Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: #25 Kansas Jayhawks Football Makes Too Many Mistakes in 31-27 Loss to #21 Kansas St Wildcats

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Kansas loses their 15th straight game to Kansas State, 31-27. Feels like it was a nightmare last night. Did it actually happen? Yes, it did. Felt like they should have won the game. We're going to discuss on today's episode of the show. You are Locked on Jayhawks,

Starting point is 00:00:17 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 Rock Chalk Sports Talk. Thanks for making Locked On Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcasts.

Starting point is 00:00:47 You can also find us on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. Thank you to all the everydayers out there. And don't forget to check out our Locked On 24-7 network out there now too new. On today's episode of the show, Kansas falls to Kansas State again in similar fashion in terms of the things that went wrong for Kansas, but a much closer result in terms of how it all went down, which, honestly, this one's going to stick with you a while. You know, this one's certainly one of those games that you wake up Sunday and you're like, did that really happen last night? You know, anyway, before we get into it, today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel.

Starting point is 00:01:22 Make every moment more. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 Moneyline bet. That's $150. If your team wins, visit fanduel.com slash locked on to get started. Kansas Falls 31-27, a game they led 27-16 in the third quarter after that great first drive, and then it was downhill from there. Just too many what-ifs in this game right what if it was jay and daniels what if it was jason bean uh what if the special teams doesn't muff a punt what if the special teams doesn't have a pat blocked um which you know as much as the muff punt got the action i tweeted this out the other night um you know the the pat block was actually arguably the bigger play because the PAT block, if you think about it, that was a four-point swing. What'd

Starting point is 00:02:11 you lose by four? And you might be thinking, oh, how is it a four-point swing? Okay, so obviously if Kansas makes the PAT, they have an extra point. Now they're at 28 points, right? If Kansas State does not get that two-point conversion, now they have two less points. So, for instance, instead of being up 27-16, which they were, they're now up 28-14. And then when Kansas State scores their next touchdown, instead of going for two, which in real time made it 27-24, they just go for one because it would have made it 28-21. And so now if you make the blocked PAT, it's 28-28.

Starting point is 00:02:44 And on the fourth and five that you had to, you know, basically take a shot at and you didn't get, you're just kicking a field goal instead and you're going up 31-28. So the blocked PAT changed the outcome of this game. What if that doesn't happen? What if the holding call on fourth down, the Kansas State gets the fourth down conversion, ends up, you ends up not happening,

Starting point is 00:03:06 and they don't get a touchdown on that first drive. What if Keenan Garber ends up being recruited better by KU and comes to Kansas, and then he's on KU's roster, and it gives him another good DB, and he's the guy who runs back the block, right? There's so many what-ifs you can have in this game if you're KU. But the annoying part of all that is every year that seems to be the case, right? Like last year, you know, you lose by a sizable enough margin, but still it's what if Jalen

Starting point is 00:03:36 Daniels is more healthy? What if OJ Burrows doesn't muff the punt inside his own five after you get the opening top? What if instead of Deuce Vaughn having like the gigantic screen pass play on the third and forever, you actually make the tackle there, right? Like there are a lot of what ifs you can have. You go back to 2020. What if you don't give up a couple part return touchdowns in the first half? You go back to 20, whatever, 17 or 18.

Starting point is 00:03:58 What if you don't give up a kick return touchdown and another long kick return? Another one of those other years. What if Peyton Bender doesn't drop the ball? That's the problem here because you know who doesn't make a lot of those what-if plays and plays clean every time you play them? Kansas State. And so as much as I want to sit here and be like, what if this happened?

Starting point is 00:04:16 What if that happened? And, man, they could have won this game. They absolutely could have. And, honestly, like a certain part of me thinks they should have won this game. But the problem is sometimes in sports, we look too much at the team who made the mistakes and are like, man, they should have won that game. They made all the mistakes.

Starting point is 00:04:33 But we don't look in the mirror and go, well, sometimes the reason the other team's winning the game is because they just are the team that typically makes less mistakes. And that's what Kansas State has done every year in this series. Not only have they a lot of years had the better team or the better roster, although, you know, watching this game on Saturday, like I didn't look at it and go, oh, Kansas is less athletic or has less talent. Like, no, I think Kansas went toe to toe with Kansas State in terms of some of those departments and in some areas had better talent than what Kansas State had. But they play clean football

Starting point is 00:05:03 when you play them and you make the mistakes, and despite you having the better special teams ranked units coming in, you were the ones who made the mistakes there, and you know, special teams has kind of been a disaster now for Kansas since like week six, right? You had the UCF blocked PAT, returned for two points there, and that was a game that didn't matter, but guess what? That foreshadowed something that you had to try to get fixed, and you couldn't get it fixed over the last five weeks. You look at the muff punt. Trevor Wilson had another muff punt earlier this year. He's had trouble catching balls and catching punts going back

Starting point is 00:05:35 to even a couple years ago at Kansas. He's, I think, your best open field returner when you get the ball in his hands. You saw that against UCF with the punt return touchdown. But maybe he's not Kansas' most sure catcher of the punts. And just for whatever reason, you could convince me that Kansas has been – like Kansas could go into a year where they have the number one special teams on like some of the metric sites, and K-State could be last. And still, I would be going into this game next year convinced

Starting point is 00:06:03 that Kansas is going to make a huge special team gaffe and that Kansas State's going to play clean there. I don't know what it is. You added Sean Snyder and it still did not matter. Was he a plant on the inside? I'm just kidding, obviously. Well, no, I am. On the positive side, you did play your tail off. You lost a close game where it was not about effort. It was not about talent. It was not about one, two. Those things were all there, right? The motivation, you were as motivated as they were, in my opinion. You played as hard as they did. You had as much talent. And again, in certain spots, even more talent than they did. And then in certain spots, they had more talent than you did.

Starting point is 00:06:39 You ran the ball extremely well against the 3-3-5, which you've struggled against sometimes in the past. And you out-yarded them by 60 yards. That's a really good Kansas State team and a good defense. I mean, I know Kansas State came in with the ranking 21, which makes you a good team to begin with. You look at ESPN SP+, they were number 11. That's a really good team.

Starting point is 00:06:58 You didn't get run over defensively. Four and a half yards per carry, not the best number you're going to be giving up a lot of that though came on the last drive which unfortunately you would have liked to see more of that run defense on the last drive of the game to get them off the field maybe get one last crack at it offensively but um you know it wasn't what won the game for k-state them running the football necessarily like maybe we've seen in some past games where they've just been able to road grade you like for instance last year uh cole ballard had the picks and a fumble that ku recovered fortunately so a little more turnover prone than you like but again i thought he had a

Starting point is 00:07:35 good-ish game all things considered like the first pick was bad that was a no-no throw second interception i don't really classify like there are certain interceptions that just are like good interceptions. You have to make – it's fourth and five. You have to – like he's scrambling out. There's pressure. Nobody open. He's like, I have to throw this up. I have to throw this up to give my guy a shot.

Starting point is 00:07:57 It's fourth and five. I can't take a sack. I can't throw it away. So like that pick is fine. He averaged 10.1 yards per attempt. He had 55 rushing yards. More gutsy play again, 64.7 total QBR. Again, you take that from a third-string quarterback. That puts him about middle class of the Big 12.

Starting point is 00:08:13 You take that from your third string. I thought, if anything, they should have let him throw even more in this game. What's weird is this, though. After the game, Lance Leipold on Jason Bean, he was available and he was cleared to play, but based on practice time and the things like that, we made the decision to go with Cole. Very interesting. Now I get that from a game planning perspective

Starting point is 00:08:34 and working the game plan and scripting the first X amount of plays or something like that in the game. But at some point, you know, maybe after Cole Ballard throws the interception or maybe if you stall at some point or another, you would think you'd go to Jason Bean on senior day. I don't know, man. Bean's earned a lot, and even with less practice reps,

Starting point is 00:08:51 I think I'd take the governor off there and I'd go with Jason Bean, but that's a story for another day. On the bright side, that does make it sound like Jason Bean could be back for next week against Cincinnati. In the end, though, when you make all those special teams mistakes, when you drop a pick six, which has now been a theme in 2KU losses, right? You have the drop pick six against Oklahoma State, the drop pick six now in this game. You have a stretch with three straight drives at one point in the second half that either started or reached your own 40

Starting point is 00:09:21 yard line that none of them got points. and then you're minus two in turnovers against a good opponent you're not going to win many if any of those games you're just not and you made too many mistakes and it sucks because the guys played their butts off and it sucks because it felt like you had them dead to rights in certain regards and it felt like you had maybe your best chance of beating them in forever. And it feels like, oh, well, great. Now next year you get to go to Manhattan, and then after that they're going to have Avery Johnson, right?

Starting point is 00:09:51 It sucks on so many levels, but that's what happens. Made too many mistakes, and you lost the game. All right, we're going to continue on in the show, get to our goats of the game, good and bad, here with Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by Listening.com, an app that turns academic papers, textbooks, PDFs, websites, and emails into audio so you can listen to them on the go. They can help you with studying.

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Starting point is 00:11:14 Devin Neal. Devin Neal had 18 carries for 138 yards. He had three touchdowns, also had a catch for two yards. He was running his tail off. The hitting yards, the gains where it was like, okay, this could be like a three-yard gain, turns into five or six. This could be a seven-yard gain, spins forward, dives forward, makes it nine or ten.

Starting point is 00:11:37 He played unbelievable football. I feel awful that they did not win this game, because you know this game means a ton to him. I mean, it means a ton to everyone. It was senior day, top 25 matchup, you know, Kansas State. But this is a local kid from Lawrence, from the area, from the state. You know he wanted to be the guy that ended that streak, and he played well enough to do it. He was unbelievable in this game.

Starting point is 00:11:57 And what makes it feel worse to me, I don't know what Devin Neal's future is going to hold. He could come back for another year and make a ton of money off NIL and break the all-time KU career rushing record. And I don't know, maybe losing this game motivates him more to come back for another year so he can take one more crack at Kansas State next year. But he's going to have a real decision because I think he is an NFL-level running back. Now, the thing is with the NFL- level running back, you can be an NFL running back and be drafted in the sixth round. So it kind of stinks because of the, you know, how the, the, the position is just kind of dropped off, but also, you know, you have more or less

Starting point is 00:12:33 wear and tear you can take at that position. So your NFL career is more of a ticking time bomb, right? You just get less carries. So it makes sense for a lot of guys to go early. I don't know what he's going to do. I would understand decisions either way. I really would. But if this is his last one, it just sucks, I think, for him. So we'll see. It might not be his last one, but either way, he did play good enough to win and fought his tail off. Speed option plays with Cole Ballard or Torrey Laughlin in a quarterback. We got to see Torrey Laughlin, the Wildcat. I thought the Wildcat continued to look good for you. So that's a good sign that you continue able to use that throughout the year. And with Torrey Laughlin, I don't know if people know this,

Starting point is 00:13:10 back in high school, he was a quarterback in high school. They didn't show any throwing plays in this one, but I would guarantee if they continue to go to that package, at some point they're going to let him throw the football. So that would be kind of interesting. But also he had that one nice run on on the third and medium, third and short that he had to kind of jockey by a couple guys. Cole Ballard, I thought, has done well on the speed option plays.

Starting point is 00:13:32 I think he has a good read of when exactly to pitch it, and that makes the plays work. I think they're actually better with Cole Ballard than Jason Dean on the speed option plays, oddly enough. Let's see. Luke Grimm gets a good go here. Three catches for 44 yards, both of which led the team. It was kind of a balanced passing game.

Starting point is 00:13:51 He didn't have a ton of passing yards to kind of go around, like 160. But that catch he had on the sideline, on the kind of deep ball, just shy of the end zone, and then he gets up and celebrates. That was an excellent catch by luke grim so uh luke grim gets a good go here austin booker gets a good goat he had six tackles a sack he had the sack before the muffed punt which the muffed punt just killer man right i mean you think about it you're you're up with the lead 27 24 you get the sack you muffed the punt you would have had it i mean he was fielding it like they're the punt. You would have had it. I mean, he was fielding it at like their 45-yard lines.

Starting point is 00:14:26 He would have had a great field position off that play, so it made it even more unfortunate. He also had three total pressures in the game, which tied for the team lead. He also had a team-best defensive grade on pro football focus, so really good stuff from Austin Booker. Kenny Logan gets a good go here. Another guy I just feel gutted for. He's a senior, and really all the seniors, right?

Starting point is 00:14:44 Mason Fairchild had the big catch. He's a senior, right? There's so many guys. But with Kenny Logan, he had a good kick here. Another guy I just feel gutted for. He's a senior, and really all the seniors, right? Mason Fairchild had the big catch. He's a senior, right? There's so many guys. But with Kenny Logan, he had a good kick return in this game. That was, I think, another one of those drives. Kansas was unable to put any points together despite good field position. He had a handful plus of tackles. He ended up with a really good tackling grade on pro football focus,

Starting point is 00:15:01 and he had a good coverage grade on pro football focus too. All-around game for Kenny Logan. He left it all out on the line for his final home game. And no matter what, his legacy has helped turning this program around. Really wish he could have gotten that one for him and some of the other guys. OJ Burrows, also good tackling grade, also good coverage grade on Pro Football Focus. He's really excelled his play as the season has gone on here. Kobe Bryant gets a good GO goat. Two pass breakups. He was targeted seven times in the game. So Kansas

Starting point is 00:15:31 State was actually like, you know what? We are going to target this guy. A lot of these other teams have not been targeting him lately. We're going to go after him. We're going to see what he can do. Well, guess what? He was targeted seven times. He gave up one catch. So it didn't totally work out that way 44 NFL passer rating against he did have the one penalty but uh unbelievable game again from Kobe Bryant one catch on seven targets fantastic stuff Mello Dotson gets a good go-to uh he did give up three catches for 28 yards but he also had an interception that's a good trade-off if you say I gave up 28 yards but I had an interception like okay that's great numbers right so Mello Dotson gets a good goat there the bad goats obviously

Starting point is 00:16:09 you know where I'm probably going with this first one special teams you had Trevor Wilson drop punt at about the 45 yard line um that was just a killer play and then the blocked PAT which I talked about earlier that blocked PAT was just as monumental because it led to directly a real three-point swing, but what would have actually caused a four-point swing, and then all of a sudden you have a tie ball game, and then Kansas is kicking a field goal on the fourth and five. It's 31-28. Maybe K-State even scores at the end of the game when they have the ball there,

Starting point is 00:16:40 and instead of trying to run the clock out, maybe we go to overtime. I don't know. All sorts of different things could happen, but that PAT, blocked PAT, had a huge impact on the game. And KU, just for whatever reason, they can't figure out special teams against Kansas State. Now, you look at the ratings, and I mentioned KU coming in was first in yards per punt return.

Starting point is 00:16:58 K-State was 11th in net yards per punt. We saw K-State have some bad punts in this game. The punt that was to Trevor Wilson that he dropped was not a great punt. KU was going to get good field position. They just made their own mistakes. It wasn't really as much about K-State forcing that. The one blocked PAT, that was a great play by the guy who blocked it. But like a lot of the other stuff was, you know, like the drop punt, that was just KU's self-inflicted mistake. And they've had way too many of those against Kansas State. I don't know what it is. For whatever reason, just every year, that seems like that's kind of the driving force for how they lose this game.

Starting point is 00:17:31 KU linebackers get a bad goat here. Tywon Berryhill had a 33 overall grade on pro football focus. He had a 20 tackling grade. He missed four tackles. Rich Miller actually had a decent pro football focus grade, 64 grade. So fine overall, but just a 42 tackling grade. And obviously the other one that haunts people is the drop pick six. And I'm sure, you know, he felt bad.

Starting point is 00:17:54 I mean, on senior day too, like that just absolutely, again, I feel gutted for him because if he comes up with that pick six, he probably wins the game, right? JB Brown had a 57 PFF grade. So KU's linebackers certainly struggled. They were going to be tested in this game because of Ben Sinnott in the middle and then because the running game of K-State and Will Howard and the two running backs, they rotate in and, you know,

Starting point is 00:18:16 not the best stuff from that position. Red zone execution at both ends for KU. I don't know what it is. KU's defense is last in the Big 12 in red zone defense, which is a problem because a lot of times they have been built to be a Ben's don't break defense, and they just can't even stop teams to field goals right now, and they can't really get that stop in there. I don't know if it's bad luck or what, but again, they're last in the Big 12 in red zone defense right now. And then on the offensive end, right, you look at the fourth

Starting point is 00:18:42 and five that you don't get in the red zone there there like they've just again had too many times where they're coming up empty in the red zone right now you go back to the tech game you go to the kansas state game right some key possessions that you were unable to come up with points in the red zone and uh certainly that hurt and then playing clean football gets a bad goat here this is just kind of an additive of everything the special teams mistakes you had three turnovers in a game where you needed to be the clean team. Like you needed to have as many turnovers as they did or less. And you had two more.

Starting point is 00:19:11 If anything, it's almost encouraging to be like, you almost won minus two in turnovers. To be like, if you were just minus one, you win the game. But you can't make those mistakes in this game. You also had five penalties for 59 yards. They only had two penalties for 30 yards. Now, maybe one or two of those you disagree or thought there should have been,

Starting point is 00:19:28 you know, an extra one here or there, but you were not the clean team in a game where you kind of had to be. We're going to continue on what's next for KU football. How do you move on from this with Locked on Jayhawks? This episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel. Score early this NFL season with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 Moneyline bet. That's $150 if your team wins.

Starting point is 00:19:56 If you've been thinking about joining FanDuel, there's no better time to get in on the action. The app is so easy to use. There's a wide range of betting options, spreads, player props, over-unders, and more. You can get in on all the action this week with Feast Week and KU Basketball and the Maui Invitational. Then you'll be able to get KU Cincinnati this upcoming Saturday. So no better time than right now. Visit fanduel.com slash locked on and kick off the NFL season.

Starting point is 00:20:20 FanDuel, official partner of the NFL. What's next for KU football? Well, they're going to be at Cincinnati, and the game is a night game. They said it's going to be either 6 or 6.30, basically, for the game at Cincinnati. It's a tough one. So Cincinnati has not been very good this year. They're coming off kind of a shellacking loss this past Saturday,

Starting point is 00:20:42 but it is senior day for them, and that always, you're battling the emotion there. Now, normally, when you're a team coming off a loss like Kansas is, that can get you more motivated and feel like it makes sure you get up for the next game. And sometimes you've come off a big win, and then you can be down that next week. That's what was so impressive about KU's Iowa State win,

Starting point is 00:21:03 was that it was after Oklahoma to where they were able to get up even after the big Oklahoma win. We see teams struggle with that. There is a part of me that wonders with how much energy and emotion KU put into this one and with how the loss came about, will that lead to lethargic play on Saturday against Cincinnati that hurts them a little bit? You'd love to see them get the bad taste out of their mouth and not lose three straight going into a bowl game and get that eighth win. That eight and four looks a lot better than seven and five and feel like you're headed at least back the right way, headed into the bowl game. But it'll be a tough one, even though Kansas is the better team on paper here.

Starting point is 00:21:39 You never know on the road. We've seen KU have some road struggles, and especially on a team on senior day. But we'll get more into that game coming up later in the week. If you're an everydayer, you'll be able to catch that. And thank you to everybody tuning in for every episode. We'll switch gears to some KU Maui Invitational content with our upcoming episodes this week. You can find us anywhere you get your podcasts

Starting point is 00:21:59 and also on our YouTube page. Have a great rest of your day. We'll see you next time with Locked on Jayhawks.

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: #25 Kansas Jayhawks Football Makes Too Many Mistakes in 31-27 Loss to #21 Kansas St Wildcats

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