MORGANTOWN, W.V. _ The gap between Kansas State and the best teams in college football appears to be growing wider.
That was one of the initial takeaways from West Virginia's 35-6 victory over K-State on Saturday at Milan Puskar Stadium. The No. 12 Mountaineers were the better team, and they flexed their muscles from the start. The Wildcats simply couldn't keep up.
This was a mismatch in every sense of the word.
While West Virginia quarterback Will Grier was completing deep passes to his wide array of talented receivers for 356 yards and five touchdowns, K-State quarterback Skylar Thompson was struggling to lead the Wildcats across midfield.
Everything the Mountaineers (3-0, 1-0 Big 12) did looked easy. Everything the Wildcats (2-2, 0-1) did seemed hard.
The disparity between these two teams was most evident in the first half, when West Virginia inexplicably turned the ball over on its first two drives and K-State could do nothing to take advantage. Shortly after A.J. Parker picked off Grier on West Virginia's first possession, the Wildcats picked up 18 yards and punted. After Jordan Mittie recovered a fumble from Leddie Brown, the Wildcats gained 13 yards and punted again.
An opportune score, or two, from K-State could have given the Wildcats a fighting chance as road underdogs. Instead, the Mountaineers quit sleepwalking on their next drive and scored on an 82-yard touchdown pass to Marcus Simms, who beat Parker deep on a stop-and-go route up the left sideline.
From there, West Virginia raced to a 21-0 halftime lead. K-State players went to the locker room demoralized, particularly on offense. The Wildcats failed to enter Mountaineers territory and gained just 77 yards.
They squandered their best opportunity to drive into scoring range by twice getting stuffed on third-and-1 and fourth-and-inches midway through the second quarter. Thompson came up inches short on a QB sneak. Down 7-0 at its own 43, K-State opted to go for it on fourth down. It looked like Thompson was going to try another sneak, but he changed plays at the line of scrimmage and running back Alex Barnes lost 4 yards on an option pitch.
West Virginia went ahead 21-0 on a pair of touchdown passes to David Sills.
Thompson finally got the offense moving early in the third quarter with a 40-yard pass to Isaiah Zuber, but the Wildcats had to settle for a Blake Lynch field goal after Blaise Gammon and Zach Reuter dropped back-to-back passes in the end zone.
K-State avoided its first shutout since 2015, but the score did nothing to slow West Virginia.
The Mountaineers answered with a 62-yard touchdown pass to Tevin Bush and short touchdown pass to Sills. West Virginia went to Sills three different times from the 1, and he delivered scores all three times.
West Virginia led 35-3, and the game was effectively over.
Alex Delton took over for Thompson from there and had some success moving the offense between the 20s. But K-State was unable to reach the end zone. The Wildcats will have much to work on when they return home to take on Texas next week.
This game was eerily similar to a 31-10 loss K-State suffered against Mississippi State two weeks ago. The Wildcats have played two games against ranked opponents this season and failed to compete in both.
