Kansas State football learns the hard way that slow and steady doesn't always win the race

MANHATTAN — It was not a good night to be the tortoise.

Typically, the Kansas State football team's slow and steady approach would have been good enough to win the race Saturday at snow-covered Bill Snyder Stadium, but this night belonged to the hares of Iowa State.

The Cyclones ran just 35 offensive plays, held the ball for less than 18 minutes and still scored six touchdowns — five of them covering 60 or more yards — for a 42-35 upset victory over the Wildcats.

K-State, meanwhile, ran a school-record 102 plays, outgained Iowa State 497 yards to 488 and had 32 first downs to 10 for the Cyclones. It simply wasn't enough.

"It's hard to win college games, and we were not good enough on defense tonight," K-State coach Chris Klieman said. "It was a very, very poor performance on defense.

"Yep, the footing was hard. It was difficult, but we can't give up big plays like we gave up, and that was the difference tonight."

Was it ever.

Iowa State freshman running back Abu Sama had touchdown runs of 71 yards on the game's first play, a 77-yarder on the Cyclones' opening play of the second, and then a 60-yarder in the third period. He finished with 276 yards on 16 carries and also had an 11-yard catch.

Then there was wide receiver Jaylin Noel, whose three catches totaled 160 yards, including touchdowns of 79 in the third quarter and 82 in the fourth. The fourth-quarter score, on third-and-16, proved to be the game winner and came on a sideline rout well short of the line to gain when a handful of K-State defenders inexplicably couldn't bring him down.

"It was both lack of execution and bad tackling," K-State senior linebacker Austin Moore said. "I think a lot of times we were in place and just didn't make tackles. I didn't make tackles.

"And lack of execution on the third-down play. I need to stay outside and keep my leverage and things like that. Lack of execution, lack of tackling."

Noel's game winner was just the final frustration. K-State led 35-28 on Treshaun Ward's 2-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter, but the defense couldn't lock it down. Iowa State tied it with 12:31 left on a 33-yard completion from Rocco Becht to Jayden Higgins and then won it on Noel's touchdown at the 8:04 mark.

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"They all (were frustrating), just because our offense was doing their job and we couldn't get our job done," said K-State safety Marques Sigle, who had a team-high five tackles and broke up a pass. "It was definitely disappointing to see that.

"We gave up six explosives (for touchdowns)."

He refused to blame the steady snowfall throughout the game, which made footing difficult and forced the grounds crew to use leaf blowers to clear the yard stripes at every break in the action.

"No excuses," Sigle said. "It comes down to technique, rules and principles, and we just weren't applying that to the field."

K-State's offense had a chance to even the game in the final minute, but Will Howard's fourth-down pass to Phillip Brooks from the Iowa State 18-yard line was broken up by the Cyclones' Myles Purchase.

It spoiled what was an otherwise productive night in the snow.

"I thought we did a really good job handling the conditions," said Howard, who completed 24 of his 48 passes for 288 yards and a touchdown to tight end Ben Sinnott. "I thought it was honestly more of an advantage for the offense just in terms of the footing because the ball wasn't too wet."

In addition to Howard, who tied the school single-season record with his 24th touchdown pass, the Wildcats got a big game from Sinnott with 10 catches for 136 yards.

"He's a dude," Howard said of Sinnott. "He's unguardable."

Sophomore running back DJ Giddens rushed for 114 yards and a touchdown on a career-high 31 carries and went over the 1,000-yard mark for the season.

The fact that the Wildcats controlled the clock and outgained Iowa State was not lost on Howard.

"It was weird. It was definitely a weird flow of game," Howard said. "I knew it would be just given the circumstances, the conditions and I think it's a rivalry game. You never know what's going to happen.

"It was hard. It felt like we had the ball for most of the game, but we came up short when we needed to."

With the loss, K-State finished the regular season at 8-4 overall and in a three-way tie for fourth in the Big 12 at 6-3 along with West Virginia (8-4) and Iowa State (7-5). The Wildcats now have a week before they learn their postseason destination, though the Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando, Florida, seems to be the best bet.

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: Iowa State's big plays too much for Kansas State football to overcome