#25 K-State handled their business and rebounded after last week’s loss with a 59-25 dominant win over Baylor at Bill Snyder Family Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The Wildcats completely outmatched the Bears in every aspect of the game, and it started early with KSU scoring 21 points in the first quarter and getting a 35-7 lead in the first 16:53 of the game.

K-State’s offense carved up the Baylor defense which is near the bottom of the conference in almost every statistical category. Treshaun Ward found the endzone, and DJ Giddens had 115 rushing yards and a receiving touchdown.

Will Howard had another solid outing going 19-for-29 with 235 yards and three touchdowns. Howard became the all-time leader in passing touchdowns with 45, surpassing NFL first-round draft pick Josh Freeman. Howard had a rushing touchdown as well.

As for the Wildcats’ defense, they turned the Bears over three times including two defensive touchdowns. In the first quarter, Cody Stufflebean strip-sacked Baylor quarterback Blake Shapen and Desmond Purnell returned it to the house.

In the fourth quarter, Keenan Garber jumped a bubble screen and picked off Shapen and returned it for a touchdown.

Special teams was solid as well except for one long punt return from Baylor. Chris Tennant made all eight of his PATs and a field goal. Matthew Maschmeier recovered a fumble on a Baylor punt attempt after a low snap.

K-State outgained Baylor 451-332. The Wildcats had 199 of those yards in the first quarter. Baylor was only able to get 85 rushing yards on 35 attempts for just 2.4 yards per carry. The Bears have been notoriously bad on the ground and K-State’s rushing defense is one of the best in the country.

This is just the performance the Wildcats needed. They couldn’t let Texas beat them twice, and they were able to get a well-rounded effort from start to finish.

K-State is now 5-2 in Big 12 play and 7-3 overall. They still need some help to get to the Big 12 title game, but it’s not an impossibility.

Next week is the Sunflower Showdown against #16 Kansas which will be at David Booth Memorial Stadium in Lawrence with the time to be announced later. KU is coming off a devastating home loss to unranked Texas Tech.