MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) – Telling the most productive wide receiver in the country to stay home did Oklahoma State’s high-powered offense no good at all.
Without Justin Blackmon, the No. 20 Cowboys scored a respectable 24 points – but it was still less than half their season average.
Subtracting a touchdown on an interception return, an offense that had been scoring almost 49 points a game eked out only 17 against the same Kansas State defense that Nebraska gouged for 48 and Baylor blasted for 47.
Now that Blackmon’s one-game suspension for misdemeanor DUI has been served, Oklahoma State will happily welcome him back for this week’s game against No. 25 Baylor.
Going forward, however, the Cowboys might be hurt even more if something happened to punter Quinn Sharp.
Oklahoma State boasts an arsenal of quality weapons on offense, including quarterback Brandon Weeden and running back Kendall Hunter, but the team does not have anyone who can replace Sharp.
With flawless execution throughout Saturday’s 24-14 victory over the Wildcats, Sharp pinned the Wildcats against the shadow of their own goal line time after time with punts that rolled dead at the Kansas State 4, 8, 7 and 1-yard lines.
A few minutes after Quinn’s final punt left the Wildcats with another long field, safety Johnny Thomas returned an interception of Carson Coffman 26 yards for the final margin, improving the Cowboys to 7-1 overall and 3-1 in the Big 12.
Nothing the Wildcats tried against Sharp worked.
“He is excellent, and it’s not just a matter he can kick the ball a long ways if he wants to,” said Kansas State coach Bill Snyder. “It’s how he can make that ball die inside the 5-yard line, which he did, and do it over and over again.”
Snyder tried to come up with a strategy for Sharp.
“We tried to block one, and we couldn’t get close to it. We thought that might rush him up a little. But it didn’t. The bottom line was, when he was out on the field we probably should have tried to return it a little bit more than we did. We went into what we call `punt save,’ just to make sure they punted and didn’t fake it.
“We might have been better served.”
Dan Bailey, the other half of Oklahoma State’s extraordinary pair of specialists, also had a good day. He connected on his only field goal attempt, from 34 yards, and was perfect on all three extra points.
“I’ve been working a lot on my hangtime this year, just giving my guys the best chance,” said Sharp. “Our return guys, their return guys, our punt team has done a great job getting down the field.
“It’s always nice to hit a big ball, but I would definitely say pinning them down inside their own 20 is definitely nice,” said Sharp. “I mean, it helps out our defense tremendously. You’re talking, you’ve got to make a team drive 80 yards every possession.”
Making Sharp’s efforts even more valuable was the quality of Kansas State’s return team.
“We worked all week on punting,” Sharp said. “We knew they had good returners all around, guys who make plays. So my job today was just get the ball in the air and give my guys a chance to get down there and down it inside the 10. I got some lucky bounces and the ball just happened to go our way today.”
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