MANHATTAN  — In his postgame press conference Saturday night, Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder lamented about his team’s inconsistent play.
The Wildcats handled Missouri State easily enough, 48-24, at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, although the longtime mentor found many a flaw.
“Well, we didn’t play very well,” Snyder said in his opening comments “I can’t tell you without looking at the film, the effort was poor, but we didn’t play well.
“But that’s true on both sides of the ball, and we’re just not a very consistent football team on either side.”
Much to the chagrin of Snyder, the Bears accumulated 447 yards in total offense. The Wildcats (2-0), led by Carson Coffman’s career-high 280 passing yards and 140 rushing yards by Daniel Thomas, rolled up 493 total yards.
Still …
“Third down had a lot to do with how we played collectively as a team,” Snyder said. “We weren’t very good on third down offensively, and we weren’t very good defensively on third down.
“They had 33 minutes of possession time, and that’s kind of been our forte is to control the possession time. Third down had a lot to do with that.”
The Bears (1-1) had the football 33 minutes, 28 seconds, compared to 26:32 for the Wildcats. Missouri State converted 9 of 20 third-down situations, while Kansas State was just 3-for-10.
While Coffman was effective early, completing 12 of his 16 passes in the first half for 200 yards, the Wildcats still were never able to find any consistency.
“I wasn’t unhappy with the way he played,” Snyder said of Coffman. “There certainly are still some things that he’s got to be much better at.
“Once again, 12 out of 16 is not bad. The numbers were good. There are a lot of things that go into playing well other than just the numbers.”
Wide receiver Aubrey Quarles caught seven passes for 82 yards and a touchdown, and teammate Brodrick Smith had 99 receiving yards in six receptions, including 42- and 7-yard scoring catches.
Still …
“Ideal would have been to see us become more effective in all facets of what we were doing, particularly we didn’t run the ball well.
“I don’t think our preparation was to where it needed to be.”
An early sleep walk preceded a flurry of second-quarter points for the Wildcats, who built a 20-0 lead before taking a 27-7 lead into halftime.
After both teams went three-and-out on their opening possessions of the game, Thomas broke free for a 45-yard touchdown on second down to give Kansas State a 7-0 lead at the 11:50 mark in the first quarter.
Missouri State drove from its own 35 into Kansas State territory midway through the period. Quarterback Cody Kirby drove the Bears to KSU 30, where he threw an incompletion on third-and-8. MSU kicker Jordan Chiles came on to attempt a 47-yard field goal, but it sailed wide right with 3:54 left in the period.
Kansas State drove from its own 30 for a first-and-10 at the Missouri State 14. But it could get only five yards closer, and Wildcats kicker Anthony Cantele missed wide left on a 26-yard chip shot with 47 seconds to go in the period.
The Wildcats began mounting their getaway during their opening drive of the second quarter, starting at their own 40. The key play in the drive was Coffman’s third-and-4 completion to fullback Braden Wilson in the right flat. Wilson tight-roped the sideline for additional yardage, a 23-yard gain and first-and-goal at the 7.
But the Wildcats couldn’t punch it in, and they brought on their field-goal unit for a 21-yard attempt. Catching the Bears off-guard, however, KSU holder Ryan Doerr took the snap and pitched to Cantele, whose 3-yard scoring run made it 13-0 with 9:45 left in the half, the first of its second-quarter TDs.
Cantele missed the PAT kick, and was replaced by Josh Cherry on field goals and extra points until late in the game.
After K-State’s Brian Hertzog recovered a Missouri State fumble on a punt return at the KSU 45, it took only three plays for the Wildcats to find the end zone again.
Coffman’s three-play, 55-yard drive consisted of a 6-yard completion to Tramaine Thompson, a 7-yard run by Thomas and a 42-yard catch-and-run touchdown pass to Smith with 7:13 left in the half to make it 20-0.
Bears cornerback Howard Scarborough, who was defending Smith in man coverage down the right sideline, was flagged for pass interference on the play, although it was obviously declined. Scarborough’s contact actually seemed to push Smith further downfield as he held onto the ball and waltzed across the goal line.
Kirby answered with a 66-yard touchdown bomb to Jermaine Saffold with 1:22 left in the half to make it 20-7.
Kansas State, though, came right back with a four-play, 68-yard drive in the final 1:22 of the half, capping four straight completions by Coffman — the last, a 23-yard scoring pass to Quarles with 28 seconds left before the break, stretching the lead to 27-7.