Kansas State’s offense was hot from the start and its defense was an unbreakable wall after the opening drive, leading the Wildcats to a 31-7 win over the Arizona Wildcats on Friday night at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan.

Avery Johnson had 266 yards of offense and two touchdowns, while the defense didn’t let Arizona into the red zone after their opening drive touchdown.

Arizona ate up half of the first quarter with a 14-play drive, opening the scoring with a one-yard Quali Conley touchdown. The drive was relatively methodical, with K-State giving up no real “big plays”; the key was a conversion on 4th-and-1 at the K-State 31. Desmond Purnell had a big tackle for loss, and a little luck could have turned the drive the other way; Arizona recovered a fumble and Austin Moore nearly grabbed a pick-six.

From their own 34, K-State went for it on fourth down, and the pile was able to push Avery Johnson over. Johnson found Dante Cephas right in the numbers on the run, but it was a drop; Johnson took off on the next play for 19 yards. A pass to Jadon Jackson set up 2nd-and-2, but Johnson threw Jackson over in the end zone on the next play. DJ Giddens ran for 5, 18, then 8 to get K-State within 10, then picked up another first down on a pair of one-yard runs. A great fake from Johnson to Dylan Edwards set up a three-yard touchdown pass to Will Swanson, and the game was tied after the PAT was blocked but still went in.

K-State forced a three-and-out, and then lightning struck. Edwards caught a one-hop punt and found the sideline, running 71 yards to take a 14-7 lead.

Arizona got right into K-State territory when Tetairoa McMillan beat Keenan Garber for 38 yards, but a holding penalty on the next play gave Arizona a long first down. On 3rd-and-3, Noah Fifita threw to the end zone, but Garber redeemed himself with a perfect read, leaping down the route for an interception. Garber ran the ball out, perhaps unwisely, but he got to the 24, so the decision was a net positive.

A 24-yard rumble by Edwards brought K-State close to midfield, then a nice crossing patter completion to Keagan Johnson on 3rd-and-9 extended the drive again. But the drive stalled and Chris Tennant missed a 48-yarder to end up empty-handed.

Arizona went back and forth on the next drive. They started at the 31, got to the 41, went back to the 31, crossed midfield, and were flagged twice for holding, pushing them all the way back to 1st-and-30 at their own 34, three yards from where they started. Fifita led them back to the K-State 47, but an incomplete pass on 3rd-and-11 forced a punt to give K-State a chance to extend their lead before halftime.

K-State methodically worked their way down the field and an Arizona penalty gave them a first down at the 14. But with 24 seconds left on 3rd down, Johnson was flushed out of the pocket and scrambled. He made a critical mental error here, searching for yards with his legs instead of throwing the ball; he ran out of bounds, but the clock ran out as he ran.

The opening drive of the second half was simply awful for K-State, a three-and-out with -5 yards. Simon McLannan threw a 55-yard punt to keep Arizona at least inside their 30, and the defense returned the favor on the three-and-out.

Arizona refused a holding call and set up a 3rd-and-12 at the K-State 25-yard line, but Johnson connected with Jayce Brown for 48 yards, then Edwards scored eight and added 10 more in a face mask. Johnson then hit Brayden Loftin with a fade, giving K-State a 21-7 lead.

Brendan Mott finally got Fifita down for a sack, but two plays later Fifita hit McMillan for 26 to save the drive. Jordan Riley nearly intercepted a pass as the K-State defense pressed Fifita hard, and then more pressure led to a 3rd-and-8 incompletion, forcing a run.

The offense kicked into gear again, relentlessly eating up yardage and killing time. Johnson ran for 34 yards on three carries on the drive, and Giddens had 17 on four — including the one-yard plunge to extend the lead to 28-7.

A 22-yard completion from Fifita to McMillian put Arizona in K-State territory, and two plays later they had 3rd-and-1 at the 37. Two plays after that, K-State had the ball at the 37, as the defense simply said “no.”

Johnson took over with his legs, crushing the field until he finally found himself on fourth down at the Arizona 17. Tennant stepped up to kick a 35-yarder to extend the lead to 31-7. Arizona dunked their way down the field in a futile attempt to put more points on the board, but stalled at the 23 and gave the ball away on downs.

With a 24-point lead, the motto became, “Just give DJ the ball”; K-State had to give up a point with just 1:41 left on the clock, but aside from the posing, it was over and out.

Johnson was 14-23 for 156 yards and two touchdowns, also rushing for 110 yards on 17 carries. Giddens was held to 100 yards for the first time in 10 months, gaining 86 of 17 touches with a touchdown. Edwards had 41 yards on six carries, plus a catch for three and that big punt return touchdown.

Jayce Brown led the way among receivers with three catches for 60 yards, Loftin also had three, for 45 yards and a score. Keagan Johnson and Will Swanson both had two catches, with Swanson putting six on the board.

For Arizona, Fifita was 26-42 for 268 yards, no touchdowns and an interception. McMillan had 11 catches for 138 yards, and Montana Lemonious-Craig had seven for 75. Arizona was limited to 56 yards on the ground.

Penalties were relevant tonight. K-State was flagged just three times for 20 yards, while Arizona caught nine times for 74 yards. Time of possession went to Arizona 30:41-29:19, but more than a quarter of Arizona’s TOP came on the opening drive.

WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED

1) Avery Johnson isn’t a pocket passer yet.

Johnson repeatedly goes back for a designed pocket pass and completely misses his target. Conversely, Johnson is pretty good at hitting his receivers when he’s rolling or scrambling. Matt Wells will fix that, we’re sure, but it should definitely be a point of attention.

2) Avery Johnson is also still learning.

We can’t sugarcoat it: the mistake at the end of the first half was outrageous. As a quarterback, you have to have the clock on your radar at the end of the half, and his decision not to throw the ball away was an unequivocal blunder.

After the game, Chris Klieman took the blame for the play, but you still have to be aware as a quarterback. But hey, it’s his fourth start ever in college. He’s a smart kid. He’s not going to make that mistake again.

3) Avery Johnson can run!

Yeah, we knew that, of course. But after two games of not doing much with his legs, Johnson broke loose tonight. He seems more comfortable with the Michael Bishop thing now and just going when he sees space; a lot of his yards tonight were obvious passing plays.

4) Tonight the old saying ‘bend but don’t break’ was back again.

The important thing, however, is that the bend-but-don’t-break didn’t break, except for the opening drive. after that Arizona never set foot in the red zone again.

Think about that.

Even in the garbage time, when Fifita tried to do something for the honour, the defence kept things under control.

5) The secondary has improved immensely from last week’s debacle.

Fifita amassed XXX yards, but very little of that came from missed coverage or missed assignments. Perhaps more importantly, not much of Arizona’s passing yardage came after the catch, relatively speaking; passes were caught, but the secondary was there when it happened. Add in Garber’s beautiful end-zone interception and another excellent play from Colby McCallister that forced a turnover on downs, and the secondary’s grade went up considerably tonight.

PLAYERS OF THE GAME

Oh, Avery Johnson is back at the plate this week, that’s for sure. On defense, it was Austin Romaine again who was everywhere, disrupting Arizona’s efforts despite not having a specific signature play that night.

NEXT

Big 12 play begins next Saturday when K-State travels to Provo for a ridiculous 9:30 p.m. kickoff at BYU.