Recap: No. 18 Kansas State takes care of West Virginia, 45-18

On a night when the running game wasn’t working for Kansas State, Avery Johnson had a career night passing as the Wildcats handled West Virginia. It was a slow start for K-State, but once they went up 10-3, they never looked back, cruising to a 45-18 win.

West Virginia aimed to stop DJ Giddens from the start, and they did that. The Wildcats only had eight rushing yards in the first half. They had to find other ways to beat West Virginia with the Mountaineers loading the box, and Johnson took advantage of that. On K-State’s first touchdown, it was all Johnson and wide receiver Jadon Jackson, as Johnson found Jackson on a 24-yard catch, then a 60-yard touchdown catch.

West Virginia has had problems taking care of the ball this season which continued against K-State. On the next possession for the Mountaineers, Garrett Greene threw it into Marques Sigle’s hands, who took it back for a touchdown.

Earlier in the first half, Jack Fabris had an interception himself. West Virginia fought back with a long, 13-play drive that resulted in a touchdown. At the time, the drive was seen as a killer for K-State as they had many opportunities to get West Virginia off the field, but it didn’t matter.

On K-State’s first three drives after halftime, they scored a touchdown. On the first drive, Johnson made an impressive back-shoulder throw to Garrett Oakley for a 16-yard touchdown. This concluded a drive that took nearly six minutes.

With West Virginia’s quarterback Garrett Greene not being able to return in the 2nd half, K-State turned the pressure on the backup, Nicco Marchiol. They forced the Mountaineers to go 3-and-out. As he did all night, Johnson made impressive plays to get K-State in the endzone to ice the game.

Johnson finished the game just shy of 300 yards with a career-high 298 yards. Nine different receivers caught a pass in this game. While Giddens was held short of what he usually gets on the ground, he still was able to find the endzone twice. He had 19 carries for 57 yards, but also had a key 53-yard reception that led to a K-State touchdown in the second half.

Defensively, getting Jacob Parrish and Marques Sigle back healthy was a huge lift for this secondary. West Virginia only passed for 143 yards between the two quarterbacks. The Mountaineers had some success on the ground in the first half, but K-State shut that down quickly. Austin Romaine had an impressive performance with 12 total tackles.

You couldn’t have asked for a better team performance if you were Chris Klieman. Going 2-0 in back-to-back road games was a tough task, but this team was able to accomplish that. I think that gives this team and fans all the confidence in the world that this team can get to Arlington and win a Big 12 Championship. A win today was a big step in doing that.