Kansas State football defense picks Missouri apart in 40-12 blowout victory

MANHATTAN — When Daniel Green saw Kansas State win the pregame coin toss and deferred to the second half, his eyes lit up.

Last week against South Dakota, the Wildcats took the ball first and scored on the first play, but that was too long a wait for Green, the Wildcats' senior middle linebacker.

"Any time we can go out there first, I'm excited," Green said. "I'm ready to go, so I'm like, man, if we get to go out there early, that's fun for me."

As it turned out, Missouri took the opening kickoff and kicked a 49-yard field goal on its first drive, but that was one of the few highlights for the Tigers, as K-State's defense dominated the rest of the way in a 40-12 blowout victory at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

Not until the final play of the game, following K-State's first offensive turnover of the season, did the Tigers reach the end zone.

"I'm proud. I think the defense did a good job today," super-senior nose guard Eli Huggins said of the Wildcats' effort holding Missouri to 222 total yards. "Lots of room for improvement, but I'm happy with that performance."

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There was plenty to be happy about.

For starters, they held the Tigers to 94 yards rushing on a day when the weather made throwing the ball a chore. The game was delayed 15 minutes at the start and for nearly an hour midway through the second quarter by the threat of lightning.

Then there were the 10 tackles for loss, the second time in as many weeks that K-State reached double figures in that column.

But the most impressive — and impactful — part of the performance was the stretch starting less than six minutes into the third quarter where they intercepted Missouri quarterbacks Brady Cook and Jack Abraham on four straight possessions. The picks resulted in two Jack Tennant field goals sandwiched around a miss, and a Deuce Vaughn touchdown early in the fourth period that blew the game open.

"That was crazy," Huggins said of the consecutive picks by safety Kobe Savage, linebackers Green and Nick Allen, and finally safety Cincere Mason. "Everything started to get a little confusing because I was like, 'What's going on?'

"It was just one after the other, after the other."

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Savage, the Tyler Junior College transfer known more for his big hits, got his first K-State interception, but even he was taken aback by the sequence.

"That was definitely different," he said. "Especially against an SEC team.

"It brought a lot of juice to us, made us play a lot harder and shows the type of coach (defensive coordinator Joe) Klanderman is."

K-State led 20-3 at halftime, but went three-and-out on its first two possessions of the third quarter, while Missouri made it a two-score game with a Harrison Mevis 44-yard field goal on its opening drive.

That's when it all unraveled for the Tigers.

Starting their second drive at the 2-yard line following a 66-yard Ty Zentner punt, they tried a deep ball from Cook to Dominic Lovett. But Savage jumped it and gave K-State the ball at the Tiger 33.

K-State picked up a first and goal at the 8 before a penalty on the next play pushed it back to the 18, and Tennant got kicked his first field goal of the year.

Green and Allen got their picks at the line of scrimmage and gave the offense the ball back at the Missouri 37 and 19.

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"We needed to get some momentum there after having that long break, and then halftime, so I think those came at the right time," said Huggins, who finished with three tackles, including one for loss, from his nose guard spot. "Two of those, Nick Allen's and Deuce (Green's), I don't think I've seen many like that, where they were standing at the line of scrimmage and caught the ball.

"Those were impressive, and I think they gave a spark to us that we needed."

K-State was led in tackles by Green with seven and Austin Moore with six. Safety Josh Hayes, making his K-State debut after missing last week's opener, had four stops, including a pair of tackles for loss.

With the weather making it difficult for both offenses, the defense was a definite shot in the arm. Before the rain came, K-State scored on its first two offensive possessions, putting together drives of 75 and 49 yards on the way to a 14-3 advantage.

Phillip Brooks got things going on special teams almost immediately after the delay, returning a punt 76 yards for a 20-3 cushion.

From that point, the Wildcats kept the ball on the ground and turned things over to the defense.

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"It was really good, against a really explosive offense," K-State coach Chris Klieman said of his defense. "I’m sure the weather did not help those guys, but it is what it is, and you have to play in all elements.

"Once we figured that out and knew we were playing some pretty good defense, especially in the second half, it became 'Okay guys let's not make a mistake. Let’s wear on them a little bit, and see if we can wear on them.' "

The Wildcats finished with 336 yards of total offense, including 235 on the ground. Vaughn broke the 100-yard mark for the eighth straight game with 145 yards on 24 carries and scored a rushing touchdown for the ninth straight game.

But the day belonged to the defense.

"Our mindset is to start fast so that people know they're in for a fight for all four quarters," Green said. "We start early, and we see who wants to hang in there with us late in the game.

"That's our mindset, just try to wear you down all game."

Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas State football defense sharp in victory over Mizzou