Kansas State Football: Defense needs to continue dominance vs OSU
Kansas State football travels to Stillwater to take on the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Saturday evening. In order for the Wildcats to keep their top 25 ranking, their defense needs to show up big time in this game.
Defense is key for the Kansas State Wildcats this weekend, as they look to stay undefeated and ranked after their fourth game of the Chris Klieman era. This new era has yet to see a loss on the resumé, as the Wildcats are a perfect 3-0 and a lot of that has been because of their stifling defense.
Per ESPN, K-State is holding the opponent to an average of 12.7 points per game. Considering college football is usually all offensive firepower, those are some good numbers. Yes, the Wildcats have only played one Power-5 team to this point, but impressive nonetheless.
That being said, it’ll be tough to slow down the Cowboys of Oklahoma State and their fiery offense, led by the big three of Spencer Sanders, Chuba Hubbard (not a fake name), and Tylan Wallace.
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Hubbard already has nine rushing touchdowns through four games while Wallace has found the end zone six times. Sanders might not be a big name at quarterback, but he’s only a freshman and is already showing promise at the position.
These three will be a handful for Kansas State’s defense, but they’ve looked the part of a legitimate defense thus far, allowing an average of 256 yards per game. Oklahoma State will bring a whole new kind of offense to the table though and it’ll be interesting to see how the Wildcats limit them and their big plays.
Forcing turnovers is going to be huge for the Wildcats and they haven’t necessarily excelled at that to this point, tallying three interceptions to this point. Two of those three interceptions have been made by AJ Parker, who will need to have a big game in Stillwater.
Oklahoma State’s defense isn’t anywhere near as good as K-State’s, so the question in this one will be can the Wildcats slow down the Pokes? If they can’t, hopefully Klieman’s offense can keep up in a shootout because it shouldn’t be hard to score on this OSU defense.
This is arguably the biggest game for Kansas State in three or four years, so let’s hope they live up to the hype, lay a beatdown on the Cowboys, and walk away from Stillwater with a 4-0 record and an even higher ranking heading into next week!