Five takeaways from Kansas State’s 29-21 road loss against the Oklahoma State Cowboys

Another trip to Boone Pickens Stadium. Another loss for the Kansas State football team.

This has not been a friendly venue for Chris Klieman or the Wildcats in recent years, and it continued to be unkind on Friday when the Cowboys handed them a 29-21 defeat in front of a sellout crowd.

Oklahoma State (3-2, 1-1 Big 12) jumped out to a 26-7 lead and did just enough from there to hold off a comeback attempt from K-State (3-2, 1-1 Big 12).

The Wildcats haven’t won in Stillwater since 2017, and Klieman has lost all three of his games there. Believe it or not, this was his closest loss of the bunch.

Alan Bowman led Oklahoma State with 235 passing yards and Ollie Gordon had 136 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

Will Howard had a game to forget for the Wildcats, as he completed 15 of 34 passes for 152 yards, a touchdown and three critical interceptions.

Things have changed drastically for K-State since it won the Big 12 a year ago. Last season, it demolished Missouri (40-12) and Oklahoma State (48-0) at home. Fast forward a few months and the Wildcats have already lost to both of those teams in 2023.

“We’re not a very good football team right now,” Klieman said. “I told them that, but it starts with me. I’ve got to be a better head coach and we have got to put the kids in position to be a little bit more successful. We have got our backs against the wall.”

K-State will try to bounce back in its next game on the road against Texas Tech.

Until then, here are some thoughts on Friday’s action:

This is a concerning loss for the Wildcats

Big 12 football has been hard to predict this season.

Outside of Oklahoma and Texas, there aren’t any ranked teams in the conference. Parity is king for most of the league. That makes it hard to read too much into any one game. A team can look hapless one week and then appear unbeatable the next. There’s no telling what is next for K-State or Oklahoma State based solely on four quarters of football.

That being said, no one can blame K-State fans for overreacting to this result.

This was a bad loss for the Wildcats. There is no other way to put it.

Oklahoma State was struggling mightily heading into Friday’s action. It was coming off back-to-back losses to South Alabama and Iowa State. The Cowboys didn’t even look good in their wins against Central Arkansas and Arizona State. A strong case could be made for this being the worst team of the Gundy era. It still might be.

“I feel like we kind of came in here and listened to the outside noise a little bit too much,” Howard said. “They hadn’t put really good stuff on film and we thought we’re a better team than them. I still think that when we’re at our best we’re a better team than them, but we didn’t play our best and they played well tonight. They played better than us.”

Now, the Cowboys have renewed hope after they beat up on the Wildcats. It’s the Wildcats who are now worried about the future. No one will be picking them to defend their conference title anymore.

There is more than enough time left in the season for K-State to get back on track, but this was not an encouraging sign.

“We have got to prepare, and we have got to come out ready to dominate and attack,” K-State linebacker Austin Moore said. “You can’t expect to show up and someone to lay down.”

Will Howard can’t stop throwing interceptions

An ugly trend is beginning to emerge for Kansas State’s starting quarterback.

Will Howard has turned into a turnover machine this season.

The junior passer has thrown seven interceptions in his first five games, which is a number that is simply too high for the Wildcats to thrive on offense. He threw three interceptions against Oklahoma State, and they were all incredibly costly.

His first one occurred in the opening quarter when he lobbed a pass well short of Phillip Brooks while Brooks was running a deep route. The ball was thrown with so little power that Oklahoma State defender Cameron Epps was able to come up with the pick without even making an athletic play for it.

Later, Howard did the one thing he absolutely could not do as the Wildcats opted to be aggressive and tried to score in the final minute of the first half. He had a critical miscommunication with Brooks and threw another interception to Epps. Only this time Epps returned the pick for a touchdown that gave Oklahoma State a 20-7 lead.

Brooks ran a double-move route in which he motioned as if he was going to try and catch a pass near the sideline before he cut up field for a deeper throw. Problem was, Howard threw to the sideline and Epps was ready for it.

That played capped a brutal half for Howard as a passer. He went into the locker room 5 of 11 for 11 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. He finished with three picks.

It has been a frustrating season for Howard in terms of turnovers. A year ago, he only had four interceptions in seven games.

He is committing turnovers at a much higher rate now, which shouldn’t happen as he matures within the K-State offense.

Oklahoma State won the bye week

It didn’t matter how much the numbers favored K-State heading into this matchup.

With both teams coming off an open week, the possibility of a bizarre outcome existed on Friday night. Both Mike Gundy and Chris Klieman had plenty of time to come up with new plays and schemes to surprise the other team. But only Gundy threw the proverbial kitchen sink at his opponent.

Oklahoma State clearly won the bye week, and it showed in the first half.

The Cowboys deployed a boatload of trick plays from the very beginning and kept the Wildcats guessing with a balanced offensive attack that featured a ltitle bit of everything. Oklahoma State ran a reverse, a flea-flicker, a pass to quarterback Alan Bowman and a fake punt ... all in the first half.

K-State didn’t counter with anything nearly that unexpected.

It’s fair to say that Gundy out-coached Klieman. That always seems to happen in Stillwater.

Too many mistakes

No single play summed up this game better than when K-State center Hayden Gillum sent a snap sailing over Howard’s head as he tried to change a play at the line of scrimmage before a fourth down in the third quarter.

It was a miscommunication between two veteran leaders that should never happen. And it cost the Wildcats dearly.

K-State shot itself in the foot far too often in this game. Even when it had a glimmer of hope to come back in the fourth quarter, DJ Giddens dropped a pass on fourth down to give the ball right back to Oklahoma State. And the Wildcats also let a two-point conversion slip away from them that could have made a difference in the game.

It’s rare to see K-State hurt itself with so many self-inflected errors, but they happened in bunches during this loss.

K-State missed two key starters on defense

Sophomore cornerback Jacob Parrish didn’t suit up for this game with an undisclosed injury. His absence created a big hole to fill in the K-State secondary, as he has been the team’s best all-around corner this season.

Klieman described him as “day-to-day” or “week-to-week” afterward.

Things got worse for the Wildcats midway through the game when fellow starting cornerback Will Lee was also forced to the sideline with an injury.

Keenan Garber and Justice James filled in for both of them admirably. Safety Marques Sigle also had some nice plays.

K-State actually played solid on defense in many areas and limited Oklahoma State to just one offensive touchdown. The Cowboys had to settle for six field goal attempts. But it was obvious the Wildcats weren’t at their best while the Cowboys gained 412 yards and were constantly in scoring position.