LAWRENCE, Kan. _ Kansas State beat Kansas, 30-20, in the closest Sunflower Showdown in nearly a decade Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
The Jayhawks made things more competitive than expected behind the strong play of quarterback Carter Stanley, who threw for 418 yards and a touchdown, but the Wildcats made enough plays to survive and win this rivalry game for the ninth straight season.
It was far from a thing of beauty, but K-State (4-4, 2-3 Big 12) will take the result. The victory snapped a three-game losing streak and puts the team back on track to qualify for a bowl. KU (1-7, 0-5) suffered its seventh consecutive defeat.
The Wildcats pulled ahead after a mediocre first half with one big hit and a few highlight runs in the second half. They won despite starting their backup quarterback, Alex Delton, and finishing out the game with their third-stringer, Skylar Thompson.
The game began to swing K-State's way on the first play of the second half. The Jayhawks were riding a wave of momentum after piling up 213 yards in the first half and trailing just 10-6, and they tried to start the third quarter with a big pass. But K-State linebacker Jayd Kirby wrecked that plan by hitting Stanley on a blitz. He nailed Stanley with force, jarring the ball loose and then recovering the fumble.
Alex Barnes ran in a touchdown three plays later, and K-State led 17-6. Then the Wildcats forced a KU punt and Matthew McCrane connected on his second field goal of the afternoon to make it 20-6.
Stanley added a new element to the Kansas offense that was lacking in recent shutout losses to Iowa State (45-0) and TCU (43-0), and he did enough to throw a real scare into the Wildcats by leading the Jayhawks on a pair of touchdown drives that pulled KU within one score. But it wasn't quite enough.
K-State's defense was torched for the second consecutive week, but it came up with an important three-and-out with the Wildcats clinging to a 27-20 lead, and McCrane clinched the game with a field goal on the following drive.
K-State needed all the offense it could muster in this one, and moving the ball proved difficult after Delton exited the game following a hard hit at the end of a run late in the second quarter.
The Wildcats turned to Thompson, a redshirt freshman, to close out the game, but they didn't ask him to do a whole lot with his arm. Most of their remaining plays went to Barnes out of a wildcat formation, and he ended up rushing for a season-high 128 yards and two touchdowns.
Things seemed to flow easier for KU's offense, as it made it the score 20-13 with a run from Taylor Martin early in the fourth quarter and then 27-20 with a 60-yard throw to Steven Sims.
The outcome went according to script, but the game did not.
K-State led Kansas, 10-6, at halftime, but in some ways it felt like the Wildcats were losing.
The Jayhawks played with more energy in the first half, out-gaining the Wildcats 213-197 and regularly crossing midfield. They only managed two field goals off those all drives, but they also pinned K-State at the 1-yard line with a punt and threw a ball into the end zone on the final play of the second quarter.
K-State countered with a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the first quarter, giving the Wildcats a 7-3 lead just 8 seconds after falling behind 3-0
The rest of the first half was entertaining between the 20s and a bore in the red zone.
Neither team scored an offensive touchdown in the first half, with the Wildcats losing a Byron Pringle fumble and turning the ball over on downs on an unsuccessful fourth-down run. The Jayhawks had to settle for field goals.
Things picked up in the second half, but it was close throughout.
For once, K-State had to sweat out the final moments of a Sunflower Showdown.
