Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - REACTION: Kansas Jayhawks Football Moves to 4-0, Wins Big 12 Opener vs BYU Cougars 38-27

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Kansas is 4-0. They take down the BYU Cougars in their Big 12 opener, 38-27. Let's recap the game and discuss our goats of the game and everything that went down for KU in the win. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence with

Starting point is 00:00:42 Rock Chalk Sports Talk. Thanks for making Locked On Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can also find us on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of the show, we are recapping the KUBYU game. Jayhawks win 38-27. They move to 4-0 on the season.

Starting point is 00:01:04 First, this episode of the show is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. These days, every new potential hire can feel like a high-stakes wager for your small business. That's why LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the right people for your team faster and for free. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash lockedoncollege. Terms and conditions apply.

Starting point is 00:01:23 All right, we're going to start things off here with just an overall recap of the game and overall takeaways here before we get to our go to the game and look at what's next with the Texas game after that. Kansas obviously wins 38-27. It was a bit of a slow half. I mean, it's pretty clear over from last year to this year, Kansas has been a second-half team or really just a, I don't know, maybe slower starting team. Like you look at, I guess the Nevada game, although that was kind of close

Starting point is 00:01:48 throughout, I guess the Illinois game was the one that kind of bucked the trend. You go back to last year, you're down early and double digit points to Houston and West Virginia and Arkansas. Obviously that was kind of a second half push for you. So there are a lot of these games that that has been kind of the case. Not that you were, you know, getting dominated in the first half. I mean, it was kind of back and forth. Even they just ended up with the last possession and then ended up leading at halftime. But really the first half to me, the difference of why BYU was winning the first half

Starting point is 00:02:14 versus Kansas winning the first half, and then obviously Kansas went on to have a great second half. The difference to me really came down to just two Kansas mistakes. It was two penalty mistakes that were, I guess, inflicted by your own doing. That was really the difference. You had the first drive that you had from your offense. You go down and you have a third down and one like right around or right outside the red zone and you have a false start. So now third and one where maybe you can run the ball and just pick it up on its own. If not, you have fourth and one, and that's a much easier pickup becomes third and six,

Starting point is 00:02:49 and you have an incompletion and then you go for it on fourth and six. And it was a great play by Ben Bywater, the linebacker for BYU, who's really good, knocks away the pass and read it well and saw where the ball was going. And all of a sudden you don't get points out of that. So that automatically is a, you know, theoretically you could have had three points on that drive you could have had seven points on that drive that's a three to seven point swing because of that false start then you get um on one of the byu drives i it was not the next drive but it was after you so they get the ball you have the kobe bryant touchdown uh then they get the ball, you have the Kobe Bryant touchdown. Then they get the ball back and it's seven, nothing. They're going down and they have a third and five in the red

Starting point is 00:03:30 zone at your end of the field. And eventually they get a touchdown to tie it, but how they converted the third and five, they didn't actually have to run a play. They might've converted it. They might not have, who knows, but you get a offsides call on Tommy Dunn. It gives them an automatic first down. So again, there there's a that if you didn't get the false start on the first drive that maybe third and one and fourth and one, you get stopped anyway, and it doesn't matter. Maybe there's a chance BYU converts the third and five, even if you don't jump offsides, and it doesn't matter.

Starting point is 00:03:59 There's a chance both of those happen and that it is a zero-point swing between the two of them. There's also a chance, though, that, yeah, maybe you do stop them on the third down and maybe they kick a field goal. Who knows? Maybe they missed the field goal, but at the very least, you know, that could be a four point swing. If they get a field goal instead of a touchdown there, you could have gotten maybe a touchdown on your drive. You know, that could have been a seven to 11 point swing just by having two penalties. And now all of a sudden, instead of going down three at the break, now you're up four or you're up, you know, eight points or something like that at halftime, as opposed to being down. So really to me, the first half, I mean, the second half, you, you,

Starting point is 00:04:35 you know, kind of dominated the second half, first half, you would have won that half. If you probably didn't make at least one of those two, if not both of those self-inflicted penalties. And then the Kobe Bryant absolutely delivering one of the greatest KU football hits of all time, like hyperbole, maybe honestly, maybe not. That was an unbelievable hit by Kobe Bryant and, and, you know, diminutive in stature, a skinny dude, just absolutely laying the lumber. You did see a few, you didn't see a ton of this, but you did see a few people be like, Oh, is it targeting? Nope. That's not the letter of the law. You didn't see a ton of this, but you did see a few people be like, oh, is it targeting? No, that's not the letter of the law. The letter of the law, it was not a defenseless receiver.

Starting point is 00:05:09 He was running the football. He used his shoulder. It was a totally legal hit and an unbelievable hit at that with Kobe Bryant and then picking up the ball too, getting his way to the end zone. Unbelievable game for Kobe Bryant. So then KU's down 17-14 going into the second half. And boy, did they come to play. Kenny Logan did what experienced veteran leaders do when a game is in doubt, I guess. Kansas down

Starting point is 00:05:32 three, BYU is the ball. If BYU goes down, scores a touchdown on that first drive of the third quarter, all of a sudden it's a bit of a different game. You're down 24-14 and there's a different feel to that. Well, Kenny Logan comes out. I mean, OJ Burrow should have had a pick six on the first down there. And I guess it was kind of justice that Kenny Logan gets the one that's deflected a couple times in the air and takes it to the house. And Kansas goes back in front. And from there, they never trail or are tied again. And from there, you kind of just grinded them into a pulp

Starting point is 00:06:00 with your rushing game offensively. Key passes from Jalen Daniels when you needed him to. Your defensive line showed out, and you ended up outscoring them 24-10 in the second half. I don't believe you punted in the second half. It was a very dominant effort by KU in that second half against BYU to kind of pull away from the game. And it was also impressive because we've seen other games, whether it was the Iowa State

Starting point is 00:06:23 game last year, the Duke game last year. There are other games that kind of come to mind where Kansas could have put the game away with a score or just running the clock out on offense and got the ball back with maybe four or five minutes in game that they were leading. And they weren't able to do so. Well, this game, you were able to go down up 35-27, similar to the Duke game when you get the ball back four or five minutes or whatever, And you go down and you get a field goal. And that made it a two score game and changed everything in that. It was going to be too much to surmount for BYU from there. Overall, not a great passing game for KU in terms of the total yards. They were efficient enough, but still not a great like yards per attempt game either. Not bad either.

Starting point is 00:06:59 You know, Jalen Daniels, I think still had a really good like QBR. Like they were efficient when they needed to, but it wasn't a super explosive passing game. And your yards, too, I will say, like passing yards, your offensive yards, totally yards. If you look at the total yards, they're pretty split between the two. Well, that was limited because KU had two defensive touchdowns. That's two less possessions for the offense. Not great, not your best work in terms of pass defense.

Starting point is 00:07:21 BYU had over 300 yards. I do think, though, I did see a lot of people being like, oh, the past defense was so bad. I didn't think it was a great past defense game for KU. I'm not saying it was a good game. I don't think it was, like, a bad game either. I don't, you know. BYU averaged seven yards per attempt.

Starting point is 00:07:37 Like, that's not, like, a huge number. I think that would rank 52nd in the country or something like that. Like, okay, that's, like, like average ish um and also like when you looked at what byu was doing there were a lot of plays where they completed passes on close coverage plays where i wouldn't call it like blanketed coverage but it certainly wasn't guys wide open like how often did byu just throw it to a guy and there was like nobody there you know what i mean and then or closest defender is five yards away. It was like the defender, immediately when you would catch it, he was being tackled down, which basically, you're basically saying this as a defense.

Starting point is 00:08:11 We're going to play close coverage. It's going to be hard for us to, you know, man-to-man every single thing, but we're going to make you make tight throws into windows, and you're going to have to make the throw with accuracy, and your guy's going to have to make the catch kind of contested. And yeah, BYU did that a good amount of times. But also over the course of time, there's only a matter of time before you mess up as an offense. Before a pass gets tipped.

Starting point is 00:08:36 Before you get sacked. Before you get behind the chain. Before a receiver drops a pass. Eventually, unless you're playing an offense that just happens to be their A game that day, they're probably going to make a mess up. And you see that with the two interceptions so i i didn't mind the past defense wasn't a great game but i don't think it was as bad as some people were saying a bottom line here though is this kansas now 4-0 uh if you play close at texas this next week you're going to be seen in a very big light uh work's not done but the fact that you clearly

Starting point is 00:09:01 have been the better team against the two power five teams you've played in Illinois and BYU, who I view to be possibly six or seven win teams, and our bowl teams and Power Five teams, you have clearly shown to be better than them, kind of shows you that you're on that next tier. What is that next tier? Is it Big 12 title contender? Is it seven or eight wins?

Starting point is 00:09:21 I don't know. It remains to be seen. But you have shown to be on that kind of next tier. Go two and one these next three games before you get into the bye week. And then maybe we are talking Big 12 title contention headed into that bye. Most importantly, though, celebrate the wins. 4-0 back-to-back years for the first time since they did it. Three straight years from 1913, 1914 to 1915.

Starting point is 00:09:40 All right, we're going to go to the game here in just a moment. First, this episode of the show is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. These days, every new potential hire can feel like a high-stakes wager for your small business. You want to be 100% certain that you have the access to the best qualified candidates available, which is why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the right people for your team faster and for free. It's super easy to post your job on there. It's super easy for people to see on there. It's super easy for people

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Starting point is 00:11:01 Goats of the game. Let's start with the good. I'll be honest. I had trouble finding bad for this game. So we'll with the good. I'll be honest. I had trouble finding bad for this game. So we'll get there when we get there. Good. Kobe Bryant. I think he was probably the MVP of the game for KU. How could you not? He had the holy trinity of turnovers. He had a forced fumble because he hit the guy. He had the fumble recovery. He had an interception. The holy trinity of turnovers for Kobe Bryant. He also obviously had a touchdown

Starting point is 00:11:25 in the process there. He had a team best pro football focus grade of 84.5. He was a 97.1 in run defense. I have never seen a defender graded that high in run defense. And that is hilarious to me that it is your like 160 pound corner on the outside showing that he had some funny quotes after the game too, where his mom was like, I didn't know you could do you could do that and he was like well I don't know that I knew that either right it's just kind of funny there um he's he's a great character and he heard from a lot of the players like some of the fun things that he does but he was targeted three times in the game he gave up six yards and he had an interception that'll work if a quarterback went you know one for three for six yards in an interception,

Starting point is 00:12:05 that'd be a problem, right? So Kobe Bryant is very good and yeah, deserving goat of the game and MVP. KU's blocking gets a good goat here. KU now ranks in the country after this game, sixth in pass blocking grade, third in run blocking grade. That is in the country. Now, this game against Texas this next week and future games against Oklahoma and some of these other defenses that are really good and have four- and five-star athletes on lines of scrimmages and on the D-line,

Starting point is 00:12:34 those are going to be the real test to determining is the offensive line, because I think it's pretty clear to me. Last year, I thought the offensive line was good. Could you go from good to great? Could you go from great to elite? I think they've gone from good to great. Can you go to elite?

Starting point is 00:12:47 We're going to learn more about that against the Texases of the world, right? Which will be this Saturday. But it's clear you've gone to great. And those numbers, if that continues the rest of the year, yes, that is elite numbers. And it's a combination of a lot of players. I will single out some players right here. Jared Casey had an 86 run block grade and 24 run blocks. There's the one on the Jalen Daniels run to the outside.

Starting point is 00:13:06 He's just such a good blocker and so key to what they do. Torrey Laughlin had five run block snaps. He had an 86, limited sample, but good numbers there. Mason Fairchild, 79 run block and 16 run block plays. Dominic Pooney, Armage Reed-Adams, Bryce Cabledew, they were all above 67 in run blocking. And then in pass blocking, Dominic Poonie had an 87 pass block. Armage Reed Adams had an 85 pass block,

Starting point is 00:13:27 which was big for him coming into this game. Reed Adams had a really good run block grade, but his pass blocking grade was like in the twenties, which small sample size, cause he missed the first game and everything, but he had an 85 this game. So that showed what he could do. Michael Ford was at an 83.

Starting point is 00:13:40 Kobe Baines was at an 83. Daniel Hyshaw, he had one like-time pass pro rep that he just completely knocked a guy over. Overall, he had a good pass pro game. 78 as a pass blocker for Daniel Hyshaw. Bryce Cabellew, Jared Casey were both above 67. So good numbers all the way around for KU kind of in the blocking game.

Starting point is 00:13:58 Oddly enough, Mike Nowitzki has given up a couple of the big kind of, I guess, sacks the last two weeks. Overall, his grades have been fine. But I don't know, just weird. I wonder if he's dealing with some couple of the big kind of, I guess, sacks the last two weeks. Overall, his grades have been fine. But I don't know, just weird. I wonder if he's dealing with some sort of injury or something. But yeah, the KU offensive line and the blocking, really good once again in this game. I'm going to continue to try to harp this.

Starting point is 00:14:14 Rock, paper, scissors had a good game. That's what I'm calling the KU backfield. Daniel Highshaw's the rock. Eight carries for 60 yards, seven and a half yards per carry. When he's holding on to the football, he's so much fun to watch. He just bullies people. He just knocks people over. He stiff arms them.

Starting point is 00:14:29 He's unbelievable to watch. Unbelievable player. Devin Neal is your scissors because he's so good at cutting. 17 carries, 91 yards, 5.4 yards per carry. Continues to have an unbelievable season. And then Dylan McDuffie or Torrey Laughlin is kind of your paper. Do it all, kind of whatever you need them to do. McDuffie had a couple, only two carries, but solid numbers on him,

Starting point is 00:14:49 I think 17 yards. So you add it all up between the three guys, rock, paper, scissors here. 27 carries, 168 yards. That'll get it done, especially against a physical BYU defense. Jalen Daniels gets a good go here. Only 130 passing yards, only 6.8 yards per attempt, which isn't like a horrible number, but it's not like one of the bigger numbers or one of the numbers we typically see with JD,

Starting point is 00:15:10 who typically has those numbers at 8, 9, 10. Like Nevada, it was 11 yards per attempt. But he took what the defense gave him in a lot of ways, and it's almost like BYU was preventing the big play from KU hitting that kept those numbers down. And they were basically saying, okay, well, you know, for Kansas, this was more about going to be our running game and just hitting the plays when we needed to.

Starting point is 00:15:31 So it was like, okay, we need to hit this play in the red zone. I'm going to fire a strike to Trevor Cardell or Luke Grimm. We need this play on third down. Okay, we've got it right. He converted the plays that he needed to. And even though only 130 passing yards, he had three touchdowns and no turnovers. He also had nine carries for 54 yards.

Starting point is 00:15:47 It was nice to see him be involved in the running game. And I think this shows how impactful it was, even though you look at it. And like at the end of the year, let's say J.D. is healthy for the rest of the way. He had 184 total yards against BYU. 184 total yards in a game is probably going to be on the lower end of the spectrum for what Jalen Daniels has in any game this season. It might be the lowest of the year. It's certainly, you would think, going to be on the lower end of the spectrum for what Jalen Daniels has in any game this season. It might be the lowest of the year. It's certainly, you would think, going to be one of the bottom of the year.

Starting point is 00:16:09 But he's still in an 85.0 QBR. Now, part of that is BYU held the ball for a good amount of time. KU didn't have a ton of plays. You had the two defensive touchdowns. So without having a ton of plays, you're not going to have as many yards. I'm not saying that you should worry about the stats or anything like that. I'm just saying don't look at the stats and be like, eh, it was not J.D.'s best game. It was a very good game. He was efficient. He hit the plays when he needed to. There just weren't a ton of plays in the game.

Starting point is 00:16:33 Austin Booker gets a good goat here. He had a team best seven tackles. He had two and a half tackles for loss and one and a half sacks. He continues to be a force off the edge. Him and Gage Keyes, the two transfers from Minnesota, boy, have they helped impact the defensive line. Kenny Logan Jr. gets a good go. Four tackles, two pass breakups, pick six. He was targeted five times in coverage, gave up 33 yards. That's fine, especially when you're getting a pick in there.

Starting point is 00:16:57 The NFL passer rating was only 54.6, and obviously that pick six was a pretty vital play for KU to set the tone in the second half. Real good flashes in pro football focus grades for some guys I want to briefly mention on the defensive side of the ball that all get you know honorary good goats here. Cornell Wheeler played 31 snaps no time on Barry Hill with him dealing with injury stuff so you saw a ton of snaps from J.B. Brown and Rich Miller. Cornell Wheeler got in there 31 snaps, had a 79.4 PFF grade, had a couple big-time plays for KU. Gage Keyes in 26 snaps, 74.5

Starting point is 00:17:30 PFF grade. He had a couple plays that he really jumped off the page. He had back-to-back plays at one point where he had the sack. I don't remember if it went down as a sack. He might have got back to the line or gained a yard or something. And then the next play, he had the pressure on a pass, but he was really good.

Starting point is 00:17:45 Devin Phillips had a 72 grade and 33 snaps. I think Lance Leipold mentioned that, you know, he's not always getting the stats because you're the defensive tackle, but he's making a big impact. And all those guys played well. The only bad go to have here is just defending Isaac Rex in the first half, the tight end for BYU.

Starting point is 00:17:59 I think he had seven catches for the game. I think five or six of them were in the first half. So in the first half they struggled, but I guess they adjusted well in the first half. So in the first half, they struggled. But I guess they adjusted well in the second half. And yeah, certainly that'll be something to watch this week with Texas. Jatavion Sanders, really good tight end. So how you're defending tight ends will be important. But obviously, they might have figured something out in the second half.

Starting point is 00:18:18 All right, we're going to get on to what is next for KU. First, though, this episode of the show is brought to you by Athletic Brewing Company. Now time for Game Changer of the Week, brought to you by Athletic Brewing Company. Now time for Game Changer of the Week, brought to you by Athletic Brewing Company. Much like Kobe Bryant, Athletic Brewing Company has completely changed the non-alcoholic beer game. They make non-alcoholic beers that actually taste good. Kobe Bryant had the big time hit, gets the fumble, runs it in for a touchdown. I don't know that there's any argument for another play of the game. I guess you could argue that it was so early,

Starting point is 00:18:47 there's another play later in the game that had bigger importance. Maybe the Kenny Logan one because of the momentum changing. But the combination of, I don't know, the momentum of that play and how much fun it was. We're going to see that play for years and years and years. That has to be the moment of the game. Athletic Brewing Company's brews and great tasting, award-winning brews or non-alcoholic brews beat out full-strength beers in global competitions.

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Starting point is 00:19:35 Near beer, exclusions and conditions apply. Athletic Brewing Company, fit for all times. Next up for KU, they're going to take on the Texas Longhorns. Texas will certainly be ranked in the top five. They handled Baylor very easily. I was curious how that game would go for them. Obviously for Texas, the big bugaboo lately, they've been able to compete in some of these games in past years,

Starting point is 00:19:56 whether they've won them or played close or being in Oklahoma, but then they've lost to some of the games they're not supposed to. I think that was a good test for them going on the road against Baylor and just kind of crushing them from the get-go shows that this probably is different for Texas. I saw early lines around 17 to 20. That was more than I expected. So I'll probably get in on some of the early lines with KU. Obviously a game I'm kind of expecting Texas to win, but if you're Kansas, if you can play this game close, I think it would make you feel really good. And I still don't even go into this game being like, oh, Kansas can't win.

Starting point is 00:20:27 I definitely think Kansas can win this game. You know, I'm expecting Texas to win. I'm going to be picking Texas to win, and I don't think that's crazy. They're a top-five team. But it wouldn't shock me if Kansas won, because that is the point that Lance Leipold and KU has got in this program. You don't go into any Saturday being like, we just can't win that game. You go into every Saturday being like, we can win that game if we play well.

Starting point is 00:20:46 And that's how I feel about this Texas game. But Texas comes in at 4-0, very talented. Quinn Ewers has been able to disperse the ball to really talented players. He's had a much better year this year so far than he did last year. Offense and defensive line of Texas have been pretty nasty early on and dominated Alabama on the line of scrimmage. That's a big challenge for KU. I mentioned Jatavion Sanders with the tight end after what the tight end just did to you.

Starting point is 00:21:07 So it should be a fun one, and I'm looking forward to it down in Austin. Unfortunately, no college game yet, but the game will be at 2.30 on ABC, primetime television on local TV for everyone to watch in the nation to see what Jalen Daniels, Lance Leipold, and this program can do. All right, that's going to do it for us today on Locked on Jayhawks. We'll have a broader, more short-term, long-term takeaways from the KU-BYU game coming out later this week as well. We also are going to get to another KU basketball position preview. We'll have our KU Texas preview later in the week too.

Starting point is 00:21:37 This has been Locked on Jayhawks. You can find us anywhere you get any of your podcasts and like and subscribe to the show on our YouTube page. Have a great rest of your day and see you next time with LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - REACTION: Kansas Jayhawks Football Moves to 4-0, Wins Big 12 Opener vs BYU Cougars 38-27

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