Jimmy Goheen, Chris Nelson, Derek Young and Pro Football Focus break down Kansas State's 38-10 win over Kansas in The Analysis.

Kansas State ran the football 76 percent of the time on first down and 65 percent on second down, averaging 5.7 and 4.2 yards per play, respectively. The Wildcats averaged a very good 9.0 yards per play on third down, which led to a 59 percent conversion rate.

The Wildcats were able to covert every third-and-short and third-and-medium situation into a first down. Three of the eight pass plays on third down turned into Skylar Thompson scrambles. Thompson made good decisions on when to tuck the ball and run and when to throw the football away.

On second downs, K-State took 13 snaps under center and 13 out of the shotgun. The Wildcats operated mostly out of then gun on first (73 percent) and third (88 percent) downs. When under center, K-State only called five pass plays versus 19 running plays, with all five of those coming on second down.

While Thompson did have 17 rushing attempts, only eight of those were called QB runs. Thompson averaged 10.6 yards per carry on those eight attempts. The Wildcats continue to show some diversity on third downs, as on their 15 snaps out of the shotgun, they called seven running plays - with three of those being QB runs and four from the running backs - and called 8 passing plays.

Thompson got off to another good start, as he completed all three of his attempts in the first quarter, averaging 16 yards per completion. Thompson completed 3-of-5 passes on third down, with one of those incompletions being a well thrown ball on an out route to Wykeen Gill.

Thompson threw the ball away on two occasions. Removing those two attempts brings his completion percentage up to 64 percent, with an average per completion of 14.3 and average per attempt of 9.2.

Even though the Wildcats only attempted 16 passes, Thompson targeted and had completions to seven different receivers.

I have enjoyed how K-State has built off the previous week's game plans. Against Oklahoma, K-State motioned the running back out of the backfield a couple of times and ran Thompson. This week, K-State gave KU that same look, but instead swung it out to Harry Trotter. On the snap, the first step for the KU safeties were towards Thompson, expecting the QB run.

The K-State offense wasn't perfect in Lawrence, but the Wildcats ended up better than the season average in every advanced stat category.

Meanwhile, the defense dominated the KU offense, holding what had been an explosive bunch to under 4.0 yards per play on the day, 0.08 points per possession, 0.33 points per drive, and a 29.7 percent success rate on offense are dominating numbers.

The only other points KU put up came in garbage time after the game was already decided.

The drive stats continue to tell the impressive defensive story from this game. KU came in with one turnover in its last 50 drives and a touchdown rate of 42 percent the last two games. K-State forced turnovers on two of the first six possessions, and while the game was still in contention KU scored zero touchdowns. Also, a punt rate of 44 percent and two more drives stopped on downs, and a paltry 13.7 yards per drive: Simply stifling defense.

Meanwhile, the offense scored touchdowns on half the possessions, had zero turnovers, and bettered their average yards per drive for the season by over 7.0 yards per drive. And all of this with their top two backs shelved most of the game.

K-State couldn't have asked for a much better answer to last week's upset win over Oklahoma. Outside of a few silly penalties that likely kept this from being an even bigger blow out, the coaching staff put in major work and had this team more than ready to play in this rivalry game.

Now the questions from just a few weeks ago of whether or not this team would make a bowl seem silly. If this team can go to Austin and win next week, the once unthinkable concept of competing for a Big 12 title is legitimately in the conversation.

To best gauge how Kansas State used its skill position personnel against Kansas on Saturday, here are snap counts at those spots for only the snaps which also featured Skylar Thompson and the No. 1 offensive line.

RB

Trotter - 45

Ervin - 16

Brown - 2

Burns - 2

FB

Dineen - 15

Barta - 13

WR

Schoen - 50

Knowles - 45

Gill - 20

Taylor - 14

Weber - 9

Brooks - 7

Youngblood - 6

Porter - 3

TE

Lenners - 34

Gammon - 27

Long - 18

Wheeler - 4

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