K-State Football: Report Card vs Baylor Bears

This was the tale of “A”s and the “F”s. Multiple players had memorable games. The only difference was if was memorable for good or bad reasons.

Matthew McCrane rebounded from his brutal miss at Vanderbilt to connect on all four of his field goal attempts. While having so many field goals isn’t ideal to the whole team, McCrane took advantage of what was in front of him. Even just one missed field goal could have proved to be a big turning point in this game for the Bears.

The elephant in the room were the special team mistakes.

Reggie Walker came through in a clutch series and blocked a field goal. The coverage teams allowed Baylor one punt return for three yards and five kick returns for an average of 11.6. Both numbers contributed to helping control field position. Pringle also added a 34 yard punt return that looked like it may have gone all the way. There were lots of great contributions.

The elephant in the room were the special team mistakes. D.J. Reed had two brutal fumbles. Thankfully, one bounced out of bounds, but it could have been a fatal mistake had it not done so. The other fumble was a mistake right from the start as the ball was caught on the four yard-line and the return was only for 11 yards. Even without the fumble, it still would have been better to allow it to go into the end zone.

Special team mistakes continue to dog K-State. With Kansas State’s special teams being a staple (Phil Steele ranked them first to start the season of all power five teams), the decline has been hard to watch. It’s a weapon that needs to be fine-tuned for K-State to beat better teams.