The well-oiled machine that has been the ISU offense came to a grinding halt at the hands of the Kansas State defense Saturday at Jack Trice Stadium.

The Wildcat defense clogged running lanes, played solid pass coverage and put heaps of pressure on Cyclone quarterback Seneca Wallace. The Wildcats forced two Cyclone turnovers, including an interception returned for a touchdown by Milton Proctor late in the game.

The final result of this stellar defensive performance was a measly 174 yards of total offense from the Cyclones, almost half of that coming in the fourth quarter. The Cyclones had been averaging 414.6 yards in total offense.

“I think if you take away one of their drives late in the ball game, and we were super on defense,” Wildcat coach Bill Snyder said. “We got some turnovers, scored on defense, and those were major plays for us.”

Big 12 leading rusher Ennis Haywood managed only 6 yards, 114 below his average, on 10 carries. The Wildcats appear to have Haywood’s number as they held him to 35 yards in last year’s meeting.

“You have to give their defense credit, because they played very good today,” Haywood said. “When they play against the run, they load the box up with eight or nine guys. They’re always going to have an extra guy we can’t block. We knew it was going to be hard to run the ball.”

On the other sideline, the Wildcat offense enjoyed a huge day, totaling 431 yards in offense. Most of those yards came on the ground as the Wildcats carved up the Cyclone defense for 343 rushing yards.

“Our offense pounded them,” Wildcat defensive coordinator Phil Bennett said. “It’s easy to play defense behind an offense that’s getting, averaging 6 or 7 yards a carry.”

The Wildcats were powered by a two-pronged rushing attack of tailback Josh Scobey and quarterback Ell Roberson. Scobey raced through and around Cyclone defenders for 172 yards and two scores on 32 carries while Roberson stayed busy with 131 yards on 22 carries.

Scobey’s second touchdown came on a short run and set the Wildcat record for most rushing touchdowns in a career. Scobey now owns the mark with 27 career scores, six coming against the Cyclones.

“I’m proud of my offensive line, because they went out and opened those holes for me to get through,” Scobey said. “Some people think I’m a good back and some don’t, so I hope this will show what I’m capable of doing. It felt real good to break the record, and that’s why I came to Kansas State, to do things like this and help this team and program win.”

The non-existent Cyclone offense meant that the defense had to stay on the field for nearly 40 minutes and get softened up by a constant Wildcat ground game.

“That happens, and I know because I played defense before, back in the day,” Scobey said. “I know how it is when you have people running downhill at you all four quarters. You’re sitting there making tackles, and you’re banging and banging, that begins to wear and tear on you.”