Oklahoma State football: Beware K-State’s defense
To upset second-ranked Kansas State on Saturday, OSU needs a big game out of its offense. But even that will be a tall order. Hidden by all the Collin Kleinmania is this little nugget. The Wildcats are playing some defense.
KSU is 13th nationally in scoring defense, 17.1 points a game. The ‘Cats are 30th in total defense, 340.4 yards per game. That’s impressive, considering that K-State already has played some of the prime Big 12 offenses (OU, Texas Tech, West Virginia).
KSU gave up 13 points to Miami, 19 to the Sooners, 14 to West Virginia and 24 to Texas Tech.
“They’re a lot like Iowa State,” said OSU offensive coordinator Todd Monken. “They’re real sound, they don’t gamble a lot, they keep everything in front of them and their offense does a good job of limiting their exposure on defense. They’re really well-coached and their linebacker, Arthur Brown, is a really good player. They have a lot of juniors and seniors who have played a lot of football at the junior college level, so they don’t have a lot of holes. I don’t know what we’ll be able to expose other than we have to play good football and not turn it over.”
Truth is, K-State’s defense is a lot like K-State’s offense. It just doesn’t make mistakes. So the Wildcats will test an OSU team that ranks No. 1 nationally in total offense (586.1 yards per game) and is sixth in scoring offense (44.3).
“They’re just a sound defense,” said OSU guard Lane Taylor. “They’ll be in the gap when they need to be there. They aren’t going to bust coverages. All around, they’re just a solid defensive team.”
The Cowboys will be hard-pressed to hold down Kansas State’s offense. The Wildcats have scored 55 points each of the previous two Saturdays, against Tech and West Virginia. But OSU might have to limit KSU to half that to have a chance to win Saturday night.
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