Caleb Hawkins made it worse for the Wildcats on the ground. He ran for 175 yards and 3 touchdowns on 20 carries and added 6 catches for 71 yards and another score. Oklahoma State piled up 565 total yards, 342 passing and 223 rushing, so this was not an offense that leaned on 1 player or 1 trick. Kansas State, already without Avery Johnson, had no answer in either phase.
The Cowboys put up 28 in the first quarter and 21 more in the second. The game was over at 49-14 before halftime. The worry coming in was that turnovers and special teams had cost them the 51-49 loss at Iowa State. Mestemaker threw 1 interception, and with a lead that big it didn't matter.
The line score shows the second half for what it was. Oklahoma State coasted at 14 and 3, and Kansas State kept scoring exactly 7 a quarter. That's 28 points and 327 total yards, which looks respectable on paper and meant nothing on the scoreboard. The Wildcats are a team that hangs around in close losses at Cincinnati and Colorado, but this one was never close. It was their worst home loss of the stretch, and it came 4 weeks after a 35-16 defeat to Houston in the same building.
Oklahoma State moves to 6-3 and 4-2 in the Big 12 and has now hung 57 on Colorado and 66 on Kansas State in its last 3 wins. Kansas State is 4-5, 1-5 in conference, and has lost 3 straight. It still doesn't have a quarterback answer, because the guy who earned the job in Boulder threw more interceptions than touchdowns in his first start.
