MEMPHIS - Chris Nelson, Jimmy Goheen and PFF go deep to break down Kansas State's 20-17 loss to Navy in The Analysis at K-StateOnline.

Sometimes, numbers are strange.

The success rate, starting field position, and even points scored inside the 40 were solid for this game, but Navy held K-State to under five yards per play, as well as paltry per play and per drive numbers.

Navy's weakness was giving up big plays in the passing game, but we didn't see a play over 20 yards until late in the fourth quarter. The offense simply didn't produce vs. a very average defense, and that was the most disappointing aspect of this game.

Navy's offense was still able to get plenty of big plays, with seven of 20-plus yards,including the back breaking 41-yard toss pass to essentially end the game. Perry proved to be the big play threat K-State feared, especially in scramble situations.

The Cats held Navy below its points per play and per drive averages, but forced zero turnovers and finished with a havoc rate under eight percent. To really defeat this offense you have to create more disruption, and this defense simply couldn't do that.

I was expecting a low possession game, but seven for the Cats (not including a special teams TD) and eight for Navy was even fewer than I thought.

K-State simply didn't finish enough drives, as the 14.3% touchdown and field goal rates show. Holding Navy to only 25% on each of those was solid, but the offense simply couldn't keep up with a decent defensive performance.

K-State was decently efficient in spread offense, but the lack of opportunities and very little success in two-back sets absolutely destroyed any rhythm from the offense.

When you only run 40 plays the margin for error is tiny, and that showed for K-State today. Very little success on RB power, QB option, and play action really thwarted too many drives. When you only have seven, that is enough to lead to a loss.

This was especially frustrating given the time to prep for a Navy defense that didn't feature the size or athleticism K-State saw in the Big 12.

As the game went along, K-State got far too conservative in its play calling.

In a game where K-State was going to have a limited number of possessions, the Wildcats needed to try to maximize each one. Yes, the final numbers show that K-State called six pass plays on first down versus ten running plays; however, Navy was giving K-State easy passes on first down most of the game. It's probably not a coincidence that five of the six first down pass attempts came on K-State's two scoring drives. The other first down pass came on the first play of the game, which resulted in the Nick Lenner's drop. That was a drive that still may well have scored if not for a dropped touchdown later from Phillip Brooks, which would have meant K-State's three scoring drives were all first-down pass heavy.

The Wildcats struggled mightily on third down with only a 13 percent success rate. That included not being able to convert any of their five third and longs. K-State gained a total of minus-one yards on its four pass plays on third and long.

When K-State had to throw the ball in obvious passing situations, the Cats struggled mightily. When they threw the ball on their terms, they had quite a bit of success.

As previously stated, Skylar Thompson had a lot of success throwing the ball on first down, as he was 5-of-6 for 83 yards, which equates to 16.6 yards per completion and 13.8 yards per attempt. The lone incompletion was a drop on the first play of the game.

While K-State called four pass plays on third down only one of those resulted in a pass attempt, as Thompson was sacked or scrambled for minimal gains on the other three plays. The Wildcats had no answer for Navy's zone coverage on third down.

Overall, Thompson was a respectable 9-of-13, with two of the incompletions being drops and one an under throw to an open Jordon Brown down the sideline. The total number of snaps K-State had in the game had an impact on the number of pass attempts, but it was a game where you felt like the Wildcats could have attacked Navy more through the air.

K-State operated out of the shotgun 29 times in the game compared to 10 times under center. From under center, K-State only attempted one pass compared to nine runs.

On first down K-State ran it all five times when under center. The quarterback run game was not a big part of the offense, as there were only four designed runs for Thompson.

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