas defender. Now he has his first touchdowns.
Speaking of Vaughn: He was also electric on Saturday and finished with 154 all-purpose yards and a touchdown.
This was a banner game from K-State on defense
Baylor entered this game as one of the best rushing teams in the entire nation. The Bears ran for an average of 261.7 yards in their past three games (all wins) and seemed to have a big advantage over the Wildcats in that phase of that game, considering how much they struggled against Texas last week.
But the Bears couldn’t get anything going on the ground against the Wildcats.
K-State held them to 103 yards on 23 attempts for an average of 4.5 yards per rush.
It helped that the Wildcats were playing from ahead, and the Bears were unable to stick with their normal script. But that doesn’t change the fact that K-State was more physical on defense than Baylor was on offense.
Chris Klieman’s team didn’t allow a touchdown for the fourth time in a game this season.
Kobe Savage’s interception flipped momentum in favor of K-State
The final score might look like this game was never in doubt, but Baylor was in position to take an early lead late in the first quarter until Kobe Savage came up with an interception at the goal line that gave K-State energy and led to a touchdown drive for the Wildcats.
Baylor forced K-State to turn the ball over on downs on its first drive of the day and threatened to score first after taking over at midfield. But Savage put a stop to those hopes by catching a tipped pass that brought K-State’s offense back onto the field.
The game could have unfolded in a much different way without that play.
Two injury concerns
K-State receivers Malik Knowles and Kade Warner both played at less than 100% against the Bears and should get healthier in the week ahead after dealing with lingering injuries over the past few weeks.
Less is known about Martinez. He appeared capable of returning to the game after being examined in the sideline injury tent. He spent the rest of the game stretching his legs and throwing on the sideline. It appeared as though K-State stuck with Howard because he gave the Wildcats their best shot at victory.
On defense, Savage had to leave the game in the first half with some type of lower-body injury. He walked off the field under his own power but was unable to return.
Savage is a key member of K-State’s secondary, so his status will be worth monitoring next week.
