Kansas City, Missouri — The Kansas football team’s nightmare start to the season continued on Saturday with a 38-27 loss to TCU in the first of four home games for KU at Arrowhead Stadium.
What looked like it would be a shoot-out early on quickly turned into a game in which TCU had control and put Kansas back on its heels.
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Once again, a late collapse at the end of the first half by the Kansas defense gave its opponent momentum and put KU behind 21-17 at the break despite out-playing the Horned Frogs for much of the first half.
After KU delivered a promising touchdown drive to open the second half, the Kansas offense came grinding to a halt and struggled to put up points or yards the rest of the way.
The Jayhawks won the turnover battle in this one but did not take advantage and watched their record fall to 1-4 overall and 0-2 in Big 12 play. KU has now lost four games in a row, three games as the favored team, and the lone win this season came against a team that nearly everyone in Division I college football would beat — 48-3 over Lindenwood in Week 1.
KU now heads to Arizona State next week before its first of two byes this season the following week.
All of a sudden, a season that started with the Jayhawks ranked No. 19 in the country finds this team in need of five wins in its final seven games just to become bowl eligible.
Here’s a look back at some of Saturday’s action.
LIKES
• First drive of the 3rd quarter – In what might have been the most important drive of the season — both for QB Jalon Daniels and the KU team as a whole — the Jayhawks marched for a go-ahead touchdown with an 11-play drive that took 6 minutes off the clock to open the 2nd half. It came on the heels of the KU defense surrendering a late score to the Horned Frogs in the first half and played an important role in Kansas reclaiming the momentum in the game and bringing the home crowd back into it.
• KU offense in attack mode – You had to love the way the Kansas offense opened up this game, using the pass when it was set up well to do so but largely imposing their will on the Horned Frogs with the run game. In the first quarter alone, the Jayhawks carried 9 times for 66 yards, averaging better than 7 yards per carry between Daniel Hishaw Jr., Devin Neal and even QB Jalon Daniels. The success on the ground — a weakness of the TCU defense coming into the game — seemed to be a sign of good things to come, but the Kansas passing offense never got going and was wildly inefficient for most of the game, as has been the case all season.
• The setting – It was a perfect fall day for football and Arrowhead Stadium delivered. The tailgating scene around the stadium before the game was terrific, with all kinds of cars and lots full 2-3 hours before kickoff. The home of the Chiefs had a decidedly strong KU feel to it, with signage, branding and KU visuals everywhere you looked. And it was clear that everyone from the players and coaches to the fans in the stands enjoyed the chance to see the Jayhawks play in this kind of setting. The announced attendance was 47,928, and while it might have filled slowly, it certainly looked like the number was right on, as all kinds of KU fans showed up for the experience. For a 1-3 team that was reeling, the novelty of a new environment on a nice day drew a good crowd. We’ll see how things look when Houston comes to town on Oct. 19.
DISLIKES
• KU’s inability to capitalize on TCU mistakes – If the Jayhawks just could’ve scored after all of the TCU turnovers and miscues, this might’ve been an easy Kansas win. Instead, the Jayhawks scored only a handful of points after TCU turnovers and could not find a way to take control whenever the Frogs begged them to do so.
• Pass D woes – For the second week in a row, a Big 12 wide receiver carved up the KU secondary for chunk plays and huge yardage totals. This one was a little more expected than last week at West Virginia, but TCU’s Jack Bech went wild for 131 yards and 2 TDs on 10 catches, exposing a weakness in the KU secondary where we used to not think one existed. The issue showed up again at a crucial point in the game, when TCU’s Eric McAlister not only caught a pass in front of KU cornerback Mello Dotson but also shook him and made him miss the tackle, paving the way for a 59-yard TCU touchdown that put the Frogs up 35-27 early in the fourth quarter. For the game, TCU threw for 356 passing yards on a day the Frogs racked up 500 yards of total offense.
• Lawrence Arnold’s early drop – You hate to pick on one play and one moment, but this one was symbolic of the issues that have plagued this KU offense throughout the season so far. On 2nd-and-10 on the Jayhawks’ second drive of the day, Jalon Daniels hit Arnold right in the hands along the sideline, a yard or two shy of the first down marker. Arnold turned to make a play before he caught it and never brought it in. KU wound up getting the first drive — on a Daniels run — and eventually scored on the drive, but those kinds of drops are indicative of an offense that’s been out of sync and a handful of guys pressing a little too much to make plays.
WHAT THE?
• Incompletion erases big time connection – It’s tough to nitpick calls by the officials and rarely winds up being a good move. But this one was pretty wild. Late in the third quarter, with KU facing a 3rd-and-9 from inside its own 20, Jalon Daniels threw a dime to Lawrence Arnold, who sat down right after the sticks, caught the ball and was tackled, seemingly giving KU a big first down. However, officials ruled the pass incomplete when the ball came out as Arnold was taken to the ground. A video review of the play upheld the call on the field, sending KU coach Lance Leipold into a frenzy and forcing KU to punt. The replay on the video board at Arrowhead sure made it look like Arnold was on his back before the ball was ripped out, which would have made him down and given Kansas the first down. On the ensuing TCU drive, the Jayhawks appeared to get the ball back after D-lineman Dylan Wudke forced a fumble by Horned Frogs QB Josh Hoover. That one was also reviewed, and, unlike the previous review, it was overturned. KU got the ball back anyway after TCU missed a 42-yard field goal a few plays later, but the sequence was pretty wild from the perspective of the KU sideline and the booing home fans.
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