OSU Players React to K-State Loss; Justin Phillips: ‘I’m Tired of Losing’

Senior linebacker Justin Phillips was speechless after his team gave up 31 points including four-straight K-State touchdown drives in the fourth quarter in Manhattan.

“I have no idea, I can’t even comment,” said Phillips when asked about where his team goes from here. “I’d have to go back and look at film to see what happened, if we got tired or we were just undisciplined in the second half, I don’t know.”

“I’m tired of losing,” Phillips added. “We’ve got to find something to do. Of course we’ve got the bye week ahead of us so guys will be able to get rest, take care of their bodies and get back to work.”

Fellow defensive veteran and the Big 12’s leader in sacks Jordan Brailford agreed that something needs to change.

“We just have to let them know that this is unacceptable,” Brailford about addressing the team. “This isn’t our culture. We have to make sure that we stay locked in. We definitely just have to challenge each other.

“We can’t really just go back home and keep doing the same thing. We have to get each other riled up, get each other to look at ourselves in the mirror and find out what’s going on, play on another level.”

But according to Mike Gundy, there will be no wholesale changes in personnel or practice heading into the bye week, just tweaks based on they see in film.

“This is a week-to-week deal,” Gundy said. “We will practice again, get more coverage, get some rest. You can’t panic. You can’t do that, you know? We have to look and see what we are doing, where we are at, and what can we do to correct it. We are certainly aware of the situation and I mean, you don’t have to worry about that. We know what’s going on, we are trying to do what we can as soon as possible to fix them.

“The approach really hasn’t changed for years, for me. It’s pretty much all the same, I guess you can’t take them out there six times and beat them to death. As I said, I think the effort is good. They are giving us effort, so, we look and see what we should work on and change. Not only players, but coaches also.”

Taylor Cornelius, who had the least-productive showing of his tenure — going 17 of 35 for 184 yards, two picks and no passing TD — took a similar stance to his head coach.

“We would like to be better,” said Cornelius. “But it is what it is, we have to move on we cannot dwell on the losses. We have to put some wins on the board.”

“We have a lot of football games left,” Cornelius added. “Anything can happen. We have a lot of games to win.”

After a Jarrick Bernard sack sent the Wildcats into halftime down 6-3, the defense looked like the only unit that got off of the bus in Manhattan. It allowed K-State just 151 yards on 3.8 yards per play before intermission.

But what emerged from the locker room was a completely different Wildcat offense, and an equally flipped result for the Cowboy D. In the third and fourth periods, Jim Knowles’ group gave up 270 yards and 28 points on 7.3 points per play.

This is ugly.

“I think guys came out fired up, everybody had the same energy, everybody was on the same task, just doing what we had to do to get the win,” said Phillips. “Coming out in the second half, things just went the other way.”

“You have to stay positive when people mess up, it’s just the name of the game,” Brailford added. “People are going to mess up, but at the same time you have to let them know what’s right and what’s not right. We have to make sure they react the right way. We need to get better. Keep getting better. We cannot just stay stagnant because when you do that you lose. We just have to get better. We have to keep pushing.”