AMES, Iowa (AP) — Kansas State quarterback Jesse Ertz celebrated his return to Iowa with one of the most complete games of his young career.

Ertz rushed for a career-high 106 yards on just nine carries and Kansas State held off host Iowa State 31-26 on Saturday for its third win in four games.

Ertz, a sophomore who broke the Iowa prep record for career touchdowns at tiny Mediapolis High, added 151 yards passing with a TD for the Wildcats (5-3, 3-2 Big 12). They beat the Cyclones (1-7, 0-5) for the ninth year in a row.

“Obviously it had a little more meaning to it. But overall, it’s one game at a time and we’re just trying to put together some wins and some streaks and get some momentum,” Ertz said.

Iowa State pulled to within 17-10 early in the third quarter, but K-State answered with two long scoring drives that put it ahead by 21.

But Kansas State nearly let the Cyclones steal it late — and coach Bill Snyder wasn’t too pleased about it.

Deshaunte Jones had a 5-yard TD catch with 51 seconds left for Iowa State. But the Cyclones failed to execute the ensuing onside kick, touching the ball before it went 10 yards.

Iowa State outscored the Wildcats 16-0 in the fourth.

“I’m not saying it’s so doggone easy. But the only way you can become successful is start, finish and be consistent in between. We’re not doing that,” Kansas State coach Bill Snyder said.

Alex Barnes, Winston Dimel and Justin Silmon all had short rushing TDs for the Wildcats, who ran for 247 yards.

Backup Jacob Park had 301 yards passing and two touchdowns for the Cyclones. But he missed David Montgomery on a wide-open pass on fourth-and-1 at the K-State 1 with seven minutes left.

“I’m going to take this on me and our staff. There’s some things that happened that we just can’t allow to happen eight to nine weeks into the season,” Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said.

THE TAKEAWAY

Kansas State: The Wildcats are now just a win shy of bowl eligibility. With a home date against woeful Kansas looming, that seems imminent. What kind of bowl Kansas State gets invited to remains up in the air, with tough games against Oklahoma State, Baylor and TCU remaining.

Iowa State: The Cyclones had some promising moments on offense in the second half, outgaining K-State 493-398. But Kansas State converted eight of 12 third downs and scored on all five of its trips to the red zone. The Cyclones have let up at least 27 points in all five of their league games.

PIVOTAL MOMENT

Down 17-3, Iowa State opened the second half by recovering an onside kick — and seven plays later Park found Deshaunte Jones for a 24-yard TD pass to make it 17-10. But K-State answered with a 14-play, 85-yard touchdown drive that sucked the life out Jack Trice Stadium.

PARK BLOWS IT

Park got the Cyclones to K-State’s 1-yard line with a chance to pull his team within seven. But the Wildcats stuffed Iowa State on three straight running plays, and Park overthrew Montgomery on a rollout that left both of them yards away from the nearest defender. Park knew the significance of his mistake immediately, falling to his knees with his head in his hands.

THE NUMBERS

Bill Snyder won his 198th game, placing him 25th all-time in career FBS victories. … Iowa State recorded its first safety since 2006 in the fourth quarter. … The Wildcats are 23-4 against Iowa State since 1990. … Iowa State’s Allen Lazard caught eight passes for 134 yards. He has now had at least one reception in 31 straight games, a school record.

UP NEXT

Kansas State hosts Oklahoma State on Nov. 5. The Cowboys toppled previously-unbeaten West Virginia 37-20 on Saturday.

Iowa State has Oklahoma coming in on Thursday. The Cyclones haven’t beaten the Sooners in Ames since 1963.

— Associated Press —

MANHATTAN, Kan. – After climbing up the Kansas State career sack list once again on Saturday in the Wildcats’ 24-21 victory over Texas, senior defensive end Jordan Willis was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week, the conference office announced Monday.

Willis picked up his first-career Big 12 weekly honor and the second by a Wildcat defender this season. K-State ranks second in the Big 12 with 43 conference player of the week honors since 2011, including six in 2016.

A product of Kansas City, Missouri, Willis filled up the stat sheet as he carded seven tackles, 3.0 tackles for loss, a pair of sacks, a forced fumble and a pass breakup. The senior, who leads the Big 12 in both sacks and TFLs, improved his season sack total to 8.0 to rank third in the nation, while he now has 11.5 TFLs this year to stand seventh nationally.

Willis now has 22.5 career sacks as he moved into fourth place in Kansas State history, the most by a Wildcat since Darren Howard set the school record with 29.5 from 1996-99. He also has 34.5 career TFLs, just 4.5 shy of entering the school’s top-10 list that does not include anyone that has played in the last 15 years.

K-State travels to Iowa State this Saturday in an 11 a.m., contest that will be shown nationally on FSN.

— K-State Athletics —

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — The only thing consistent about Kansas State this season has been Bill Snyder’s postgame message.

One that laments the Wildcats’ inconsistency.

Their yin-and-yang was on display once more on Saturday in a 24-21 victory over Texas. Kansas State was dominant on both sides of the ball in the first half, then committed a series of mistakes in the second half that provided the Longhorns an opportunity to make it a game.

“We played fine in the first half,” Snyder said grimly, “and laid eggs in the second half.”

Indeed, the Wildcats (4-3, 2-2 Big 12) raced to a 21-7 lead at the break, and added a field goal in the third quarter to take control. But three turnovers, including one by Charles Jones at the goal line, allowed the Longhorns (3-4, 1-3) to get within 24-14 later in the quarter.

The Longhorns couldn’t overcome their own multitude of mistakes, though. Among them was a badly missed 35-yard field-goal attempt with just over four minutes remaining that would have made it 24-17.

The Longhorns eventually got the ball back, but then squandered precious time with running plays before Shane Buechele hit Dorian Leonard from 6 yards out with 46 seconds left. Then they knocked the ensuing onside kick out of bounds, preventing them from having a chance to kick a tying field goal.

“It’s tough when you lose a game and we had the opportunity to go win it,” said Texas coach Charlie Strong, whose hot seat only got hotter with his third loss in four games. “We needed big stops in the first half and we didn’t make them. We were able to bounce back there in the second half — it’s just that we’ve got to learn from it, got to move on. … We’ve just got to get ourselves back together.”

Jesse Ertz led the Wildcats with 171 yards passing and a touchdown and 78 yards rushing and two more scores. He also teamed with running backs Charles Jones, Justin Silmon and Alex Barnes to pile up 240 yards on the ground against a Texas defense that began loading up the box to stop them.

The result was the Wildcats’ fifth straight home win over Texas.

“I was kind of upset after last week,” Kansas State linebacker Elijah Lee said of a lopsided loss to Oklahoma. “That’s something you have to carry with you: The season isn’t over. You have to take it game by game.”

Buechele finished with 222 yards and two scores passing, but a big chunk of that came on an 80-yard pass to Devin Duvernay in the second quarter. Otherwise, Buechele was sacked twice and corralled most of the day.

D’Onta Foreman, the nation’s second-leading rusher, carried 24 times for 124 yards. But he was repeatedly stuffed in key situations, a big reason why Texas was 3 of 11 on third down and 0 for 2 on fourth.

“Beats the tar out of a loss,” Snyder said in summary, “but it’s not so much the win as how. If we play and prepare well start to finish, we’d be better. That’s why I’m not jumping up and down right now.”

THE TAKEAWAY

TEXAS: After eclipsing 500 yards total offense for the fourth time this season a week ago against Iowa State, the Longhorns struggled to move the ball. They managed a season-low 344 yards on Saturday.

KANSAS STATE: The fumble by Jones at the goal line summed up the Wildcats’ inconsistency issues. The senior running back otherwise had a solid day but, as Snyder pointed out, “We’re all taught when we’re 5 years old to put two hands on the football.”

PENALTY PROBLEMS

Texas was penalized 10 times for 72 yards, drawing four flags on the Wildcats’ scoring march to open the game. Kansas State countered with eight penalties for 75 yards. It made for a busy game for an officiating crew that also spent a whole lot of time reviewing plays.

SEEING RED

The Wildcats had scored on 56 straight trips inside the red zone before Jones fumbled in the third quarter. The last time they failed to score was Oct. 17, 2015, in a shutout loss to the Sooners.

UP NEXT

TEXAS: Ninth-ranked Baylor visits Austin on Saturday.

KANSAS STATE: A trip to Iowa State awaits Saturday.

— Associated Press —

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Baker Mayfield and Dede Westbrook have become a dynamic duo for the Oklahoma Sooners.

Mayfield completed all but six of his 31 passes for 346 yards and four touchdowns, Westbrook had nine receptions for 184 yards and three scores and No. 19 Oklahoma pulled away to beat Kansas State 38-17 on Saturday.

One week after Mayfield passed for 390 yards and Westbrook had a school-record 232 yards receiving, they were electric once again as Oklahoma (4-2, 3-0 Big 12) won its third straight game after starting out 1-2.

When Mayfield hit a wide open Westbrook for an 88-yard touchdown — the longest pass play at home and fourth-longest overall in Oklahoma history — in the fourth quarter, it was Westbrook’s eighth TD in the last three games, a new school record.

“Two talented guys,” Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said. “Of course, Baker’s just great. I’m just looking at 25 out of 31 — that’s a great day against a good defense. And then Dede’s just got that speed and polish in his route running to get open.”

With Samaje Perine sidelined by a muscle injury in the first quarter, Joe Mixon stepped up for Oklahoma. He rushed for 88 yards, caught three passes for 34 yards and a touchdown and became the first Sooners running back since Joe Washington in 1973 to throw a touchdown pass. The 26-yarder to Westbrook in the second quarter put the Sooners ahead 21-7.

“We trust Joe,” Mayfield said. “We were able to come out there and still run the same plays, even when Samaje wasn’t out there, so that’s why you saw some success in our passing game because those guys were still worried about our run game.”

Stoops noted that Perine was held out for precautionary reasons.

“Samaje just had a slight pulled muscle, and if forced to play, he could have,” Stoops said. “We wanted to see if we could get away with it, and hopefully allow it to heal this week.”

Kansas State (3-3, 1-2) had its own injury issues as starting quarterback Jesse Ertz left for good just after halftime with an apparent problem with his right throwing shoulder. He completed 8 of 14 passes for 68 yards and ended the game as the Wildcats’ leading rusher with 40 yards and a touchdown on seven carries.

Joe Hubener came in and threw for 157 yards on 12 of 23 passes, with a spectacular 54-yard touchdown to Dominique Heath early in the fourth quarter that pulled K-State to within 31-17. Heath ended up with seven receptions for 101 yards, both career-highs.

“It’s never as good as I would like,” Kansas State coach Bill Snyder said of his quarterbacks. “I think Jesse did some good things, Joe did some good things, but they made some mistakes. It’s still a work in progress.”

TAKEAWAY

Kansas State: K-State entered the game with the Big 12’s top defense, allowing just 17.6 points and 310.2 yards per game, but Oklahoma had 21 points less than five minutes into the second quarter and piled up 510 total yards.

“You have to stay aggressive against a defense like K-State,” said Oklahoma offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley. “If you start to get conservative and hand it off every time, they will prey on you, and they’ve done it against everybody, they’re one of the best run defenses in the country.”

Oklahoma: The Sooners need to keep feeding the ball to Mixon, even when Perine is healthy. Even as Perine’s backup, Mixon entered the day ranking fourth in the nation averaging 179 yards per game in all-purpose yards, and put up 177 in this one. His 19 rushes were a career high.

“Joe was sensational running the football,” Stoops said, “making a really good defense miss him on a good number of occasions to get extra yards. He ran tough in a lot of instances, caught the ball well, had a big kickoff return, and then goes and throws a touchdown pass.”

PLAY OF THE GAME

Which Mixon play to choose? There was the 8-yard touchdown reception where he made a one-handed catch on a short shovel pass from Mayfield and then hurdled over K-State safety Dante Barnett on his way to the end zone, which made it 14-0. Or would it be his 26-yard touchdown pass to Westbrook early in the second quarter?

“We’ll have to work on his spiral,” Mayfield said of Mixon’s pass. “That was a pretty ugly duck, but he got it there, that’s all that matters.”

UP NEXT

Kansas State: The Wildcats host Texas next Saturday.

Oklahoma: The Sooners visit Texas Tech next Saturday.

— Associated Press —

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State sophomores Byron Pringle and D.J. Reed were honored for their play in K-State’s 44-38 victory over Texas Tech as they were named the Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week and Big 12 Newcomer of the Week, respectively, the conference office announced Monday.

Pringle earned his second special teams honor this season (Missouri State), while Reed is a first-time honoree for newcomer of the week, which the conference began awarding this season. K-State has now earned five weekly conference honors this season as Dominique Heath was also the Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week following the Florida Atlantic game, while Elijah Lee earned the defensive award after the West Virginia contest.

Both Reed and Pringle had non-offensive touchdowns that factored prominently in the win over Texas Tech. With the game tied 7-7 in the first quarter, Reed jumped in front of a Red Raider pass toward the sideline and returned it 35 yards for a touchdown. It was the Wildcats’ first pick-six since the 2014 Oklahoma game and K-State’s longest interception return since Dante Barnett had a 51-yard return against Michigan in the 2013 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl.

Right before halftime, Pringle returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown, which quickly shifted the game’s momentum. The return touchdown was the first of his career, while it marked the nation-leading 12th straight season K-State has returned a kickoff for a touchdown. The return was also the 42nd combined kickoff- and punt-return touchdown since 2005, which leads the nation.

With the pick-six and return touchdown, K-State now has a nation-leading 104 non-offensive touchdowns since 1999, which also leads the nation.

K-State travels to Oklahoma this Saturday in an 11 a.m., contest that will be shown nationally on ESPN

— KSU Athletics —

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Elijah Lee and the rest of the Kansas State defense trudged to the locker room at halftime against Texas Tech on Saturday night fortunate to be ahead.

Then, the Wildcats made a solemn vow.

“Second half,” the veteran linebacker said, with sternness to his voice, “we had the mindset that they can’t do to us what they did to us in the first half.”

They proceeded to shut down Patrick Mahomes and the Red Raiders over the final 30 minutes, holding on for a 44-38 victory highlighted by touchdowns in all three phases of the game.

Texas Tech only scored 10 points in the second half, seven coming in the game’s final minute.

“We came together as a defensive unit and we were like, `We have to eliminate all the big plays,” Kansas State cornerback Duke Shelley said. “This game was on us.”

Mahomes, despite an ailing shoulder, still threw for 504 yards and two touchdowns while running for three more scores. But the Red Raiders’ junior quarterback also threw a pick that was returned for seven and failed to convert three fourth downs in the second half.

He also failed to get off a throw to the end zone from midfield on the final play of the games.

“He’s a tough kid,” said Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury, who acknowledged Mahomes did not practice fully this week. “We wouldn’t put him out there if he couldn’t handle it.”

Still, the result was the 196th win for Kansas State’s Bill Snyder, and it came in his 300th game leading the Wildcats. It also came day after the Hall of Fame coach’s 77th birthday.

Not that he was in much of a mood to enjoy it.

Snyder was terse in his postgame comments, particularly when asked about burning through his three timeouts in the second half. But he was proud of the way his defense performed in the second half.

“They got a ton of yardage,” Snyder said. “We put them in some fourth down situations, which was good, because they didn’t convert any.”

Indeed, the teams waged a back-and-forth offensive showdown in the first half with Pringle’s TD return giving the Wildcats a 31-28 advantage with 1:31 left before the break. But it wasn’t until the Red Raiders chose to go for it on fourth down — twice — in the third quarter that the game pivoted.

The first came inside the Kansas State 5 on the first possession of the second half, when a field goal would have tied the game. The second came later in the third quarter, when a sack gave the Wildcats the ball at the Texas Tech 47 — and set them up for a touchdown that made it 38-31.

“Trying to be aggressive,” Kinsbury said. “We felt like we had a chance there with the play calls that we liked. They made a good play on the ball, just didn’t go our way.”

The Red Raiders finally did punt on fourth-and-1 at their own 34 early in the fourth quarter, but their defense allowed Kansas State to go 71 yards for a field goal that made it a two-possession game.

Texas Tech failed to convert another fourth down a few minutes later, the Wildcats added one more field goal, and not even a late touchdown by the Red Raiders was enough to change the outcome.

GUT PUNCH

Pringle was playfully — maybe? — punched in the gut by teammate Dominique Heath while celebrating his kickoff return touchdown. He crumpled to the ground and lay there for a moment, and said afterward that the uppercut knocked the wind out of him. “I’m feeling good now,” he said.

THE TAKEAWAY

Texas Tech: The Red Raiders can score with anybody, but they also can allow anybody to score with them. Kansas State barely sniffed the end zone in a 17-16 loss to West Virginia last week.

Kansas State: The Wildcats, tops in the Big 12 defensively entering the game, allowed Texas Tech to go 6-of-7 on third downs in the first half. They went 3-of-9 in the second half.

UP NEXT

Texas Tech: West Virginia visits Lubbock, Texas, on Saturday.

Kansas State: No. 20 Oklahoma awaits the Wildcats on Saturday.

— Associated Press —

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Following a career-high 14 tackles and his fourth-career interception last weekend at West Virginia, Kansas State linebacker Elijah Lee has been named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week, the conference office announced Monday morning.

Lee, who picked up his first-career player of the week accolade, gave K-State its third-consecutive weekly conference honor as Dominique Heath (Florida Atlantic) and Byron Pringle (Missouri State) picked up the special teams honors the previous two weeks.

A product of Blue Springs, Missouri, Lee bettered his previous career high of 12 tackles achieved last year against Louisiana Tech and in the 2016 season opener at eighth-ranked Stanford. He tallied eight of his 14 tackles in the first half as the Wildcats shut out the Mountaineers over the first 30 minutes, K-State’s first shutout in a half of a Big 12 road game in two years.

Lee also recorded his fourth-career interception in the first quarter, which led to a Wildcat touchdown. He became the first Wildcat linebacker since Bryan Hickman (2000-03) with four career interceptions, while he is one of four K-State linebackers under head coach Bill Snyder with at least four picks.

The Wildcats host their first Big 12 home game this Saturday as they take on Texas Tech at 6 p.m., in Bill Snyder Family Stadium, a game that will be televised by ESPNU.

— K-State Athletics —