Kansas State football upset by Arkansas State football: 3 takeaways

Kansas State football loses to Arkansas State football at home in a dismal season-opener for the Wildcats.

Kansas State football began their season on the wrong foot.

Shortly after Farmageddon rival Iowa State football fell at home to Louisiana football, the Kansas State Wildcats did not get it done at home vs. the Arkansas State Red Wolves. After falling last week to Memphis football, the Red Wolves got their first W in the win column, shocking K-State in the Little Apple on Saturday to the tune of 35-31. Another rough loss for the Big 12 to a team from the Sun Belt.

Here are three big takeaways from Kansas State’s loss to Arkansas State.

1. Where is the patented K-State defense we’ve grown accustomed to?

Though the Big 12 has earned its reputation for being a pillow fight conference defensively, Kansas State usually has one of the stouter defenses in its Power 5 conference. While it’s not quite what TCU football is for Gary Patterson or what Oklahoma football had been for years under Bob Stoops, what we saw defensively out of the Wildcats will not cut it in conference play at all.

K-State was outgained 489-374. The Wildcats gave up 330 yards through the air. While they did force two turnovers on the day, Kansas State still gave up five touchdowns through the air at home. Even though they may not be a great team this year, you can’t let a Group of 5 team like Arkansas State come into Bill Snyder Family Stadium and carve you up like that.

2. The third-down conversion was where the game was won and lost.

An interception and fumble allowed a not-sharp Kansas State team to stay in the ball game and hold off being upset. However, where the game was won for Arkansas State and lost for Kansas State was in third-down conversions. Arkansas State was 6-of-13 on third down, while Kansas State was a pitiful 1-for-11. Not being able to sustain drives was their undoing in this ball game.

Even if K-State was 2-for-2 on fourth-down conversions, continually put the offense in high-leverage situations and not coming through is not a good sign of things to come in Big 12 play. Arkansas State may end up being one of the better teams in the Sun Belt this season, but a lot of the teams in the Big 12 Kansas State will play will be unforgiving on third-down defense.

3. Kansas State needs to watch out to avoid being a Big 12 bottom-feeder in 2020.

Let’s be real. The early kickoff window was not kind to the Big 12 with Iowa State and Kansas State both losing at home. While Iowa State may be able to rebound from this early-season, non-conference loss, how sure are we Kansas State won’t end up being a Big 12 bottom-feeder this year? They were projected to finish somewhere in the seven-to-nine range in the Big 12 anyway.

Even if they are better than the in-state rival Kansas Jayhawks, the West Virginia Mountaineers looked good in their first game of the season vs. the Eastern Kentucky Colonels. Depending on how Matt Wells’ Texas Tech Red Raiders look, there is a chance the Sunflower Showdown may be what decides who is the worst team in the Big 12 this year. Not a good start for K-State in 2020.

It’s beyond clear this is not Bill Snyder’s Kansas State football program anymore.

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