Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - MELTDOWN: Kansas Secondary TORCHED by Bearcats | Can Defense RECOVER for Jayhawks to Go Bowling?

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked-on Jayhawks, biggest takeaways from KU's loss to Cincinnati. Are we sure that's a lock that they're going to be a bowl team as some of the defensive struggles continued into this one? What does it mean for the rest of the season for the Jayhawks? You are Locked-on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked-on podcast network, your team. Every day. What's going on? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked on Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:00:35 Thanks for making it your first listen every day. And thank you every dayers catching each and every episode of the show. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcast, including on YouTube where you can like and subscribe. And on today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we dive into things a little bit more. We get into our biggest takeaways from KU's 3734 loss to Cincinnati. What it means for the rest of the season, we get to the goats of the game who performed. who struggled, and we'll finish up with a little bit on who's next, which would be the UCF Golden Knights.

Starting point is 00:01:05 If you want to get under the skin of the opponent, you would be calling them the Central Florida Golden, or I think it's UCF Knights. You'd be calling them the Central Florida Golden Knights. Do not do that, is what I'm saying, of course. Okay, today's episode of the show is brought to you by Fandual Sportsbook. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if you bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app.

Starting point is 00:01:27 Just download the app today with Fanduel. So KU Falls 37 to 34 in another game that in a vacuum, like they're like all these Kansas losses, I guess save like the Baylor game last year. You can point to and be like, man, a couple of plays go your way and you win the game. Like it's not the worst loss in the world. And from where the program was, you know, five or six years ago, it's like, well, the fact that they're still winning some games and then the losses are close. Like it is night and day from where they've gotten.

Starting point is 00:01:53 But now that it like keeps happening over and over again, you've hit a different level. You've hit a different plateau where it is frustrating. And of course, that could be one of our biggest takeaways from the game. But after the Missouri game, it wasn't a one score loss, but we kind of shocked it up as another close loss because it was, you were up 31, 28 with a handful of minutes to go. You're down 35, 31 with a few minutes to go. Like, it wasn't a one score loss,

Starting point is 00:02:15 but it essentially served like a one score loss. And we talked about that one of the biggest takeaways after the Missouri game that I just kind of felt like this was a, there's just too many things that are preventing them from like, performing in these close games for whatever reason and maybe and hopefully it turns around hopefully it turns around this season but you know i kind of talked about this then in that like there were certain things that don't feel like they're changing and so like i'm not going to completely expect like completely different results now will they win some close games i think so

Starting point is 00:02:47 and hope so but are they ever going to be like an elite team in close games no i i don't really think that's going to be the case so to me the biggest takeaway from this game is as we look at kind of the long term here. I mean, they are kind of defense related. Like, the offense was really good for Kansas. And, you know, if you wanted to have a positive spin on this game, you would talk about the offense. You would talk about the fact that they didn't even play like that great in the red zone in this game. They had a fumble at the goal line. And still, even then, they put up 34 points on a defense with a pulse. And Jalen Daniels is really good. And they had almost 600 yards of offense. There are certain positive takeaways you can have for the offense here for Kansas. But I think right now,

Starting point is 00:03:25 one of my big takeaways for this one is the deep because here's the weird thing about the defense it's not like they're getting torched every game it's that they've been incredibly torched in two games and then they've been awesome in the other three games and that almost makes it harder to come around on right it would be one thing if hey they beat fresno state 38 to 31 and then they beat west virginia 41 to 31 as well like where your defense was continuously the fact that they've looked good in some of these games at least gives you hope that it can be figured out and at least it also makes you almost question what happened in the Cincinnati, Missouri games even more, because we have seen the upside. And I think to me, the big takeaway is this.

Starting point is 00:04:05 There's two ways of looking at this. The first way of looking at it is that Kansas is really good at punching down on defense, but they're not very good at punching up. So what I mean by that, if Kansas is playing a below average to, I guess this where I'm at, like maybe Kansas is a middle of the pack. They are an average defense. And anybody who is below, that line of where they are, they're going to, they're going to shut down. But anybody who is above that line of where they are, they're going to have trouble stopping. And it almost might be that simple. Anybody who is an above average to a good offense is going to torch KU. Anybody who's below average to a bad defense or

Starting point is 00:04:41 offense is going to have troubles against KU. That's maybe a more simplified approach of looking at it. And obviously there still is time this season for the KU defense to get better. It is still a, you know, you do have some senior transfers and a, you know, a lot of experience and veteran players on the front seven, the back end is the part that's younger. You would think that should get better, or at least a little bit, or should at least you would hope improvement

Starting point is 00:05:05 from some of those young players as the season goes on. So there is an avenue to it getting better, but that just might be how you sum it up. And as you look to the rest of the schedule for KU, maybe that's just how we evaluate the games. Like, is the defense playing an above average offense, a good offense, a bad offense? Because that's going to kind of determine the day.

Starting point is 00:05:20 The other way of just looking at it is, does the opposing team have a good offensive line and or a good passing game because Kansas has actually been pretty good against the run. Now, I know in the Missouri game, like you gave up a lot against the running game, but overall this season, Kansas is 23rd in the country and EPA per play against the run. They're 16th in success rate against the run so far this season, but they're only 85th in the country in EPA per play against the pass. And you look back to Fresno State.

Starting point is 00:05:53 E.J. Warner is a fine quarterback, but I don't think he's anything that jumps off the page. Obviously, you're not expecting that with Wagner. West Virginia, they have some interesting pieces and do some interesting things with Richard Rodriguez, but they don't really have the passing game. Whereas you look in Missouri, and it's like, yeah, they have a quarterback who can throw the ball. You look at Cincinnati with Brendan Sorsby. Again, he's not, I don't think Swordsby's like a top 10 quarterback in the country, but he's a good quarterback. Like, he's solid, you know? And so that's another way of looking at this. Look to the rest of the schedule. If KU is playing a team who can throw the ball or a team with a good quarterback, they could be in trouble.

Starting point is 00:06:26 If not, KU's run defense has actually been pretty good enough to shut down those teams. So it is weird. There's such a gap between when they're playing one team to another. But I guess that's the way we kind of have to evaluate this until we're shown, I don't know, different evidence one way or another. And because of those defensive struggles, this is our second takeaway from the game. It basically means that KU's offense has to be perfect on third down and reds. zone. And right now they're far from it. So we talk like again, the KU offense, great in this game, not the reason they lost this game, right? It wasn't a perfect game. You had some red zone issues.

Starting point is 00:07:01 You had a turnover in the red zone, right? You had to kick a couple field goals. So instead of it being 100% on the test, it was a 92, it was a 95, but that should still be good enough to win the game. And I think right now, if your defense is going to continue to struggle like that, the big difference that we're seeing between what the KU defense is allowing versus what the KU offense is struggling with, it's those late-down situations. Right now, Kansas offensively ranks in the 13th percentile in late-down success rate, meaning they're not having success on late-downs for the most part. You look at what the opposition is doing in Kansas on the defensive side is in the 38th percentile in late-down success rate, though, if you just look to the Cincinnati, Missouri game,

Starting point is 00:07:47 that number would be even worse than that. It's already kind of below average nationally, but that's taken into account some of the other games where they've actually done okay. But again, it gets passing offenses or good quarterbacks. It's been much worse. So point being, they're not delivering on third down and something we've talked about,

Starting point is 00:08:00 something that I think Kansas will eventually be better at, but when will it turn is kind of the question. And defensively, you've continued to show problems against teams who, you know, have a pulse throwing the football there. And so if you're going to have to win these games in shootout fashion, and you're going to have to win these games close, it's almost like, and it is probably a little unfair that you're saying, hey, the offense you played so well, but we need you to do even more, you know,

Starting point is 00:08:25 it probably is a little bit unfair there, but I guess that's kind of the nature of the beast and that, you know, it's unfair to ask of that. Like, it'd be more fair to be like, can you just cover them like one more drive, you know? But if this is how it's going to be on the defensive side in the back end, then you are going to have to be, you know, elite on third downs. you are going to have to be elite in the red zone. And so far to this point, you haven't been, even though overall you've been really good on the offensive side of the ball.

Starting point is 00:08:53 The last takeaway here, and I don't know, I still think this is a talented team. I still think it's a solid team that should win six or seven games. But we are far from that being a guarantee now. You know, it's funny. If Kansas wins the Cincinnati game, I would have been talking today about how, you know, maybe Kansas is one of the top five teams of the Big 12,

Starting point is 00:09:10 and they are a big 12 title contender, and you'd be sitting in a good spot. But now it's funny how one loss can just completely change. James things. Maybe it shouldn't because I think the quote saying is like it's never as bad as it appears to be and it's never as good as it appears to be. So it's like, you know, it's probably not as bad as we're making it out to be. But you are looking at the schedule here and you would say, okay, you're going to be underdogs at Texas Tech and at Iowa State and verse Utah. Can you steal one of those three? Maybe. But let's say you lose all three that you're going to be underdogs in.

Starting point is 00:09:42 If you do lose all three, you're going to be underdogs in. That would put the record at three and five at this point in time. Then you look at coin flip games at Arizona versus Kansas State and this week at UCF. And then you have the game that you should win. You need to win. You never know. It is called football, but you should need to win against Oklahoma State. Let's say you do beat the Cowboys. And that is a dangerous spot because it's after the K State game. But let's say you do beat them. That gets you to four wins. So then you're looking at having to win two of the three coin flip games between Kansas State at UCF and at Arizona. That's a little scary two of are on the road. It's also a little bit scary that the Kansas State game is one of those with

Starting point is 00:10:21 the fact that you've lost 16 consecutive games to Kansas State. And Kansas State showed a little bit of a pulse in the UCF game. Also a little bit scary that we're talking about, hey, can you go two and one in coin flip games? When to this point in the season, your record is 0 and 2 in coin flip games. And what was your record last year in coin flip games? And if a lot of coin flip games turn out to be close games you are one and eight and your last nine one score games so that is a little bit scary so i i still think that kansas will be a bowl team but it's far from the the hands down yes this is for sure happening that i once thought it was especially as soon as that west virginia game ended and it felt like okay they're going for more than just a bowl game

Starting point is 00:11:04 and maybe we've kind of settled back to that point where it's like hey can you just make it to a bowl game now and beat k state and that would be a fun season so anyway uh we'll get to our go of the game, good, bad, and what's next for KU? Today's episode of Lockdown Jayhawks is brought to you by five-hour energy. Caffeine just got a flavor upgrade. Five-hour energy shots deliver tasty caffeine in 17 bold flavors. Each two-ounce shot packs the caffeine of a premium 12-ounce cup of coffee, plus B vitamins and nutrients with zero sugar and zero crashes.

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Starting point is 00:12:32 I mean, again, anytime you're talking about your quarterback throwing for, you know, 400 yards and I know, like I said earlier, it wasn't the most perfect game in the world because you did have the, the interception, or not the interception, the fumble at the goal line against Cincinnati. But, I mean, overall, Kansas in this game was 99th percentile in the country, an EPA per dropback. You did it enough to win the game. Jalen Daniels had a very good game. And Jalen Daniels is having a very good season.

Starting point is 00:12:59 Can we get to that? I know you get maybe a fumble here or there more than you would like, and that is fair. But again, 16 touchdowns to two interceptions right now. He has another one on the ground, and he's got a. top 25 QBR in the country. You know, it's there, whatever. Good goat for Jalen Daniels. Leashon Williams gets a good goat for me.

Starting point is 00:13:24 I mean, this is a game where Williams ended up with 10 carries for 64 yards. Didn't get a ton of action necessarily. But I don't know. I thought you continued to see the vision and ability to kind of fall forward and keep the chains moving forward in a lot of ways. And I continue to like what he's brought to the table. Obviously, Emmanuel Henderson gets a good goat here. Five catches on eight targets, 214 yards, two touchdowns.

Starting point is 00:13:48 He is on pace to be the first 1,000-yard receiver that KU has had in a long time, well over a decade at this point in time. So he gets one. Bowden, Groin gets one, had to fill in for Deshaun Hanukkah with the injury, and he caught all five of his targets, 91 yards, and a touchdown. So growing with a really impressive performance coming in. I want to give one to Keaton, Quebec. I thought that Quebec filled in nicely in terms of getting more, I don't know, like as we continue to, okay, Cam Pickett coming back from the injury, he did get 35 snaps in this game.

Starting point is 00:14:19 Bryson Canty, you know, I thought this was going to be start of a breakout game for him. He had the one catch and then he had the next catch and then all of a sudden it gets ruled back for illegal touching. And from there, it's just like, okay, he's not really playing. He plays seven snaps. But Quebec, I think, is slowly starting to come around. And he made that big catch on the key down before he had a goal to go situation. before you scored your touchdown that put you in front. Obviously, didn't stay that way, but three catches for 41 yards there.

Starting point is 00:14:44 What about some of the KU offensive linemen in this one? Enrique Cruz had an 81 pass block grade. Kobe Baines had an 80.6. LaShawn Williams at an 80.2 for what it's worth. So he also did well there. Bryce Foster at a 74.2 and then Amir Herring at a 72.5. So the pass blocking really good for Kansas. As far as the run blocking, though, not.

Starting point is 00:15:08 as good. So most of the rush yards that Kansas had, it seems like they were created by the actual running backs. In fact, on game on paper, it has Kansas at 1.85 offensive line yards per carry. Cincinnati was at 1.92. And that means the highlight yards, most of the running back yards was 4.25. So most of the rushing yards they were getting was a product of the runners, not as much the offensive line. And on pro football focus kind of backs that up. The two highest run block graders can pick it in nine run block snaps at a 90 run block grade. Good for him. Levi Wentz was second at 61. The highest rated run blocker for the offensive line, Nolan Gorsica had one snap. It was a 60. And then you have to go down to Kobe Baines who had a 59 run block rate. So a real quick, bad go would be the KU run blocking in this

Starting point is 00:15:55 one. Good go, though, would be the KU pass blocking from the offensive line. And that reflected in, you know, K didn't get a ton of QB hurries or sacks or something like that. On the defensive side of the ball for KU. I mentioned earlier. I thought Blake Harold played a good game. PFF gave him a 69. I thought he even deserved an even higher number than that. He finished with seven tackles. He had a sack. He had two hits. He had four cuby hurries. He was just everywhere. He was doing a lot. And in a game, he had five stops. In a game where Kansas wasn't getting a lot of pressure, he was kind of the one guy who was able to do that. If you're looking at total pressures, Harold finished first on the team, actually seven total pressures and include the sack and the

Starting point is 00:16:35 Hurries. Justice Finkley had five pressures. He had an 82 PFF grade. So I'll give him a good goat, 84 pass rush grade. I don't remember as much his name being called because I don't think he came up with. He only had one tackle, but he was able to at least impact things a little bit and force Shoresby to step up into the pocket or move around. Unfortunately, after he moved around, there wasn't really the coverage on the back end. Leroy Harris, low key, had four pressures as well, but he struggled in run defense in the end. I mean, Kansas actually it 27 pressures, that makes it so much worse of what happened with the coverage and the back end. I'm not saying like, there is a different. If the quarterback's holding the ball for

Starting point is 00:17:15 five seconds and then they get pressured, that still counts as a pressure. So like, I'm not sure those 27 pressures are totally indicative of how good of a pass rushing game it was for KU. But I guess point being, I don't think it was a bad pass rushing game. I think it was more so just that, I mean, if you can't cover, if the guy's getting open right away, like you're not going to be able to get there. And the quarterback's always going to find the answers. And it's also tough because the quarterback's scrambling. So like it just, yeah, man, I think it's obvious. Like, that's the answer here, right? The bad goats is just the secondary. It's the coverage, right? And I mean, if we want to talk about, okay, who's to, Trey Lathen at a 72 coverage grade, so like good on him,

Starting point is 00:17:52 but nobody else was above a 65.5. Jalen Todd was actually okay in a game where the D.Bs really struggled for KU. So I guess reserve him a little bit from this conversation. Todd only gave up three targets. He gave up just one catch for seven yards. So actually, you know, Jaylen, and that's a little scary, right? Jalen Todd, I'll give a good go, right? In a game where you were getting torched defensively, he only gets three targets for seven yards. And that was kind of the case, you know, the last week, too, against West Virginia.

Starting point is 00:18:19 Like, he didn't give up much in the air. You could have one good corner, but if every other spot is a weak spot in pass coverage, they just won't throw that way and it just won't really matter. So that's a little bit unfortunate. That is the case. But so Austin Alexander had eight targets against, gave a five. five catches for 41 yards. So about five yards per target.

Starting point is 00:18:36 That's a pass breakup. That's actually not bad. It's not the best. Here's where the issues came. So six targets against Lyric Rawls. All six were caught for 125 yards. DJ Graham was targeted six times. Only gave up three catches, but they went for 40 yards and a touchdown.

Starting point is 00:18:51 Saeed Gibbs was targeted four times. Give up three catches for 45 yards. And yeah, let's see. Also, Taylor Davis was targeted three times. Give up 46 yards. We talked a lot about coming into the game that the middle of the field is going to be tested those safeties and coverage for KU. And that combined with the corners not named Jalen Todd, that was a rough for KU.

Starting point is 00:19:10 So, yeah, I mean, bad goat would be just the KU pass defense overall. I mean, I'm not saying that this was like a good game for the KU defense against the run. I'm not going to give it a good goat, but I will say KU did wind up with, I mean, like it wasn't a game that Cincinnati won because of the running game. since now you won the game because KU couldn't stop the pass. So I'm not going to give the running game a good goat, but I'm not going to give it a bad goat either. I guess is kind of where I'm at. Who is the highest graded player for the KU defense on pro football focus?

Starting point is 00:19:45 That would be, okay, Finkley, Tommy Dunn had a 75. Dean Miller had a 71, Blake Harold 6'9. Three of the top five for KU on defense were those de-tackles. Tommy Dunn, Blake Harold, DJ Withers. So, you know, those guys continue to perform. But I think we're finding the issues that have in the young secondary. If we are looking at the lowest rated pro football focus players for KU in this game on defense, DJ Graham of 47, Joseph Sip of 47. That's only seven snaps, though, as he continues to work back from injury.

Starting point is 00:20:11 Alex Bray, a 49, lyric rolls of 50. I mean, KU in the end had 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 players who were below a 60. So you don't want to see that. On the offensive end of the field, they had 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 players below a 60. It was Brune Clements, Foster, who were the three lowest on that end. and for if we're getting into bad goats there. All right, let's take an early look at UCF, try to move forward with the nights coming.

Starting point is 00:20:38 I guess not to town. Kansas going to Nighttown next, Orlando. Going to visit Disney World. Thanks for joining us on today's episode of Lockdown Jayhawks, and today's episode of the show is brought to you by one of the tools that helps make a big difference for business owners is Quo, formerly open phone. It's the same great business phone system you've heard me

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Starting point is 00:22:47 The KU's next opponent is the UCF Knights. They come in on the season at 3 and 1. They just had their first loss. They lost to Kansas State. And for them, that was a road game. So they beat Jacksonville State, Rich Rod's former school, 17 to 10. Then they crushed North Carolina A&T, 68 to 7.

Starting point is 00:23:03 They beat North Carolina, who I'm not sure is that much better than North Carolina A&T, 34 to 9. And then they beat or lost to Kansas State 34 to 20. So some of those results, like I don't know how helpful they're going to be. The Kansas State won maybe at least a little bit there. But you look at it right now, at least on paper for UCF. This team is 25th in the country offensively in the EPA per play on the offensive side of the ball. But again, how prevalent is that given their competition? It feels like K-State's the only team they've played with a pulse.

Starting point is 00:23:35 And even then, it's like, what's K-State going to be this year? Six or seven-win team? I don't know. I think the Vegas over under out of the last week was like four or five, which I would probably take the over. But are they going to be a big 12th contend title contender? I don't know. Probably not. But you look at it, they've passed the ball well, again, up until, you know, how much is that worth?

Starting point is 00:23:53 Now, on the defense side of the ball, 22nd in the country in EPA per play. So again, are we talking there really good? is this just the schedule. So I want to look more at the Kansas State game they played. And in the Kansas State game specifically, UCF wound up with a good rushing game. They ran the ball pretty well. They struggled throwing the football against Kansas State. But they did slow down the Kansas State passing game where Kansas State had a lot of success was running the football. They were able to run a lot on UCF. And you look at it in the end, Maverie Johnson goes 18 of 25 for 161 yards.

Starting point is 00:24:28 you know, not the biggest game passing, not like a bad game either, though, but he had 11 carries for 82. So if you can run as a quarterback, that's something to keep an eye on. Dylan Edwards had 22 for 166. So like that's where if you want to win this game, you're going to have to run the football well. And then can you defend them? So Taven Jackson, just 12 of 24 for 104 yards. They were able to slow them down. Now, UCF did run the ball well against K State. Jada Nixon, 5 for 66, Miles Montgomery, 11 for 1119. So can you slow down? And maybe that's a good thing for Kansas, right? You're playing a team who's at least in the one game sample size of just the K State game was a better running team than they were a passing team.

Starting point is 00:25:05 That could be perfect for KU because if it stays that way, I like KU, but also given what the back end just look like, am I expecting Kaven Jackson to go 1224 again? No, I'm not. So we'll see what improvements, schematic changes and adjustments that, you know, D.K. McDonald and Lance Leipold can make this week. otherwise it's going to be another long one down in Orlando on the defensive side of the football. All right, we'll talk plenty more about UCF throughout the week. Tomorrow's episode, we're going to focus on a little KU basketball. Taylin Kinney obviously joining the fold and check out that bonus episode we had on Sunday if you didn't already.

Starting point is 00:25:41 But more KU football content, more KU basketball content right here with Lockdown Jayhawks, anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. See you next time for another edition of LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - MELTDOWN: Kansas Secondary TORCHED by Bearcats | Can Defense RECOVER for Jayhawks to Go Bowling?

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