FINAL: Oklahoma 51, Kansas State 14

A noticeable lack of effort by Kansas State Wildcats combined with a vast gap in talent in Norman this afternoon, which resulted in a humiliating and painful 51-14 loss to the Oklahoma Sooners.

You come here after the game for analysis, and that basically sums things up. K-State was outplayed on almost every level, and did not help themselves by turning in a listless effort which was even noticed and commented on by the television crew.

K-State only managed 245 yards of offense, while giving up 702 (fairly evenly divided between rush and pass, to make matters worse). Far too much of that WIldcat offense came in the fourth quarter against Oklahoma’s reserves, and barely matters.

Alex Barnes was held to only 28 yards on 13 carries; two Wildcats outgained the star running back on the day as Skylar Thompson had 54 yards on 7 tries and Justin Silmon went 51-8.

Thompson was actually creditable as a passer, going 13-21 for 108 yards. But no pass was longer than a 22-yard completion to Dalton Schoen, who led the team in both receptions and yards at 4-47.

Indeed, the leading yard-generator for K-State today was punter Devin Anctil, who we’re just going to go ahead and call the player of the game for booting 7 punts for 328 yards — an average of 46.9 per punt, with a long of 65 yards.

We’re not even bothering with “what did we learn?” today, because we learned nothing. We already knew this team cannot compete with a top-25 squad this year. We already knew what flaws the defense possessed; they were exacerbated both on and off the field by the absence of Duke Shelley from the lineup today.

This afternoon’s debacle is in the rear-view, and should stay there. K-State has four games left; all are winnable, but all could also be disasters. It’s all going to depend on how this team rebounds from this performance... and whether they even care.