Five takeaways from Kansas State’s costly loss against the Arizona State Sun Devils

One look at the Kansas State student section is all it took to figure out how things were going for the Wildcats during a 24-14 loss against Arizona State on Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

Fans began heading for the exits in the second quarter of a game that felt as lopsided as the score indicated.

Many in EMAW nation had seen enough. Those who stayed voiced their displeasure by booing every time the Wildcats turned the ball over or got stuffed at the line of scrimmage on an ineffective play.

Their frustrations were understandable. K-State (7-3, 5-3 Big 12) entered this game with hopes of winning a conference championship. Third place was on the line against Arizona State (8-2, 6-2 Big 12). It seemed like the Wildcats were poised to play some of their best football of the season as they were fresh off an idle week. Instead, they played one of their worst games of the Chris Klieman era and fell behind 24-0 in the third quarter.

The Wildcats mounted a late comeback, but it wasn’t enough. They now need to win their final two games and get lots of help to have any shot at a Big 12 championship.

K-State is next in action against Cincinnati.

Until then, here are some takeaways from Saturday’s action:

Too little too late from K-State’s offense

The Wildcats did some nice things on offense against the Sun Devils.

They just waited until after they trailed 24-0 to do them.

DJ Giddens rushed for 133 yards. Avery Johnson and Joe Jackson both ran for touchdowns. Eight different receivers caught a pass, with Dante Cephas leading the way with three grabs for 58 yards.

It was enough to make Arizona State sweat in the fourth quarter, but not enough to make this game feel competitive until it was too late.

Things went from bad to worse on offense for the Wildcats in the first half.

K-State was far from sharp in a recent game against Houston, but the Wildcats managed to gain 327 yards against the Cougars. Fix a few issues here and there during their off week and it was easy to see Conor Riley’s unit responding with a better effort against Arizona State.

It didn’t happen early on. In fact, K-State looked like it got worse.

The Wildcats finished the first half with 108 yards of offense, two turnovers and zero points.

Here’s how bad things were: The one explosive play that K-State had in the first quarter (a long touchdown pass from Johnson to Dante Cephas) was wiped off the scoreboard because offensive lineman Andrew Leingang was aggressively blocking downfield as if he thought his team was running the ball.

The biggest problem is the running game. K-State doesn’t have a reliable one right now.

Fans will naturally blame the offensive coordinator. That’s fair. Riley’s play-calling has been far too predictable of late. But execution has also been lacking in all areas.

Johnson threw an interception on both his first pass of the game and his last pass of the game. That seemed to be a weird omen for the night.

Bottom line: K-State needs to do more on offense if it wants to snap this losing streak.

Kenny Dillingham showed more passion than K-State’s entire team

Only one team brought intensity to this game.

Every time the ESPN cameras panned to Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham, he was pumping his fists, jumping up and down and yelling words of encouragement to his players.

That was a stark contrast to the K-State sideline, which appeared lifeless. When Klieman was shown on the broadcast he was mostly shaking his head after a disappointing play. Johnson spent much of the game staring at the sky in search of answers.

It wasn’t surprising to watch the more energetic team run away for a blowout victory.

K-State needs to fix its kicking problems

Chris Tennant is one of the best kickers in the Big 12, but he isn’t much help to the Wildcats when they can’t properly snap or hold the ball on field goal attempts.

For the second straight game, K-State left Tennant hanging.

Long snapper Mason Olguin and holder Simon McClannan were unable to connect on a field goal attempt in the first half. Instead of getting the ball on the turf and letting Tennant kick it through the uprights, McClannan took off running and K-State turned the ball over on downs.

Later, Olguin bounced a snap in the fourth quarter and that forced Tennant to hesitate before he missed a short kick wide right.

Maybe it’s time to try some new personnel?

That type of problem shouldn’t happen this often for a team that calls itself “Special Teams U.”

Dylan Edwards suffered an early injury in this game

One of K-State’s most valuable weapons on offense was forced to exit the game in the second quarter after he saw just three carries.

Dylan Edwards, a sophomore running back, came up lame on a running play in the first half and was unable to continue.

It looked like Edwards injured his hamstring after he took a pitch from Johnson. Edwards did his best to limp out of bounds on the play, but an Arizona State defender pushed him on his way off the field. The officials deemed that hit illegal and gave the Sun Devils a 15-yard penalty.

Edwards walked into the locker room under his own power and returned to the sideline to watch his team for the remainder of the game. But he did not see another snap.

His absence puts more pressure on Giddens and Johnson in the running game.

K-State isn’t getting stops on third down

The Wildcats were unable to stop the Sun Devils when it mattered most.

Arizona State converted 9 of 15 third downs as Sam Leavitt threw for 275 yards and three touchdowns. Many of his biggest throws came on third down, and they killed any chance of K-State winning this game.