FB Falls to Kansas State in Manhattan, 59-25

Saturday, November 11

Manhattan, Kan.

2 p.m.

Baylor

3-7 , 2-5

Kansas State

7-3 , 5-2

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Baylor

Kansas State

FB Falls to Kansas State in Manhattan, 59-25

11/11/2023 6:15:00 PM | Football

Box Score Game Book (PDF)Post-Game Notes (PDF)Season Stats (PDF)

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Unable to build on the momentum of their first opening-drive touchdown of the season, the Baylor Bears gave up 28 points off four turnovers and saw their fading bowl hopes extinguished with a 59-25 loss to 25^th-ranked Kansas State Saturday afternoon at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

Blake Shapen threw for 253 yards and a career-high four touchdowns for Baylor, which fell to 3-7 overall and 2-5 in the Big 12 with its third-straight loss. With only two games left, the Bears will miss a bowl game for just the third time in the last 14 years.

"Just way frustrated and upset," Baylor head coach Dave Aranda said. "The comment to the team was this is the bottom, you can't get any worse than this, just with the score and just with the feeling that you have. You just feel gutted."

Tight end Drake Dabney, who scored on a 63-yard touchdown pass and finished with a career-high 105 yards on four catches, said when you "hit rock bottom, there's only one way up."

"We have a choice to make," he said. "We have two games left. Obviously, we can't make a bowl game. But anytime you get the opportunity to play a game, I feel like you've got to give it your all. Just doing what we can to scrap and claw for the last two wins."

Seven minutes into this one, it looked like it was going to be a classic back-and-forth shootout. After K-State (7-3, 5-2) opened the scoring with a 12-play, 81-yard drive and the first of Will Howard's three touchdown passes, it took the Bears only five plays to answer.

Shapen found Dabney for a pair of 19-yard receptions and then capped Baylor's first offensive possession with a 13-yard TD pass to freshman Dawson Pendergrass.

"I feel like at the beginning of the game, we were ready to play," Aranda said. "I thought there was good energy and effort. . . . Offensively, to get back and run the ball and score and do all that, I thought was really strong. There was an intentional effort to have energy, because it's hard when you've had the season we've had. The record and the score is what it is."

Scoring on each of their first four offensive series, the Wildcats took the lead for good two minutes later, when Howard connected with tight end Ben Sinnott for a 14-yard touchdown pass. Howard, who set the school record with his 45^th career TD pass, was 19-of-29 for 235 yards and three touchdowns.

"Defensively, everybody has to do their 1/11^th and execute," Jackson said. "Winning is hard, and everybody on defense, everybody on offense has to contribute to make plays, to get points on the scoreboard and just to make big plays in the game."

The K-State defense came up with a game-changing play, with defensive end Cody Stufflebean hitting Shapen from the back side and forcing a fumble that linebacker Desmond Purcell scooped up and returned 15 yards for a touchdown that made it 21-7.

Going 2-for-3 on fourth-down conversions, K-State stretched its lead to 28-7 on the second play of the second quarter with a one-yard sneak by Howard.

Things went from bad to worse for the Bears when punter Palmer Williams muffed and then fumbled a low punt snap by fellow freshman Dylan Schaub that was recovered at Baylor's 2-yard line. On the very next play, Howard hit tight end Christian Moore and extended the lead to 35-7 less than two minutes into the second quarter.

"I thought this was one of the games where we consistently ran the ball the best," Aranda said. "It doesn't feel right to say any of that when you look at the score. But the score got away from us early and we had to throw it. . . . We were able to move the chains and get in third-and-manageables and have play-action possibilities. That was the thought. But we couldn't hold them enough to do that."

The defense did get a couple stops late in the half, with Josh Cameron setting up Baylor's second touchdown with a 70-yard punt return to K-State's 16. Three plays later, Shapen hit Pendergrass again for a one-yard touchdown that got it back to a three-score game, 35-13, when the two-point conversion failed.

With safety Devyn Bobby recovering an onside kick by fellow defensive back Reggie Bush, the Bears had a chance to make things even tighter before intermission. Shapen hit Cameron for a fourth-down conversion, setting up a 51-yard field goal try.

But kicker Isaiah Hankins took a direct snap and launched a deep pass to tight end Jake Roberts that was broken up by cornerback Keenan Garber.

"Really, just in terms of drop-back protection and catching a forward pass, we struggled with that," Aranda said. "We had to get movement and we had to have gadgets. We should be above and beyond that, and we're not."

After the defense held K-State to a 33-yard field goal by Chris Tennant on the Wildcats' first series of the second half, Baylor turned to another razzle-dazzle play to make things interesting again.

On a third-and-one, running back Dominic Richardson threw back to Shapen, who avoided a rush and connected with Dabney for a 63-yard touchdown that cut the deficit to 38-19 with 8:30 remaining in the third quarter.

"It was a little trickery, kind of a delay play," said Dabney, who had his second 100-yard receiving day of the season and his career with four catches for a career-high 105 yards, "and they ended up sitting on it. I just tried to go up with it, and Blake saw that and led me up field. Luckily, the DB missed. All glory to God for that one. We were just doing whatever we can to give our offense and our team a spark. So, that was big in that moment."

The Wildcats put the game away, though, with two touchdowns in a span of less than two minutes. Treshaun Ward finished off a nine-play, 73-yard drive with a four-yard TD run, then Garber's pick-six 45-yard return made it 52-29.

"We have not had turnovers," said Aranda, whose team had turned it over just 11 times in the first nine games before Saturday's four-turnover game. "We picked a bad day to have some. When we were off on execution, (the turnovers) did compound it. I was talking to the defense when the first one (Purnell's fumble return) happened. It was just way unfortunate."

After K-State capitalized on the Bears' fourth turnover with a 28-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Avery Johnson to tight end Garrett Oakley, Baylor had its best sustained drive of the day.

Marching 77 yards in 10 plays, Baylor converted on a fourth-and-four play with Shapen's 21-yard pass to Roberts. And then, after penalties on the Wildcats for defensive holding and pass interference, Shapen hit receiver Monaray Baldwin on a six-yard touchdown on his ninth target and first catch of the day.

"We never gave up. And that's one thing about this team that I love," Jackson said. "We're still not giving up. Even at the very end, we wanted to go out there and do an onside (kick). We wanted to make sure we had an opportunity to win the game. It just didn't happen. We've got to go back to the drawing board and keep putting that work in and keep trusting the process, because we're going to get better and we're going to be the team we aspire to be."

In his best game in a Baylor uniform, Richardson rushed for a season-high 89 yards on 17 carries and was one of a dozen Bears with at least one reception, hauling in an eight-yard reception.

The Bears will go back on the road to face TCU (4-6, 2-5) at 2:30 p.m. next Saturday, Nov. 18, at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth. Losing their third in a row as well, the Horned Frogs put a late scare into seventh-ranked Texas before falling, 29-26, Saturday night.