Manhattan, Kansas — A season full of frustrating and gut-wrenching endings for the Kansas football program added its most painful one yet on Saturday night via a 29-27 loss to No. 16 Kansas State at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
After battling and fighting for every inch and every play they got all night long, the Jayhawks led the Wildcats 27-26 with 3:59 to play and prepared to send the offense back onto the field after getting a huge 4th-down stop from its defense.
The thought then was to close out the game and not let the Wildcats touch the ball again.
But that plan went awry when KU QB Jalon Daniels fumbled near midfield after scrambling for 9 yards on a 2-and-13 play from the KU 39. The Wildcats pounced on the ball with 3:44 to play and knocked a game-winning, 51-yard field goal through the uprights less than 2 minutes later.
Even with that hiccup, the Jayhawks still had a chance to go down and get a game-winning field goal of their own. But after moving up to their own 46-yard line on that final, hopeful drive, Daniels fumbled again on fourth down, turning the ball over on downs, setting the stage for the Wildcats to run out the clock on their 16th consecutive Sunflower Showdown victory.
The loss dropped Kansas to 2-6 overall and 1-4 in Big 12 play, meaning the Jayhawks need to win out to put themselves in position to qualify for the postseason.
A daunting task to be sure, but KU coach Lance Leipold and senior receiver Luke Grimm both said after Saturday’s disheartening loss that this team has not quit.
KU is off next week and will return to action on Saturday, Nov. 9 to take on Iowa State at Arrowhead Stadium.
Here’s a look back at some of Saturday’s action.
LIKES
• Devin Neal battles – He came up 7 yards shy of claiming the school’s rushing record against its in-state rival and now is in position to get it any time he touches the ball again. While the KU senior fell just short of delivering the kind of storybook night that would be talked about for decades, he still finished with an average of 5.1 yards per carry against the nation’s 5th-ranked rushing defense. Neal ran for 66 yards on 13 carries and delivered a powerful 24-yard touchdown that put the Jayhawks ahead in the second half. This, after missing time during the first quarter to treat an undisclosed injury of some type that did not appear to impact him the rest of the night. So now, Neal owns the school’s all-time touchdown record (44) and has tied the school’s all-time rushing touchdown record with 41. He’ll enter the game against Iowa State with 3,835 yards, needing 7 yards to pass June Henley’s school record of 3,841. The stage was set for Neal to get carry after carry after carry inside the final 4 minutes to salt the game away and break the record. But after he picked up 2 yards on 1st-and-10 during that series, the Jayhawks were flagged for a false start penalty that put them in less of a running situation and never gave the ball to Neal again.
• JD6’s arm strength – He threw some absolute darts all night — the dropped TD by Skinner, the 2nd-quarter touchdown to Luke Grimm — and again looked so much like the guy we all thought he was entering the season. Daniels’ deep out to Trevor Wilson that jump-started the Jayhawks’ second touchdown drive was one of those balls where Daniels just threw it as hard as he could and as long as Wilson turned around at the right time it was going to stick to his body. Wilson did for the 36-yard gain and Daniels finished the first half 11-of-17 for 120 yards, with a passer rating of 131.6. For the night, Daniels finished with a third consecutive solid game through the air — 18 of 31 for 209 yards and a touchdown — but the two fumbles and inability to help the offense convert when it counted most in the fourth quarter clearly left a sour taste in his mouth after the loss. Asked about taking over with 4 minutes to play and the chance to run out the game, Daniels said the intent was to run out the clock before adding, “I failed at being able to do that for my team.”
• Cornell Wheeler impact – You cannot overstate how much of a positive impact linebacker Cornell Wheeler makes on this defense. And it was on full display in this one. In many ways. He was in the right spots. He played tough and physical. And he cleaned up plays even when others made the initial stop. Defensive coordinator Brian Borland said earlier in the week that having Wheeler back from injury was a comfort for him and perhaps even more comforting for his teammates to have him out there and that showed up in a big way on Saturday night. Wheeler finished the night as KU’s second-leading tackler with 6 total tackles and 4 of the solo variety.
DISLIKES
• Q-Skinner TD drop – There’s no telling what it would’ve meant or what might’ve happened, but there’s no denying that the touchdown drop by Quentin Skinner late in the first quarter was a big time momentum play. For the wrong team. KU QB Jalon Daniels uncorked an absolutely perfect throw that hit Skinner in stride as he got 3 yards behind the DB. Rather than hauling it in for a 14-0 KU lead, the 49-yard near-TD pass bounced off of Skinner’s arms and fell to the ground. You can count on one hand — if not one finger — the number of times KU has led the Wildcats by two scores during the past two decades, so grabbing that kind of lead early on the road would’ve been massive. What made things worse was the fact that the drop came on the heels of Skinner’s two best games of the season. As the teams walked to the sideline to change personnel for the punt that followed, Skinner went over to his roommate and teammate to deliver the “my bad” moment.
• No resistance to start the 3rd – After doing a damn good job on K-State running back DJ Giddens in the first half, the FBS’s 9th-leading rusher in yards per game got loose to open the third quarter. He carried twice for 59 yards, including a long run of 54 yards to set up K-State’s third offensive score of the night. The opening drive of the third quarter spanned 75 yards in just 4 plays, all on the ground and all in convincing fashion by the Wildcats, who went ahead 23-14 when QB Avery Johnson took it in from 10 yards out just 1:45 after the second half started.
• Can’t close – For what has to feel like the umpteenth time this season, the Jayhawks led late in the game but could not finish the deal, coughing up a late turnover that directly led to their defeat. KU wide receiver Luke Grimm said after the loss that it’s heartbreaking to know that for the next two weeks people are going to look at this game, another close-but-no-cigar outcome and believe that’s what the Jayhawks stand for and there’s not a thing they can do about it until Nov. 9 when they take on a ranked Iowa State team. “None of us would say that’s Kansas football out there those last 5 minutes of the game,” Grimm said. But sadly for Grimm and his teammates, that’s exactly what the Jayhawks have been far too often this season.
WHAT THE?
• Jameel Croft fields kickoff at the 1 – Moments after the Wildcats’ scored their first touchdown of the night to tie the game at 7, KU kickoff return man Jameel Croft Jr. fielded the ensuing kickoff at the 1-yard line while pinned against the sideline. His momentum immediately carried him out of bounds and a couple of his teammates threw their hands on their helmets as if to say, “What were you thinking?” Initially ruled out of bounds on the catch, replay review ruled that his left foot came down inbounds a split-second before the right foot landed out of bounds. On the very next play — KU’s first snap of its third offensive series of the night — running back Devin Neal was stopped for a 1-yard loss, leading to a K-State safety and a 9-7 Wildcats’ lead. What a wild turn of events in a game the Jayhawks had fairly well controlled up to that point.
After the game, Leipold called the gaffe a simple case of a kid trying to make a play and making a very human mistake.
— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kuathletics.com
