Vanderbilt 14, Kansas State 7
When: 7:30 PM ET, Saturday, September 16, 2017
Where: Vanderbilt Stadium, Nashville, Tennessee
Temperature:
83°
Head Official:
Scott Campbell
Attendance:
40350
By The Sports Xchange
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- On a picture-perfect evening in Music City, a popular upset pick in college football became reality.
Junior quarterback Kyle Shurmur scored on a 2-yard run with 8:23 remaining as Vanderbilt beat No. 18 Kansas State 14-7 on Saturday before a sellout crowd at Vanderbilt Stadium.
The Commodores' defense also played a key role, intercepting Wildcats quarterback Jesse Ertz twice in a span of four minutes of the fourth quarter.
Shurmur was 14 of 23 passing for 205 yards and one touchdown.
Vanderbilt head coach Derek Mason likened the showdown against a ranked-opponent to a classic, slug-it-out boxing match.
"I just thought we battled," Mason said.
"It was a battle of two equally matched teams all the way around. Just going back and forth, it felt like a heavyweight fight, like those fights back in the '80s. Nowadays, it's on pay-per-view, but back in the day, it was like ABC. It was some real-deal boxing, and that's what it felt like tonight."
Ertz rushed for 126 yards and a touchdown.
Both teams had bad breaks with penalties late in the third quarter. Kansas State saw a punt return touchdown called back because of an illegal block in the back. On the previous series, a key first-down completion was called back because of an illegal-hands-to-the-face penalty.
Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder was disappointed in his team's performance, but mainly in himself for not giving the numerous Wildcat fans in the sellout crowd a good show.
"Just that I didn't have our football team as prepared as they needed to be to win, that we let our fans down," he said. "It was a wonderful turnout. I'm so proud of them and so grateful to them and feel badly that we didn't play up to their expectations."
Most of the second half was a grudge match between the defenses before Vanderbilt started to swing the momentum with an interception by redshirt junior safety LaDarius Wiley early in the fourth quarter. However, the tide quickly turned again when running back Ralph Webb coughed up the football in the red zone; Kansas State's Elijah Sullivan recovered.
Mason said the game came down to those gritty defensive battles, not necessarily the flashy plays on the offensive end.
"It wasn't the fireworks, and I don't know if everybody expected fireworks," Mason said. "It was a defensive battle. I thought our football team played hard."
Another Ertz interception put Vanderbilt back into Kansas State territory with less than 10 minutes remaining. A 32-yard pass to Trent Sherfield set up Shurmur's game-winning touchdown run three plays later.
In the first half, Vanderbilt struck first with 4:06 remaining in the first quarter with a 2-yard touchdown pass from Shurmur to wide receiver C.J. Duncan. The play was set up by Webb's lower-body block on a would-be pass rusher, freeing up Shurmur to make the pass to the left side.
The Wildcats responded with a march down the field to tie the game. Ertz scored on a designed run to the left on fourth-and-inches at the Vanderbilt 15. Ertz ran five times for 62 yards on the drive.
Ertz had a phenomenal day on the ground, but had just 76 yards on 10 completions through the air. Snyder credited Vanderbilt's defense for slowing him down.
"Number one is that Vanderbilt is a good defensive football team and I thought they covered well, they pressured the quarterback very well," he said. "We dropped a ton of passes, we busted some assignments. But, that takes nothing away from what they did, because I thought they played well."
NOTES: Vanderbilt CB Bryce Lewis did not dress for the game after suffering an injury in last week's contests versus Alabama A&M. Lewis made four tackles and one interception in the first two games of the season. ... Kansas State QB Jesse Ertz's 84 rushing yards in the first half is the most he's had in one half this season. He had 88 first-half rushing yards through the first two games of the season. ... Vanderbilt LB Charles Wright was helped off the field with an apparent leg injury late in the second quarter. He returned at the start of the third quarter.
Top Game Performances
Rushing
| Kansas State |
|
Vanderbilt |
|
Jesse Ertz
|
Player |
Ralph Webb
|
|
24 |
Attempts |
21 |
|
126 |
Yards |
46 |
|
5.2 |
Avg Yards |
2.2 |
|
1 |
Touchdowns |
0 |
|
0 |
Long |
0 |
Team Stats Summary
| |
Yards |
Scoring |
Defense |
| Team |
Tot |
Rus |
Pas |
TD |
FG |
INT |
Sck |
FF |
| Kansas State
|
277 |
201 |
76 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1.0 |
1 |
| Vanderbilt
|
270 |
65 |
205 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
2.0 |
0 |
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