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After Review: Knowles rewards Thompson's trust

Welcome to After Review, a weekly feature at K-StateOnline where I'll lead off with a column of on what I believe to be the biggest news out of the most recent Kansas State game before moving on to further points on the Wildcats' latest outing.

Let's get our first one started, with a look at K-State wide receiver Malik Knowles.

KNOWLES REWARDS THOMPSON WITH BIG GAME

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My hot take this season is this: Football fans and media overreact to dropped passes.

Yes, they're a problem. Yes, they can end drives and halt scoring opportunities. Yes, they're frustrating. Yes, they matter.

But, at the end of the day, it's an execution error. It's just one fans can immediately recognize - most of us have caught a ball at some point in our lives - and can be easily seen by the untrained eye.

Kansas State redshirt freshman wide receiver Malik Knowles caught two touchdowns last Saturday.
Kansas State redshirt freshman wide receiver Malik Knowles caught two touchdowns last Saturday. (Getty Images)

A drop, though, is no different than an errant throw, a ball broken up by a defender or a pass throw away to avoid a sack. It's an incomplete pass; no more, no less. It's an understood part of the passing game.

Most of us don't know when a receiver ran the wrong route, when a quarterback doesn't accurately go through his progressions, when an offensive linemen doubles where he's not supposed to and leaves a rusher unblocked, or any number of things that can cause an incompletion on a passing play, not to mention the dozens of other mistakes made in other facets of the game we don't see.

So, when a player like Malik Knowles puts two balls on the ground in the opener against Nicholls, people - as expected - notice.

Junior quarterback Skylar Thompson noticed, too, of course, but he wasn't concerned.

The K-State captain did recognize, however, the chatter on social media about his young receiver, so he texted Knowles on Sunday night to remind him he had faith in him and was absolutely going to keep throwing the ball his direction.

Knowles responded to Thompson's trust with a five-catch, 99-yard performance that included a pair of touchdowns and a number of receptions on less than perfectly thrown footballs, and even a questionable decision or two from a quarterback playing near-perfect football so far this season.

“It was relieving," Knowles said after the 52-0 win over Bowling Green. "(Avoiding drops) was my main focus throughout the week, to make sure that wouldn’t happen again.”

Here's a spoiler for you; it will happen again this season. K-State will drop more passes, and so will the Wildcats' opponents. It's part of the passing game and a risk every team accepts when they try and put the ball in the air.

I think I can share another potential spoiler, however, when I suggest Knowles' production this season will far outweigh the mistakes that will inevitably come.

PRO FOOTBALL FOCUS RECAP  

TOP FIVE OFFENSIVE GRADES (minimum 15 snaps)

NOTE: Jordon Brown (76.2) would have made the top five but played just nine snaps.

Running backs James Gilbert (34) and Jordon Brown (6) made plenty of noise Saturday.
Running backs James Gilbert (34) and Jordon Brown (6) made plenty of noise Saturday. (Grant Flanders/K-StateOnline)

1. Malik Knowles (93.2) See above

2. Skylar Thompson (93.1) Thompson maybe wasn't quite as sharp as last week, and he still was 10-of-13 throwing the football and earned a 93.2 grade in the passing game from PFF.

3. Adam Holtorf (89.2) Holtorf jumped off the field to me on Saturday before seeing these grades, and he - as much as anybody - looks like a different player under this staff.

4. James Gilbert (76.2) Two games, two 100-yard performances for the Ball State transfer. Can he still break tackles like this against Mississippi State?

5. Nick Kaltmayer (74.6) Kaltmayer has found himself in the top five both weeks and so far is proving to be a more than respectable replacement for Dalton Risner.

TOP FIVE DEFENSIVE GRADES (minimum 10 snaps)

NOTE: Nick Allen (86.7 on six snaps) and Wyatt Hubert (85.8 on eight snaps) finished among the top five defensive scores but didn't play at least 10 snaps.

Redshirt freshman Lance Robinson earned more snaps on defense after a nice week one special teams effort.
Redshirt freshman Lance Robinson earned more snaps on defense after a nice week one special teams effort. (Grant Flanders/K-StateOnline)

1. Daniel Green (85.8) Green looked fantastic on Saturday, and not just on his forced fumble and quarterback sack.

2. A.J. Parker (75.5) No interceptions for Parker in game two, but he's still easily K-State's best corner.

3. Eric Gallon (75.0) Gallon's play on Green's sack/forced fumble may go too unnoticed, as he created the initial pressure in the backfield and forced Darius Wade into Green.

4. Denzel Goolsby (71.3) Somewhat like Parker, we didn't see anything spectacular but also no real glaring issues.

5. Lance Robinson (70.9) Robinson was K-State's best special teams player in week one, and that helped earn him 13 defensive snaps against the Falcons last week.

ONE GOOD THING  

Kansas State offensive line coach Conor Riley's unit is off to a strong start.
Kansas State offensive line coach Conor Riley's unit is off to a strong start. (Grant Flanders/K-StateOnline)

I was certain the Wildcats were going to break the school rushing record in back-to-back weeks.

With roughly seven minutes left in the first half K-State had rolled up more than 250 yards on the ground, but the Wildcats went to reserves late in the first half and certainly let of the gas - at least offensively - after burying Bowling Green early.

Still, K-State rolled up well over 300 yards on the ground, and Conor Riley's offensive line is not getting off to the slow start we had become so accustomed to with this unit in recent years.

ONE BAD THING  

Wyatt Hubert was having a strong performance prior to leaving due to injury against Bowling Green.
Wyatt Hubert was having a strong performance prior to leaving due to injury against Bowling Green. (Getty Images)

In a general sense I think the Wildcats are pretty healthy right now.

Outside of the loss of fullback Adam Harter for the season, however, most issues that do exist are on defense.

Starting linebacker Justin Hughes, of course, was lost for the season prior to the start of the year. No. 2 linebacker Cody Fletcher has yet to play a snap, and backup nickel Jonathan Durham - like Fletcher - was not in uniform this week.

Add in injuries on Saturday to key starters Wyatt Hubert (no post-game update available from Chris Klieman) and Walter Neil (likely could have returned, according to Klieman) and you're starting to see some things pop up on that side of the ball.

I think there's a great chance Neil plays next week, and early info on Hubert seems positive, but I'd have real questions about everybody mentioned in this section - outside of Neal - being available in Starkville on Saturday.

ONE BIG QUESTION  

Kansas State junior quarterback Skylar Thompson has been fantastic so far.
Kansas State junior quarterback Skylar Thompson has been fantastic so far. (Associated Press)

Through two games Skylar Thompson has a PFF grade of 95.1. For some perspective on that number, in 2018 the Wildcats top two rated offensive players on that site were Dalton Risner at No. 1 with a 90.7 and Isaiah Zuber (now, of course, at Mississippi State) with a 74.0.

Thompson, himself, registered a 71.3 last year.

If QBR is more your style, Thompson scores a 97.0 through that metric over two games, No. 1 in the nation over Oklahoma's Jalen Hurts at 93.9.

Any way you slice it, Thompson has been fantastic against Nicholls and Bowling Green. The question, of course, is if he can maintain a similar level of play on the road against Mississippi State.

Asking him to continue playing quarterback as well as anybody in the country is probably a reach, but he needs to be a difference maker on Saturday, again, for the Wildcats to pull off the upset on the road.

THEY SAID IT  

I challenged the guys this week to improve upon week one and in particular this morning to get the fight started quickly and jump on them from the start. I was so pleased. We were able to get a nice kick return and take it down and get a field goal. Then the defense came up really big with a stop, then go down and get another touchdown. I just thought the emotion and the energy the guys played with today was what we were looking for and I told the guys in the locker room that’s a credit to our upperclassman and a credit to our captains and leadership. They had the guys ready to play. That was a fun environment out there for the guys, it was fun to see an awful lot of guys play.
— Chris Klieman
I just prepared throughout this whole week, taking the plays and taking everything throughout practice. When today came, they told me I had a chance of going in today, so just to be prepared and be on the sidelines.
— John Holcombe
I mean, next Saturday when we go out there we make the same statements we make every other game. Just go out there, play, do what we gotta do, be in our gaps. Just play ball that we know how to play ball.
— Reggie Walker
I think we’ve proven that were a contender. We love to play the game that’s the big thing I think you can see that, especially in the stands, is that everybody’s flying, everybody has great energy. The big thing now is as captains we need to really tone into the details of ‘hey we’re playing a contender, we’re about to get into the heart of our schedule stuff like that’.
— Trey Dishon
That is what we want to look like. They played complementary football. Our kids have got to see it last week which was great and today we had three phases that were just on three individual islands. We did not help them at all. We have never done that before on third down ever. We have to stay on the field and help the defense out. They ran a thousand more plays than we did. If you look at the comparison between week one and week two, we did not possess the ball to help our defense. We also had a kicking game error on a kick-off so all three phases were on islands. The positive is we get to show them what they did in week one and we also get to watch this team right here. I said it earlier in the week, this culture they have here and their technique is dead right. They will even get more talented players under Chris’(Klieman) regime here and they are going to be a really good football team. That is who we are going to be when we are said and done.
— Bowling Green coach Scot Loeffler

THE KSO SUNDAY SHOW  

MORE BOWLING GREEN GAME COVERAGE

-The Analysis: CLICK HERE

-Running Diary: CLICK HERE

-Four Downs: CLICK HERE

-Quotes: CLICK HERE

-Notes: CLICK HERE

-Photo Gallery: CLICK HERE

-Players Video: CLICK HERE

-Klieman Press Conference: CLICK HERE

-Facilities Plans Announced: CLICK HERE

-Powercat Gameday Recap: CLICK HERE

-The KSO Sunday Show: CLICK HERE

-PFF Grade Review: CLICK HERE

-Highlight Package: CLICK HERE

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