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Thankfully, the first quarter was pretty awesome, because the next two were just absolutely awful. Everything that's wrong with the 2013 Wildcats was on display in the middle thirty minutes -- bad decisions, penalties, stupid turnovers, bad defense, you name it. Just awful football.
Kansas was more than accomodating, though. Four turnovers kept the Wildcats from completely pissing away the game. Two of those turnovers involved the much-maligned Dylan Schellenberg. The first was an interception aided by good pressure from Tre Walker -- another player who's been noticeably silent this season. Later in the game, Ryan Mueller stripped James Sims and Schellenberg covered the fumble. Later in the game, Dante Barnett collared a bobbled pass, and Schellenberg was right there with the play, blocking out the receiver and allowing Barnett to get away with a decent return. So hats off to Schellenberg, who we've all been pretty hard on the last two weeks, for having a pretty great game on its own merits, never mind speaking relatively.
Strange names were the order of the day. We also saw some names called on offense that hadn't gotten much attention this season. Zach Trujillo scored the first touchdown of the day on a 35-yard jump pass from Jake Waters midway through the first quarter; early in the second, Waters hit Glenn Gronkowski on another jumper from 29 yards out. In between, John Hubert had himself a 21-yard scamper for a score.
Finally, late in the third, the Wildcats decided to start trying to put the game away after about 23 minutes of stench. Following Barnett's interception, the Cats relied on Hubert's legs to get into the red zone, and Waters scored on a 15-yard bootleg to get the margin back up to 18 points. On the second play of the fourth quarter, Barnett intercepted Jake Heaps a second time at the goal line, and the John Hubert show began. Or it should have. A silly decision to start trying to throw the ball again contributed to a stalled drive which ended in a missed field goal, tipped at the line.
Heaps was having none of this opportunity, though; on third down, he threw a strike to Dorrian Roberts for his third pick of the ballgame. Hubert added another 13 yards to his total, and while the drive again stalled, Ian Patterson was able to get this attempt through the uprights to give the Cats a 21-point cushion with only half a quarter to play. After forcing a punt, Hubert put a dagger in the box score with a 41-yard run into Jayhawk territory which pushed him over the 200-yard mark. The drive stalled again, but with under four minutes left it wasn't a concern.
Hubert finished the game with 220 yards, giving him his third 900-yard season and putting him at 963 with the bowl game remaining. It marks the first time in a decade Kansas has given up a 200-yard performance. It also marks the only individual statistic even worth mentioning in this game, as nobody else did a damn thing. (Okay, James Sims did have 82 yards on 22 carries for the Squawks.)
Conclusion: Five in a row. Six in a row and 17 of 18 for Snyder. K-State's 25th acceptance of the Governor's Cup against only 19 losses. Our state, fake birds. You just get to live in it and be good at something that doesn't make television money.