The Mountaineers turned the football over four times, failed to get points on three red-zone possessions and watched the 12^th-ranked Wildcats walk away with a 26-20 victory on Thursday night at Milan Puskar Stadium.

 

"This is a tough team to beat and you can't make mistakes and we had way too many of them tonight," said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen.

 

At halftime, Kansas State had negative-3 yards rushing, fumbled a kickoff at its own 22 and was called for twice as many penalties as it normally gets for an entire game, and still had a two-touchdown lead.

 

The Wildcats (8-2, 6-1) accomplished this with a short field on its opening possession, driving only 49 yards in eight plays, and then getting a 43-yard punt return for a touchdown near the end of the first half from Tyler Lockett on a low liner from punter Nick O’Toole that he literally caught on a dead run.  

 

"Horrible punt," said Holgorsen. "Our whole team went right and he miss-hit it left and it was one I could have scored on. It was obviously a big play."

 

Speaking of Lockett, that guy has had two careers against West Virginia’s secondary. Two years ago, in 2012, he caught nine passes for 194 yards and three touchdowns; last year in Manhattan, he went for eight catches for 111 yards and two scores, and tonight, his evening ended with 10 catches for 196 yards.

 

Add it all up and that’s 27 catches for 611 yards and five touchdowns against the Mountaineers.

 

"I don't normally do this but I went over to Lockett (after the game) and I said I'm glad you are graduating," said Holgorsen. "That kid is just a special, special football player. He's done it to us three years in a row - he's as good as it gets."

 

The guys throwing the football to him haven’t been too shabby, either. Two years ago Collin Klein completed 19-of-21 passes for 323 yards and three touchdowns. Last year Jake Waters and Daniel Sams combined to complete 18-of-21 passes for 291 yards and four touchdowns, and tonight, Waters completed 22-of-34 for 401 yards and a touchdown.

 

That’s more than 1,000 yards and eight touchdowns through the air, and that’s how a team can win a football game when it only runs for 1 yard on 29 attempts.

 

"The pass rush was non-existent," said Holgorsen. "We didn't lay a finger on him. There were times when we were rushing six and they were blocking six and we had nothing going. There times when we were rushing with three, they were blocking with six and they had four receivers out there and they were still completing pass after pass.

 

"A pass defense without a pass rush ... you've got no chance."

 

In the first half, West Virginia’s offense had just 3 points to show for its three red-zone possessions. One drive ended at the Wildcat 2 when Wendell Smallwood dropped Clint Trickett’s handoff, and a second one died in the wind at the 23 when Josh Lambert’s 40-yard field goal went wide right of the uprights.

 

Junior college transfer Skyler Howard entered the game midway through the third quarter at quarterback when Trickett left the field with a concussion and the Mountaineers trailing 20-3.

 

Howard led West Virginia to two long scoring drives that ended with touchdowns – the first coming with 6:24 left in the third quarter when he completed a 7-yard pass to Kevin White, and then a second one with 7:23 remaining when he threw a short pass to Mario Alford and Alford turned on the jets and outran the Kansas State defense for a 53-yard scoring play.

 

Howard also led the Mountaineers (6-5, 4-4) to another score with 1:48 left when Lambert kicked a 25-yard field goal to make it a one-possession game. Kansas State was then able to recover Lambert’s onside kick to run out the clock.

 

"If you want to talk about something that was positive, that was incredibly positive," said Holgorsen of Howard's performance. "He went in there and he didn't bat an eye. He was calm, confident and he was comfortable. I could (run the offense) as fast or as slow as I wanted to; the communication was perfect, the protection was not perfect, and he still made plays. He kept things alive, he threw accurate balls; I can't tell you how impressed I was with him. He gave us a chance to win.

 

"He was the reason why it was a six-point game."

 

Matthew McCrane kicked field goals of 36, 44 and 32 yards for Kansas State.

 

Howard completed 15-of-23 passes for 198 yards and two touchdowns in place of Trickett, whose Senior Night ended in the third quarter after completing 12-of-25 passes for 112 yards.

 

Two other seniors – wide receivers Kevin White and Mario Alford – combined to catch 11 passes for 155 yards and two touchdowns. White nearly had another TD when he caught a deflected pass intended to Jordan Thompson that caromed off him into and out of the arms of Dante Barnett and wound up going to White in the end zone.

 

The bizarre play was originally ruled a touchdown but replay officials overruled the call on the field, stating the ball hit the ground while Barnett was trying to secure it.

 

Sophomore Daikiel Shorts also contributed four catches for 72 yards while Rushel Shell led all grounder gainers with 60 yards on 15 carries.

 

West Virginia, which has lost two straight following its 31-30 loss to TCU, will try and snap its three-game losing streak next Saturday, November 29, in a noon game at Iowa State.

 

The Cyclones (2-7, 0-6) have Texas Tech this Saturday afternoon at Jack Trice Stadium.