Grades from Kansas State’s 31-3 victory at Baylor and a look ahead to West Virginia

This was arguably Kansas State’s most impressive victory of the season.

Baylor was playing its best football of the year and the Bears were riding a three-game winning streak entering Saturday’s matchup, but they were no match for the Wildcats in a 31-3 blowout that was never close after the first quarter.

K-State (7-3, 5-2 Big 12) also thoroughly dominated Oklahoma State, 48-0, and made Missouri look like an FCS team earlier this year, but the Cowboys were dealing with myriad injuries and the Tigers had to play the Wildcats in the middle of a thunderstorm. Both those games were also at home.

There were no such qualifiers to explain this result. K-State was flat out better than Baylor, and it showed in every phase of the game. For that reason, the Wildcats are now in control of their own destiny in the Big 12 championship race and the Bears are not.

Let’s look back on the action from Saturday and hand out a few awards and grades, as well as look ahead to next week’s game against West Virginia.

Play of the game

Will Howard found K-State tight end Ben Sinnott with a beautiful touchdown pass in the second quarter that only a handful of quarterbacks in the nation could have thrown.

Sinnott appeared to be triple covered in the end zone. Baylor defenders surrounded him in every direction, but there was a tiny window between them and Howard impressively squeezed the football into it for six points.

Player of the game

Ben Sinnott. It was a tough call between Deuce Vaughn, Howard and Sinnott. They all played great against the Bears. But the K-State tight end gets the nod because he delivered the most highlights.

He caught seven passes for 89 yards and two touchdowns.

Some thought the Wildcats weren’t going to have a versatile tight end capable of stretching the field as a pass-catcher this season, but Sinnott is doing exactly that. Lately, he has been playing like an All-Big 12 candidate.

His first touchdown was a thing of beauty. His second score was pure athleticism, when he beat a Baylor defender by high-pointing the ball like Randy Moss.

Stat of the game

How about 103? As in the Bears only rushed for 103 yards.

K-State limited Baylor’s rushing attack in ways that other Big 12 teams haven’t this season. The Bears ran for more than 200 yards in each of their past three games and then encountered a brick wall against K-State’s defensive front.

Quote to note

“This is a great win because I know how hard it is to win here. I’ve just got so much respect for Dave Aranda. He’s one of my favorite coaches. He does things the right way. We’re trying to emulate a lot of the things that they do, honestly.” — Chris Klieman.

Kansas State football grades

Offense: A+. Will Howard once again played like an All-American, throwing for 196 yards and three touchdowns. Ben Sinnott had the best game of his college career at tight end. Deuce Vaughn did whatever he wanted on his way to 156 all-purpose yards and a touchdown. The Wildcats finished with 31 points and 405 yards. Howard seems like the obvious choice to start at quarterback moving forward. He is playing at a higher level than Adrian Martinez.

Defense: A+. This was a masterpiece from K-State’s defense. Baylor only managed three points and 306 yards. Austin Moore led the way with eight tackles and Daniel Green looked like his old self while making six tackles. After dealing with injuries, he said he is now fully healthy. Would you believe this was the fourth time that K-State held an opponent without a touchdown this season?

Special Teams: A. Ty Zentner connected on his only field goal attempt and also did some nice things as a punter and a kickoff specialist.

Coaching: A+. On paper, it seemed like Baylor had some advantages over K-State in this matchup, but none of them showed up on the field. The Wildcats were ready to go from the start on defense and were humming on offense with Howard in the game. This was a massive turnaround from last week’s home loss against Texas.

Next Up

K-State will return to action at 1 p.m. next Saturday against the West Virginia Mountaineers. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.

The Wildcats figure to be favored in that game, but it won’t be an easy road trip for them.

West Virginia (4-6, 2-5) has struggled mightily away from Milan Puskar Stadium this season, going 1-4 without a single road win in conference play. But Neal Brown’s team has been difficult to beat at home. The Mountaineers are 3-2 at home with victories over Baylor and Oklahoma.

The Mountaineers are coming off a 23-20 victory over the Sooners in which they rallied from a late deficit and won on a last-minute field goal.

West Virginia has been a tricky place for K-State to play of late. It hasn’t beaten the Mountaineers on the road since 2014.