Avery Johnson taking accountability for Wildcats’ offensive woes

MANHATTAN, Kan. — The Wildcats are crumbling down the stretch after suffering their third loss of the season, and a lot of the blame is being put on the offense.

Avery Johnson is Kansas State’s top quarterback, so he understands what it’s like to be the hero when the team is winning. However, he’s quickly finding out what it’s like to be the scapegoat when the Wildcats are losing. The 24-14 home loss to Arizona State Saturday night raised a lot of red flags about the direction of the offense.

After all, the Wildcats came out flat, didn’t play with any urgency and they were shutout in the first half for the first time this season. The offensive production was a head-scratcher to many fans in attendance, considering the team had an extra week to prepare for the Sun Devils. The offense looked similar to the loss to Houston, and was very predictable.

Those glaring weaknesses are reasons why the Wildcats’ aerial attack has become a liability for the team, and Johnson going through a sophomore slump. Johnson recognizes the growing pains he’s currently having in Conor Riley’s offense late in the season, and desperately wants to fix it. He’s also taking responsibility for rallying the troops during this time of extreme adversity, which is expected of a leader.

“I think a lot of times people look at me, and try to feed off my body language, so sometimes you gotta know when to get on some guys,” Johnson said. “You gotta pick some guys up, grab them by the shoulder to tell them it’s going to be alright, don’t lose confidence.”

Confidence in his arm appears to be what Johnson is lacking during the Wildcats’ two-game losing streak, and the numbers don’t lie. The signal-caller has one touchdown pass, and four interceptions over the last two games. Opposing defenses are now making it a priority to stop Kansas State’s rushing attack by keeping Johnson in the pocket, and forcing him to win by throwing the ball.

Not having wideout Keagan Johnson as a target is playing a big part in the Wildcats’ decline in passing production. Although Johnson has 496 passing yards over the past two games, the offense is still having a tough time scoring. As a matter of fact, Kansas State (7-3) has scored less than 20 points in all three of its’ losses this fall.

The offense didn’t get on the scoreboard against Arizona State (8-2) until late in the third quarter, and that’s unacceptable to Johnson. So he’s eager to fix those issues, raise the bar and change the narrative of Kansas State’s one-dimensional offense.

“The biggest this is I’m a competitor, so at the end of the day I would never step on the field unless I’m going out there to win,” he said. “At this point we have to take it one week at a time, a one-week season, so you never know what could shake out, and just continue to attack each day as its’ own, and not look too far down the road.”

It’s going to be challenging for the Wildcats to find momentum after losing three conference games, and being on the outside looking in of the Big 12 race. Fans are starting to question if Johnson has a ceiling in Riley’s scheme, and if the team needs a new Offensive Coordinator.

Regardless of the matter, life after Collin Klein and Will Howard hasn’t panned out well for the offense. Johnson isn’t pointing any fingers though, and knows there’s still a lot of football to play over the final two weeks of the regular season. In his mind, anything can happen. The offense hasn’t had an identity since the victory over Kansas, so Johnson anticipates practice is going to be intense leading up to Senior Day against Cincinnati.

The main goal for Johnson is to learn from last Saturday’s loss and shift gears to the Bearcats, because the Wildcats no longer have any margin for error.

“It hurts, it’s never a good feeling coming off a loss, and the biggest thing is we still got a lot of room for improvement, and can’t let Arizona State beat us twice.”