Oklahoma Football: 3 takeaways from shocking upset loss to Kansas State
By Andrew Tineo
Oklahoma football was expecting a nice Big 12 win in Week 4 to open up the conference season, but Kansas State had other plans.
Oklahoma and Kansas State came into their first conference games, in two different directions. Oklahoma thrashed Missouri State to the tune of five passing touchdowns in redshirt freshman Spencer Rattler
For Kansas State, it was one to forget as the Wildcats took a major loss to Arkansas State, where Kansas State gave up 35 points and over 400 yards to a team that had a losing record in 2019.
Oklahoma’s lone flaw in conference play in 2019 was an upset loss to the Wildcats in Manhattan. The Wildcats dominated the Sooners with the ground game in that contest. Fast forward a year later, it was the passing game that did so well against a rather young Oklahoma defense.
Prior to kickoff, Kansas State announced that seven players, including five players in the two deep in the secondary were held out, due to COVID-19.
In last year’s contest, the Sooners could not stop the Wildcats’ vicious running attack — 213 yards and six touchdowns was the recipe to 2019’s success. In this game, the Sooners made it a priority to shut down the run game, and did so.
It wasn’t all positives for the Sooners defensively, as multiple blown coverages and tackles gave Kansas State a lot of big plays and opportunities to keep Kansas State in the game.
Late in this game, Oklahoma’s youth was exposed as the offense could not sustain a drive and Kansas State’s youth beat Oklahoma’s.
Kansas State quarterback Skylar Thompson loves to play against the Crimson and Cream as he had a career day. A combined seven rushing touchdowns in the last two seasons, he and the Wildcats were explosive in their win.
In specific, was dynamic receiver/running back Deuce Vaughn who made the difference. He finished with over 100 receiving yards, including a game-tying rushing touchdown with over eight minutes to play.
So much went wrong for the Sooners and Kansas State proved Week 1 was a fluke.