HALFTIME: Kansas State 14, Baylor 12

With Alex Delton in sweats on the sideline, the offense has been Skylar Thompson’s to run. That opened the passing game, which in turn opened up the running game.

Result? Alex Barnes has run for touchdowns of 55 and 34 yards, racking up 127 yards on only ten carries. Of course, Barnes is also responsible for a couple of critical miscues — a dropped snap in the Wildcat on fourth down and a missed block which led to a key sack of Thompson — but a game bend-but-don’t-break effort by the K-State defense has allowed the Wildcats to survive those errors and retain a 14-12 lead over Baylor at the half.

Two missed Baylor field goals and a missed extra point, however, are the real story of the score of the game at halftime.

The offensive line has, again, been a nightmare. Thompson has been sacked three times and three of Thompson’s four incompletions have been a direct result of hurried throws.

More notably, the defensive line has been getting good pressure on Charlie Brewer: three tackles for loss and a Wyatt Hubert sack. Eli Walker has been insane. Duke Shelley and Kendall Adams both have interceptions.

And Denzel Goolsby’s season-ending injury apparently wasn’t, because he’s been out on the field too.

But the tackling, which has been reasonably decent thus far this season, has been terrible. Twice in the final few minutes of the half, Baylor players broke free for good gains while breaking approximately a billion tackles.

That explains the 313 yards K-State has given up, compared to only gaining 158 themselves. Most of the damage is actually on the ground, as Baylor’s run for 183 yards on 26 carries; Brewer’s thrown for 140 on 27 attempts.

Yes, you read that right. Baylor has run 53 plays already. K-State has run 28.

Back for more in about ninety.