Shoutouts, Groundhogs, and Whispers

It’s the nicest of backhand compliments. The Chiefs through three NFL games have become predictable. Joyfully so. Yesterday once again they played a quality opponent, they moved out to a big lead, their defense relentlessly pushed the game back to competitive, and then they closed out an in the end comfortable win.

Patrick Mahomes was again stellar, and now ranks ahead of all of the greats of the game in throwing touchdown passes in the first three games of a season. This time he did ladle in the spectacular, his nine second scramble leading to a bullet touchdown pass thrown on the dead sprint.

Also, once again the Chiefs running game was lackluster at best, but also once again, when it was time to grind out a couple of first downs to secure the win that the defense put back in peril, they did it. Thus, it’s a delicious dose of Groundhog Day for Kansas City’s NFL team.

Kansas and Missouri produced games that had similar story lines. Each team was expected to lose handily, but had (very surprisingly in KU’s case) produced play in the proceeding weeks that made an upset of their opponent a reasonable thought for their fan bases. Each team laid an egg.

The eggs were prepared slightly differently. Missouri had the better opponent in Georgia, and actually looked at least close to the physical match of the Bulldogs. But the Tigers were anything but prepared for the big stage, making brutal mistakes over and over again that submarined any chance for an upset.

Their quarterback Drew Lock went from the possibility of inserting himself in the Heisman conversation to reviving the narrative that he only performs against inferior competition. He completed less than half his passes, threw and interception without tossing a TD, and generally looked overwhelmed. He also had precious little help from his mates. I’ll give the Tigers credit for not folding the tent in the 43–29 loss, but they were never really in it.

Kansas for the second straight year made their Baylor game defining. Last year later in the season their home game against the Bears was seen as the chance for an elusive league win again a winless squad. Baylor mopped the floor with the Jayhawks, as KU limped on to a winless Big 12 campaign.

This year two rays of sunshine consecutively had come into David Beatty’s program, convincing wins, one on the road, and one actually against a Power Five opponent. They had found a star in Pooka Williams, so their road game against a Baylor team that had just been whacked on the same field by Duke the week before seemed doable.

Uh, no. Pooka provided literally the only highlight with a long run that set up their only score. Besides that, they didn’t look like they even belonged on the same field against their easiest remaining opponent. They again managed to produce 1980’s style bad statistics with 271 yards of offense. What they merely succeeded in doing was just return the football narrative to who will be the next head coach.

Since because there was so much status quo, great and bad, to the three other football storylines, the most unfortunately intriguing talking point becomes Kansas State. Their matchup against heavily favored West Virginia was at the time of year that we normally might see the ‘Cats start to find their footing after their usual slow start.

Instead what we saw was what looked just to be a bad football team. Kansas State often has lesser talent than teams they actually then go out and beat, but the eye test seems worse this time. Their quarterback situation was once seen as a puzzlement as to why Skylar Thompson had not been anointed, but once he was given the job, he has merely gone out and made it clear why the decision was a difficult one. He looks confused and tentative.

Thompson clearly has some talent, but morphing that into the kind of quarterback that Bill Snyder prefers has been mighty dodgy. He tries to do all the checking and play adjustment that is asked for, but it doesn’t look in any way natural. His best moment at K-State have come when the team has been in desperate straits late in games, and he has just played schoolyard football.

We have seen Kansas State get behind significantly on the road on many occasions, but one of their strongest assets is that they routinely made those games close, even if they lost. They didn’t even show a heartbeat in the game Saturday, West Virginia actually stepping off the gas.

The Wildcats have always confounded the prognosticators, and they appear to be at it again, this time in the wrong way. Finally shown a little respect and even a couple of first place votes in the preseason poll, Bill Snyder’s bunch is instead one missed field goal away from potentially being winless.

Snyder was at wit’s end after the non-competitive dud in Morgantown. He seems more than just exasperated with his team’s lack of commitment, noting that they practiced poorly the first two days of the week before a decent final run through, and stressing that wasn’t going to cut it. Almost implicit was the unspoken conclusion to the statement…. “especially when you are undertalented”. Instead he said they had the ability to be better. That has been put in serious doubt.

Probably the most glaring deficiency has been the offensive line. Seen as potentially the strongest aspect of the team, they have been a total liability. Saturday, they allowed four sacks and produced 2.5 yards a carry. K-State is averaging less than four yards a carry on the season, and the QB run game, one of the keynotes of their program, has been non-existent.

If there was a defining moment in the 35–6 rout, it was when Snyder opted to go for a fourth and short in his own territory late in the first half down just 7–0. Thompson checked out of his own run to a toss play that lost four yards. That came after failures on 2nd and 1, and 3rd and 1, perhaps fueling the decision and leading to the quote of the weekend from the venerable coach. “I can’t coach a football team that can’t gain six inches”. West Virginia would pounce for two late first half scores to lead 21–0 and cruised.

Four ranked football teams score more points Saturday than the fifty that the ‘Cats have produced all year. All of a sudden this coming Saturday becomes a potentially defining day for the season, and if you want to stretch the point, the program. Texas comes to Manhattan, and that has often been an elixir for Kansas State. Their “little engine that could” narrative has never been better Illustrated than by their dominance of the rich Longhorns program. They haven’t lost to Texas at home since 2002, and that streak needs to continue Saturday.

If the Wildcats can’t upset the nine-point favorite Longhorns, Snyder will need one of his better salvage jobs on this season. While I don’t think the whispers will be heard in Manhattan, any losing season for a coach of the age of Snyder raises question about losing touch. The legendary coach has earned the right to make his own call on his future, and a major indication of his feelings was the signing a five-year extension recently.

K-State seasons have been written off prematurely before, and the track record is that a curve upward in performance as the season progresses has been a hallmark of the program. It is needed now, and perhaps the enigmatic Texas Longhorns can be the foil.