'Frustrating loss': Fourth-down woes bite Kansas State football in 22-17 loss to Texas Longhorns
AUSTIN, Texas — The first word out of Chris Klieman's mouth was clearly the word of the day for the Kansas State Wildcats.
"Frustrating loss," Klieman said after a dismal second-half performance, particularly by the offense, allowed a reeling Texas team coming off six straight losses to pull out a 22-17 victory over his Wildcats on Friday at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. "We had a number of opportunities to win the game, felt like we should have won the game and didn't."
The bigger question was why?
K-State had plenty to play for, including a winning Big 12 record and a more prestigious bowl game. Instead the Wildcats, who led 17-16 at halftime, ended the regular season with a second straight loss to finish at 7-5 overall, 4-5 in the league.
Texas (5-7, 3-6), already eliminated from postseason consideration, was playing strictly for pride.
"You could point to a lot of things," Klieman said in trying to explain the loss. "Defensively we didn't tackle and get off blocks great. At times (Texas) had long drives.
"Offensively we just didn't make enough plays and we were really poor on first down. But all that being said, we've got a first-and-10 at their 26, down 22-17, and have a chance to pull out the win and don't get it done."
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But that was just the final straw. Twice in the fourth quarter, the Wildcats were stopped on third and fourth downs needing just one yard to move the chains. For the game they were 1 of 9 on third down, 0 for 2 on fourth.
The first time they came up short, from their own 30-yard line with 9 minutes, 14 seconds left, Texas kicked a field goal. The second, which ended at the Longhorn 17-yard line at the 4:03 mark, proved to be the final nail in their coffin.
With backup quarterback Will Howard starting in place on injured sixth-year senior Skylar Thompson, the K-State took fewer chances in the passing game, putting the ball in the air just 13 times. Howard completed nine for 65 yards.
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Instead, the Wildcats put the game in star running back Deuce Vaughn's hands. But on the two fourth-quarter occasions where it mattered most, that didn't work out.
Facing third down and 1 at their own 30-yard line, the Wildcats first handed off to Vaughn out of the shotgun formation for no gain. They then direct snapped to Vaughn, again in the shotgun, and he was stopped cold.
K-State's defense limited Texas to a 22-yard Cameron Dicker field goal with 7:32 left, keeping it a one-possession game. The Wildcats then quickly moved down the field with Howard hitting Phillip Brooks for 14 yards and Vaughn picking up 20 yards, setting up first down at the Longhorn 26.
A 3-yard keeper by Howard and 6-yard carry by Vaughn set up another third-and-1, with the same sad result. Vaughn was stopped out of the wildcat formation on third down, and on the next down the 6-foot-4, 235-pound Howard went under center and ran an option to the right side with Vaughn.
Howard kept the ball and cut to the middle, but was stopped short.
Klieman defended the calls on both third and fourth down in each situation.
"We should be able to get a yard, that's the bottom line," Klieman said. "Or half a yard, whatever that would be.
"Get it in your best player's hands and we don't (make it), they do a good job and give credit to them."
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Vaughn, who finished with 143 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries, offered no excuses.
"It just kind of got to the point where they had more guys in the box than we had to block, and at that point we've just got to go execute and I've got to get the ball across the plane," he said. "I'll take ownership of that, because whenever the head coach, the (offensive coordinator) and everybody else say, 'Hey, go get the first down,' that's something that you've got to do, no matter what."
Howard, likewise, refused to second-guess play calls. He had 82 yards rushing on eight attempts, including a 71-yard touchdown run.
"It's tough because you could say that there's some things out there," he said. "We've just got to execute better at the end of the day.
"We control what we can control. We can't control what (the Longhorns) do. We've just got to execute better."
Klieman said there was no hesitation in going on fourth down at the Wildcats' 30-yard line.
"Our defense was gassed. We needed to get a first down," Klieman said. "We needed to keep our offense on the field. It was fourth and short and we needed to convert that."
Texas had the ball for seven more minutes than K-State and ran 20 more plays than the Wildcats.
"They ran the ball well today," K-State defensive tackle Eli Huggins said of Texas, which had 209 yards on the ground.
Running back Roschon Johnson finished with 179 yards and a touchdown on 31 carries and was more effective in the wildcat than Vaughn was for K-State.
Texas finished with 381 yards total offense and converted 8 of 16 third downs.
But in the end, it came down to K-State's inability to pick up a yard in the fourth quarter.
"That one hurts," said Howard, who by appearing in his fifth game also burned his redshirt. "A game that I thought we should have won and could have won and was right there for us.
"A couple of opportunities (where) we couldn't finish a couple of drives and it was frustrating. I felt we were better than them. The chips didn't fall our way and we've obviously got to be better."
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas State football falls to Texas in regular season finale
