Senior punter Devin Anctil dropped three of his six punts within the Baylor 20 yard line while Kansas State football team got routed by the Baylor Bears in Manhattan 31-12.
Anctil flipped the field consistently for K-State’s defense, but it did not matter. Baylor put together two six-play touchdown drives of more than 90 yards after being pinned down.
“Devin [Anctil] does a great job of pinning them down in a field-position game and it’s 3-3,” head coach Chris Klieman said. “Lo and behold they make a couple of plays and we miss a tackle and kid goes for about 29 … a poor job by us not getting a critical stop.”
On offense, junior quarterback Skylar Thompson was 22-34 for 218 yards, but he was also sacked six times. Thompson was also tossed in a back-breaking interception in the fourth quarter and lost a fumble midway through the third.
“Guys made plays, but we just have to get the run game going consistently and get in a rhythm,” Thompson said. “What we are lacking right now is having a rhythm.”
It was one of those games where K-State — like last week — seemed to be unable to consistently move the ball down the field.
“For whatever reason we had a tough time getting a rhythm going offensively,” senior wide receiver Dalton Schoen said. “Also, I feel like a couple times we got the drive going and then we would hurt ourselves somehow by having a negative play … that would set us back.”
The Wildcats took an early lead after a ten-play, sixty-yard drive left a 31-yard field goal for junior kicker Blake Lynch.
Baylor answered with three scoring drives of their own of 57, 98 and 91 yards to take a 17-3 lead in the third quarter.
Lynch hit a 29 yard field goal right at the end of the third quarter. K-State had a fourth and four from the Baylor 11 on that drive and elected to kick the field goal.
“It’s all the flow of [the game], you’re fourth and four and you are not running the ball exceptionally well,” Klieman said. “I wanted to try to keep the game as close as we could to give us a chance in the fourth quarter.”
The Wildcats looked like they had some life on the ensuing drive before Thompson’s interception that was returned for a touchdown. That return was called back on a holding call.
Baylor went 63 yards for a touchdown after the pick, which K-State would answer with a touchdown of their own.
The Wildcats lined up for a 2-point conversion after the touchdown pass to Schoen. The Wildcats called a time out and then ran Thompson to the right, but he came up a yard short.
Baylor added a 46 yard touchdown run to shut the door on any K-State comeback attempt with 5:37 to play.
“Fourteen of those points came in the fourth quarter so that’s just something we have to buckle down on, just finishing the game,” sophomore defensive lineman Wyatt Hubert said.
The Wildcat defense gave up 426 yards on 55 plays. Baylor averaged almost 18 yards per completion and five yards per rush.
“This is a really big senior group and Coach Klieman’s whole deal coming in was ‘We want to get it done this year for this class,’ so it’s really going to be on us to move that direction,” senior defensive tackle Jordan Mittie said.
K-State, now 3-2, looks toward a bye week next week before hosting TCU in Manhattan on Oct. 19. Game time and TV schedules haven’t been released yet.
“None of us are going to give up and I am doing my best to lead this team,” Thompson said. “We have to focus on overcoming adversity and we are going to overcome it and keep pounding at it.”
