FINAL: Cincinnati 31, K-State 26

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K-State simply could not answer Cincinnati’s running game, giving up 271 yards on the ground and three touchdowns, and a terrible third-quarter sequence in which the Bearcats scored twice in under three minutes spelled doom as the Kansas State Wildcats (3-1, 0-1 Big 12) fell 31-26 to the Cincinnati Bearcats (4-0, 1-0 Big 12) tonight at Nippert Stadium in the Big 12 opener for both teams.

Cincinnati’s run game was simply too much, averaging over seven yards a carry on 38 attempts. Conversely, Avery Johnson’s accuracy woes seemingly vanished over the course of the week; while he had 20 incompletions, most of them were on balls thrown almost perfectly and simply mishandled.

The concern caused by K-State’s occasional difficulties stopping the run last week against Tulane appeared immediately as the defense gave up runs of 22 and 15 yards on the first two plays of the game. The the defense got two big tackles for loss courtesy of Darien Whitaker and Wendell Gregory to force a 4th-an-17 and a punt.

After an incompletion on a deep ball to Jaron Tibbs on which Avery Johnson actually hit him in stride and in the chest, Johnson moved the chains after avoiding a sack. Two connections with Garrett Oakley moved the chains twice and got the Cats to midfield. Johnson completed another first-down pass to Tibbs, but he was hit and fumbled (and injured), and Jacob Finley scooped it up. But the fumble was overturned on review, and the Cats kept moving. A 26-yard play to Derrick Salley moved the Cats into the red zone, but K-State settled for a 22-yard Luis Rodriguez field goal to open the scoring.

Another big run for the Bearcats was followed by a 42-yard completion which was called back due to an illegal pick, and Cincinnati ended up punting. Johnson completed a huge pass 40-yard to Will Anciaux, but he was both called for offensive pass interference and injured on the play. The Cats had to punt, but the defense forced a 3-and-out.

Johnson hit Salley for 39 yards, then used his legs to set up 2nd-and-2 at the 22. A couple of short runs moved the chains, then Rodney Fields got loose to score from 19 yards out. Cincinnati eviscerated the Wildcat defense immediately, with runs of 11 and 30 yards by Cole Tabb followed by a 39-yard touchdown pass from JC French to a wide-open Malachi Henry, leaving K-State with a 10-7 lead.

That was erased almost immediately, as the Cats went 3-and-out and the Bearcats sliced the defense apart again. In field goal range, the defense held up and limited Cincinnati to a 45-yard kick from Stephen Rusniak, but the game was tied.

The first play of the second half was a 34-yard completion from Johnson to Salley — but Salley fumbled and Cincinnati recovered. They made the defense look stupid, and tied the game on a 5-yard run by Tabb. The Cats went 3-and-out, and Cincinnati only took a minute to make it a 24-17 game on a 30-yard run, again by Tabb.

K-State couldn’t get to midfield and had to punt again; Cincinnati got into the red zone quickly, but Mekhi Mason forced a fumble by Zion Johnson — ruled down on the field but overturned on replay —which was recovered by Donovan McIntosh. On third down, a pass interference call prevented a 3-and-out, and K-State held the ball for a 17-play 7:49 drive. The problem: they had to settle for a 36-yard field goal by Rodriguez and still trailed 24-20.

Cincinnati outdid them in return. Tabb scored yet again from 14 yards out. K-State drove quickly with time running down, Johnson executing near-flawlessly before Fields scored on a 2-yard run with 1:15 to go, but failed the two-point conversion, leaving the Cats trailing 31-26 with an obvious onside kick coming.

Cincinnati recovered, but made a serious of baffling decisions which left the Cats with 52 seconds and a timeout when Cincinnati had to punt. Johnson found Brandon White for 27, but it was called back due to a holding flag on Gus Hawkins, and combined with the 10-second runoff due to the penalty that pretty much ended it. An attempt at a pass-and-lateral play went nowhere.

Johnson was 30-50 for 292 yards and a touchdown, adding 38 yards on the ground on 6 carries. Joe Jackson had 59 yards on 11 carries while Fields had 50 on 12 with two scores.

Salley erupted for 140 yards on 7 receptions, with a score. Oakley had 80 on 7 catches, White had 25 on 6, and Jackson had 5 catches but only for 10 yards.

K-State outgained Cincinnati 447-436. But the Bearcats outrushed the Wildcats 271-155, while the Cats led 292-165 in the air. Third down was a bit of a problem for the Cats, only converting 5-11, but they held Cincy to 10-17 on defense. Flags cost both teams, 7-55 for K-State and 8-80 for the Bearcats. K-State won time of possession at 33:18-26:42. Both teams lost a turnover, and K-State had one sack while Johnson kept his perfect 2026 record of being unsacked.

What We Learned

1) This run defense is abysmal.

Look, Cincinnati does have a really good offensive line, but the problem here was tackling and pursuit. The defense did have some good stops, but when you let the other team run for over 250 yards, let two guys run for over 100… there aren’t excuses.

2) That issue is going to be a problem.

Cincinnati hardly threw the ball. French only attempted 13 passes. The run game wasn’t successful because K-State had to worry about the pass. This is an exploitable issue for teams on the rest of the schedule, and it has to be fixed or this team’s going to be looking at a bad bowl… or none.

3) The offensive gameplan was fine.

If you look at the numbers, the only real problem was Johnson’s completion percentage. But in contrast to the first three weeks, Johnson was throwing perfect balls that just weren’t being caught. On the stat sheet, not a single pass was marked as a “drop”, but that’s absolutely incorrect, and maybe the official scorer in Cincinnati just isn’t tracking that.

And there were successful plays that went south. The PI call on Anciaux was questionable, and the actual play was beautiful. Salley’s fumble was deeply unfortunate, but it was again a perfectly designed and executed play. If not for miscues out of the control of Collin Klein and Johnson, K-State wins this game.

4) Despite said miscues, the receiver room is looking good.

Three different receivers have had century games this year. It’s pretty hard to argue K-State has no threats.

5) The run game bounced back.

Jackson and Fields, as a pair, had over 100 yards, which is… a lot better than the running backs did against Tulane. They’ll be fine.

Players of the Game

On offense, the clear winner tonight was Derrick Salley, who had himself a night. The fumble was a disaster, but he was still K-State’s most productive participant. On defense, Mekhi Mason had five tackles, shared a tackle for loss with Wendell Gregory, and forced a fumble. That’ll do.

Next

The only bye week of the season. Two weeks from now, Houston comes to town for a game which is now absolutely critical.

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