The Kansas State Wildcats had proven they could overcome adversity this season.

Saturday just wasn’t enough.

The Wildcats blew a nine-point fourth-quarter lead in a 24-19 loss to the Houston Cougars. They were outscored 14-0 in the fourth quarter.

“I just felt like we were flat offensively,” K-State quarterback Avery Johnson said. “We couldn’t do anything. We stagnated a lot in the second half. We didn’t really play collectively as well as we wanted to.”

The loss likely ends K-State’s chances of winning the Big 12 title or making the College Football Playoff. Johnson finished 23 of 39 for 238 yards with one touchdown but threw two interceptions. The Wildcats never seemed to get going after the game was delayed nearly an hour due to lightning.

Still, Kansas State held a 327-232 lead in total yards and led 19-10 in the quarter before things fell apart. Houston quarterback Zeon Chriss, who threw for 103 yards, accounted for both touchdowns in the fourth quarter. He threw a one-yard strike to Maliq Carr before running for a 41-yard score with 2 minutes, 31 seconds left.

“I don’t want to take anything away from you, but I feel like the words to describe it were we let it get away,” K-State receiver Keagan Johnson said. “They are a good team. They played better today. It all comes down to that. “We didn’t execute when we needed to.”

Shandel Richardson is the Kansas State Wildcats editor at SI. He can be contacted at [email protected]

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