1. Don’t let BYU beat you twice

That was the message for Kansas State following its regrettable performance in Provo last week — and the Wildcats succeeded. 

On their first drive, the Wildcats put the result behind them. Quarterback Avery Johnson marched the team down the field ending with an 11-yard score by the sophomore. 

While the offense had its struggles again, including an interception by Johnson, the team flipped the switch when needed.

A disastrous performance immediately before and after halftime at Provo plagued potential improvements to the contest, but that wasn’t the case against Oklahoma State.

K-State scored twice under the seven-minute mark in the first half — both coming on long passes by Johnson. Then, out of the break, junior DJ Giddens broke free for a 66-yard rushing touchdown. 

After that, K-State ran away from the Cowboys with 35 unanswered points. 

2. DJ Giddens — that’s all

Giddens, the Wildcats junior back, had himself an all-time performance against the Cowboys. 

Between a battle of arguably the Big 12 conference’s two best backs, Giddens established himself as the victor in this contest. 

Early on, it appeared OSU’s Ollie Gordon would dominate, racking up over 80 yards of offense early. But Gordon cooled off, failing to rush for positive yards from the first quarter end to the five-minute mark of the third quarter. 

Meanwhile, Giddens had a field day with Cowboys defenders. At the time of his 66-yard score to put K-State up 28-13, the junior averaged 21.9 yards per carry across seven rushes.

He finished with a line of 15 rushes for 187 yards and the long touchdown. By the end, he tallied 12.5 yards per carry. Giddens added one reception for 22 yards. 

3. WRs breakthrough

After four weeks of wide receivers failing to find the endzone, and lacking a noticeable connection with Johnson, the Wildcat wideouts broke out against OSU. 

The duo of sophomore Jayce Brown and graduate Jadon Jackson guided Johnson to a new career-high of completions. 

Brown went for 78 yards on four receptions with a long of 55 yards for a touchdown. Jackson tagged on 55 yards on five receptions, racking up 17 yards of offense after the catches. 

Junior Keagan Johnson added 52 yards on four catches too, with a long of 35 on a fourth-quarter catch.

Avery Johnson finished by throwing 19-of-31 through the air for 259 yards and three touchdowns. It was a career-high of yards, as Johnson had not thrown for over 200 yards in a game in his career. 

4. Turnover battle

After the BYU loss, head coach Chris Klieman emphasized the Wildcats’ need to punch the ball out and be more aggressive in chasing down interceptions. 

While the ‘Cats committed the first turnover of the game with an interception, the defense grabbed two of its own to win the turnover battle. Defensive backs Marques Sigle and Jacob Parrish both stole one from Cowboy slinger Alan Bowman. 

Entering the game, OSU was +4 in its turnover margin while K-State was -2. Flipping the script was key to the Wildcat victory.