The Analysis: Shocking the Sooners

Kansas State defeated the No. 5 ranked Oklahoma Sooners yesterday, 48-41, and the KSO Staff is here to break down a marquee program win for Chris Klieman and company in The Analysis.

The Analysis is a premium feature every Sunday at KSO, but we're making it free - one week only - following Saturday's upset of the Sooners.

Courtney Messingham simply called a great game.

Points per play, points per drive, success rate; K-State's offense was impressive. The defense did enough, despite allowing nearly 10 yards per snap. The 2 turnovvers were key (though one came on special teams), as was holding OU to field goals.

Also, notice the nice havoc rate of 21.2 percent, well above K-State's season average, and OU was allowing only 12 percent havoc coming into this game.

The drive stats tell a better story than the five factors.

K-State's touchdown rate of 54.5 percent, compared to only 36.4 percent, is huge. OU came in averaging nearly 60 percent on the year, and the K-State defense stepped up and forced field goals on several key drives in the first half. Simply a huge effort on that side of the ball.

The offensive numbers speak for themselves; any time you are over four points per drive you are rolling, and that TD rate is especially impressive considering where this offense was vs. Oklahoma State and Baylor.

Anytime you are 40 percent or better in every single down and distance category, you've had an impressive day.

In the first half it was big plays on first down, and in the second it was second and third downs. Huge to be 5-plus yards per play for the game on each down and distance, as well.

When K-State can run the ball, good things happen.

K-State had a ton of success with gives to the backs on power read, we saw some nice QB run wrinkles with QB counter power after emptying the backfield, and then QB A gap power for two scores at the goal line.

However, the key was 33 carries for 177 by the backs and a 42.4 percent success rate on those downs.

A gap power saw some slight adjustments with cut backs off the puller, which was pretty successful, as well. When K-State does that, the Wildcats can win games against anyone, as this game proved.

You can't say enough about the improvements and adjustments over the last several weeks, especially after the tough outings vs OSU and Baylor. K-State's offense was able to control the game and put points on the board, and as a result the Cats have their first Top 5 win at home in a long time.

It was an extremely balanced day for the K-State offense, as there was a near 50/50 run/pass split going into their final couple of drives. The Wildcats ended the day with 39 rushing attempts (excluding the final three kneel downs) and 31 pass attempts.

Although K-State ran it 65 percent of the time on first down, the Wildcats were able to do just enough through the air to keep the OU defense off balance.

The most remarkable part of K-State's day offensively had to be its third down offense, as the Cats averaged 9.1 yards per play on third down, which led to a 50 percent success rate. The Wildcats had eight third-and-long situations and were able to convert half of those into first downs, with many of those coming from Skylar Thompson completing passes into tight windows.

The K-State offense appears to be becoming more and more comfortable operating out of the shotgun.

On Saturday, 74 percent of the Wildcats snaps came out of the gun. Coincidence or not, the Wildcats have found more success when under center the last two games when they have been under center less. Even though they operated out of the shotgun a majority of the time, they were able to remain balanced when doing so.

K-State ran the ball 27 times out of the shotgun with an average of 5.6 per play and threw it 25 times, averaging 6.4 yards per play. The Wildcats were also able to stay diverse within the running game when in the shotgun, as Thompson carried it 10 times, the running backs 15 times, and the wide receivers two times. That gives the defense a lot to think about.

Even though Thompson's lowest completion percentage came on 3rd down (50 percent), all three of the completions were big time throws into tight windows.

Again, even though Thompson only averaged 7.8 yards per completion and 4.7 yards per attempt on first down, they did just enough to keep the OU defense honest.

The Wildcats did a nice job of taking the short throws on first down when available to set up some second and mediums or second and short. K-State's success on first down helped keep the entire playbook open on second down, which helped lead to a 8-of-11 passing for Thompson on that down.

K-State used just about every weapon at its disposal in the passing game today.

Eleven different Wildcats were targeting today, including one apiece to Jax Dineen, Jordan Brown, Blaise Gammon, and Nick Lenners. For a guy new to the position, Samuel Wheeler is starting to flash some ability.

While Dalton Schoen and a healthy Malik Knowles will most likely continue to be Thompson's favorite targets, the diversity shown today in the passing game can help mask the lack of an all-conference type of receiver.