Grades and analysis from Kansas State’s win at West Virginia, plus a look ahead to KU

Kansas State’s blowout victory over West Virginia was filled with style points on Saturday at Milan Puskar Stadium.

Avery Johnson threw for a career-high 298 yards and three touchdowns. DJ Giddens reached the end zone twice. Marques Sigle returned an interception for a score. And only purple-clad fans could be heard throughout the fourth quarter of a convincing 45-18 road win for the Wildcats.

Chris Klieman’s team has won three straight to move into a tie for third in the Big 12 standings at 6-1 overall, 3-1 in conference play.

A day later, it is time to look back on the action and hand out a few awards and grades. We also look ahead to K-State’s next game against Kansas.

Play of the game

This game was effectively over when K-State held firm on defense at the end of the first half.

West Virginia drove all the way to the K-State 3 in the final moments of the second quarter and Neal Brown decided to go for it on fourth down with the Wildcats leading 17-10. A touchdown could have made the second half very interesting. Instead, K-State linebacker Austin Moore got enough pressure on WVU quarterback Garrett Greene as he rolled to his right to force an errant pass into the end zone.

Greene was injured on the play and unable to return. The Wildcats pulled away from there.

Player of the game

Avery Johnson is the obvious choice.

He won MVP honors with his arm. The sophomore quarterback threw for a career-high 298 yards and three touchdowns. Some have questioned his ability to throw the ball downfield, but that trait showed up against the Mountaineers.

Johnson connected on a pair of passes that went for more than 50 yards.

It was impressive to see him lead K-State to an easy win without attempting a single rush.

Stat of the game & quote to note

West Virginia’s quarterbacks only managed to throw for 143 yards. That is a big improvement for a K-State defense that had allowed an average of 268.2 yards in its first six games.

As for the quote...

“We’re continuing to improve. We haven’t played our best football yet, which is a good thing as we finish up the month of October. I know we can play better.” — Chris Klieman.

K-State football grades

Offense: A. The Wildcats only rushed for 114 yards against a stingy West Virginia run defense, but that didn’t matter all that much because Avery Johnson played his finest game as a college quarterback. He found a way to spread the ball around to nine different pass-catchers.

Defense: A. K-State has been a bit fortunate the past two weeks with Colorado superstar Travis Hunter and West Virginia quarterback Garrett Greene going down with injuries. Still, the Mountaineers were no match for the Wildcats without their QB1. Jack Fabris and Marques Sigle both grabbed interceptions against Greene. Sigle returning his for a touchdown was a big boost for a K-State secondary that needed to make big plays in this game.

Special Teams: B. Chris Tennant connected on his lone field goal attempt, of 44 yards, and the Wildcats benefited from some nice returns from Dylan Edwards.

Coaching: B+. K-State has struggled at times to handle success during the Klieman era. That was not the case here. Even though there was some fear that the Wildcats might suffer a hangover after their big win at Colorado last week, they took care of business and flattened West Virginia on the road.

Next up: Kansas

The Wildcats will return home for their first game at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in nearly a month.

Seriously, their last home game was on Sept. 28 against Oklahoma State.

K-State fans should be fired up when Sunflower Showdown rival Kansas visits Manhattan for a 7 p.m. game on Saturday that will be televised on ESPN2.

The Jayhawks (2-5, 1-3 Big 12) enter this game with an ugly record, but that doesn’t mean this will be an easy game for the Wildcats. Kansas is coming off a blowout victory against Houston and it has possessed a second-half lead in all seven of its games. No team has lost more close games than KU this season.

A road victory over K-State would make up for many of those defeats. So the Jayhawks will be motivated. But so will the Wildcats. They always get up for this game.

Klieman has never lost to Kansas and K-State has won 15 straight in the series.