Kansas City, Kansas — A rough seven-day stretch that started with a road loss at Illinois last Saturday, ended with an even bigger thud on Friday night at Children’s Mercy Park, where the Kansas football team lost to UNLV, 23-20, on a wild night.
Kansas led most of the way, and, thanks to its defense held onto that lead with as little as 2 minutes remaining on the game clock in the fourth quarter.
More from Friday night's loss...
• IS BENCHING JALON DANIELS THE ANSWER?
But UNLV’s one-yard TD run on fourth-and-goal capped a 9-minute drive and gave the Rebels their first lead of the night.
From there, the KU offense, even with two timeouts to use, could not pick up a first down on its final drive of the night and the game ended with a Jalon Daniels sack on fourth down and a couple of UNLV kneel-downs.
The loss dropped the Jayhawks to 1-2 overall and they’ll head on the road to open Big 12 play next week at West Virginia.
After that, Kansas will move its show to Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., for the final four home games of the 2024 season.
Here’s a look back at some of the action, good and bad, from Friday’s tough outing for the home team.
LIKES
• KU defense shines again – All night, when the Kansas offense sputtered, the KU defense rose to the challenge, keeping the Rebels to field goals and punts until that crucial fourth-quarter, game-winning drive. The KU defense looked gassed on the drive but still held strong for the 9+ minutes they were on the field for the decisive drive. After the game, KU coach Lance Leipold said simply, "Even as well as the defense played, that was a 9-minute drive. You gotta get off the field." There were a couple of penalties on the KU defense and close calls that could've changed the game, too. OJ Burroughs' near interception and a couple of Jayhawks who had a crack at recovering a fumble caused by Jereme Robinson but missed it while trying to pick it up instead of falling on it. All in all, though, for the second week in a row, the defense played well enough for KU to win.
• Devin. Just Devin. – KU running back Devin Neal put a stranglehold on the claim that he’s the best player on this roster. Not that you’d ever hear Neal say that. But his presence and the ability for KU to keep feeding him the rock, even when things weren’t going well for the offense, was a huge part of this one. Early on it gave the Jayhawks several big plays and led to a couple of touchdowns. Later, it helped give Kansas something it could go to when Daniels was struggling to throw the ball and the offense was sputtering. Neal didn’t do much with those carries, but when you consider how many times he carried the rock, you have to tip your cap to him for his final numbers (120 yards on 23 carries) and his overall toughness and fight.
• JD6 uses his legs – It wasn’t the best night for Daniels through the air — again — but he looked pretty darn good when he chose to use his legs. Especially early. Daniels scored on runs of 11 and 33 yards to put Kansas ahead by double digits and showcased his ability in the option run game throughout the night. When his passes started to miss the mark and throwing the ball became an issue, the UNLV defense started to key on the run a little more, which limited Daniels and Neal significantly. But on a key drive that ended with a KU field goal, Daniels made a couple more plays with his legs to get that drive going.
DISLIKES
• JD picks – For the second game in a row, Daniels threw multiple interceptions that hurt the Jayhawks. After starting the game hot and completing 7 of his first 8 passes, he finished 12-of-24 overall for just 153 yards through the air. And there were at least one or two other throws that nearly led to interceptions by the UNLV defense. It’s one thing if defenders make great plays on the ball and earn the interceptions. It’s another when balls sail high or wide and help create the miscue. Daniels has had too many of those errant throws so far this season and he had a couple more killers in this one.
• Too many penalties – Despite out-gaining the Rebels 352-267, including 153-86 through the air and 199-181 on the ground, KU gave a lot of that back with 9 penalties for 90 yards, compared to just 3 for 25 for the visitors. One of the biggest penalties, a 14-yard chop block called on offensive lineman Logan Brown, erased a fourth-down conversion run by Neal and put the Jayhawks in a difficult 4th-and-15 spot from their own 20-yard line on what proved to be their final offensive play of the night.
• No Deuce – Bruising KU running back Daniel Hishaw Jr. missed this game completely with what a KU official called an illness before the game. Hishaw was on the sideline, in his jersey and shorts, but not available for the game. His absence was felt simply because you have to assume that the game plan this week was to feature both Neal and Hishaw in heavy doses given their somewhat limited usage in the loss at Illinois last week. Neal did his part to carry the load, but definitely could’ve used his running mate.
WHAT THE?
• Boos rain down – It’s no secret why the home crowd was booing, but it was definitely not something you expected to see or hear just a few weeks ago. Regardless of who or what they were booing — Daniels, offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes or the overall product in general — the boos lasted for good chunks of the second half and painted a clear picture for how much frustration there was on the Kansas side on Friday night. The expectations were sky-high for this KU team and the tension was at least that high throughout the second half of Friday’s loss to UNLV and you could feel it in every corner of Children’s Mercy Park.
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