Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: Kansas Jayhawks Football Crushes Houston Cougars 42-14 with All-Around Effort

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Kansas, we do not have a problem, at least for this week. Jayhawks dominate Houston 42 to 14. 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 find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. This is Locked On Jayhawks, and thank you for making it your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page.

Starting point is 00:00:36 And thank you every day. We're just catching each and every show. And thank you again for making it your first listen every day, or maybe you're making this your second or third listen today to catch up on some of the college football games. Thank you either way. We're going to get into what happened. KU takes down Houston 42-14. What was impressive about it?

Starting point is 00:00:52 What the victory means for KU? Goats of the game, good and bad for KU. And what is next with rivalry week for KU next week? First, this episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. If you want to go on the road and go to Manhattan to see KU take on Kansas State, do that with GameTime. Kansas wins 42-14. It was a game that just a dominant outing by KU all the way together, except for really just one little stretch at the end of the first half.

Starting point is 00:01:28 You get out to that early lead, you drive down, you're making stops early on, you know, you're up 21 to seven, you're up 28 to seven. You dominate the second half as well. You did really everything you want to do in this game. At the same point, everybody was thinking the same thing when it was toward the end of that first half and Houston switches to Donovan Smith and they get those two touchdowns in the second quarter, specifically the one where they get a stop of KU and then they go down and they get a quick touchdown

Starting point is 00:02:04 and they end up making it 28-14 and then they stop KU again and then they get the ball back with a chance to possibly even make it 28-21 where you were all of a sudden going to feel like, oh my goodness, KU has dominated this first half and you might go into halftime only up seven points or even 11 if they got a field goal there and they're going to get the football in the second half. And it's like, all this was for not. And it was going to be the ultimate microcosm of this season. And they continue to struggle at the end of first halves, but at least they didn't

Starting point is 00:02:42 let this thing get out of control. I think that was the difference between this one and the other ones. You still wound up being minus seven in the final two minutes of the first half, but there was a real possibility you could have been minus 10, minus 14 in the end of the first half of this game, and you didn't. And by stopping the bleeding after the minus seven, so to speak, you were able to keep it at 28-14 going into the break. You carried over momentum into the second half, and you just finished out what was a dominant performance for KU

Starting point is 00:03:10 to where now they are, what, like plus 43 in point differential despite the fact that they are 2-5 on the season. KU out-yarded them by 130-ish yards in the Houston game. You dominated the turnover battle. You got some star performances from star players like Kobe Bryant, like JB Brown. I mean, Devin Neal just seemingly week in and week out for this team. You held them to under 100 yards rushing. You held them to a little over three yards per carry, which you would have taken coming in, especially knowing the quarterback run

Starting point is 00:03:42 game that they had the ability to do. I think Chris probably a better runner than Smith, so that helped that they went to the other guy, but Smith probably a better passer of the two. But even then, I mean, overall, you did a pretty good job against the quarterback scramble. There was maybe a play here or there. You're never going to fully contain it, but can you just not let it take over? And I thought this was one of the better outings that KU has shown

Starting point is 00:04:02 in being able to defend that. You held them to five of 14 on third down, so they were not a good third down team coming in. You kept it that way. How about this, dominating on the line of scrimmage? The numbers that I typically look at for the line of scrimmage, you can look at the sack differential, and that is an important one. Sometimes that doesn't tell the full story, though. There are games where a team might have one or two sacks, but they're always hitting the quarterback. They're always pressuring the quarterback. They're stopping the run, and that doesn't always show the game have one or two sacks, but they're always hitting the quarterback. They're always pressuring the quarterback. They're stopping the run, and that doesn't always show the game.

Starting point is 00:04:27 Now, the sacks did show the difference here, 6-0. But more impressively, the number I like to look at is tackle for loss difference of the two teams because it can really show who's winning at the line of scrimmage. And KU won the line of scrimmage. They dominated the TFLs here 12-4. That was a butt whooping in the trenches for ku you had a super balanced offense you were able to run the football you were able to throw the football over 200 yards rushing over 200 yards passing it was just an

Starting point is 00:04:55 all-around performance and coming off the arizona state game which you know declared that jalen's best performance of the season not that at point, that was a super high bar. I think this one is the new best performance for Jalen Daniels, which has to make you feel even better about where you are at, right? I mean, if you win this game 13 to 10 and Jalen struggles and you just found a way to win, you'd still be okay. We won the game, like happy to get back on the winning ways, all that sort of stuff. But how much better would you feel about moving forward? Now you've mounted two straight good games from Jalen Daniels together. This one even better than the last coming off the bye week.

Starting point is 00:05:30 You heard Lance Leipold in the post game talking about that LJ was injured in some of the like preseason ball and Quinton Skinner was injured during some of the summer ball. And so they feel like everything was delayed and that the bye week and now where you are in the season, you are starting to get everybody on the same page. And maybe that's what we're seeing here because Jalen has looked a lot better these last two weeks, including in this game.

Starting point is 00:05:52 And part of that, too, was the help around him. That's always going to make a quarterback look better when the help is better. The offensive line, they've been good all season long. The pass blocking has been inconsistent at certain times. The run blocking is pretty much great all season long. Pass blocking was stellar in this game for KU. I mean, there was even the one incompletion in the, gosh, was that the first quarter? That I want to say Jalen throws it downfield.

Starting point is 00:06:14 It kind of goes like out of bounds. Nobody was open. It was good coverage by Houston. But he had like seven or eight seconds. It was unbelievable. And it felt like the KU offensive line kept them clean all day long. And then you look at the receivers making plays. I mean, that can't be forgotten too, like LJ Arnold and Quentin Skinner. I mean, that Skinner touchdown catch was an amazing grab. So that obviously helps us all of this too. And how much did the bye week help them get into sync with

Starting point is 00:06:41 all that stuff? It certainly couldn't have hurt. How much did it help them self-scout? I think we saw that a lot on the defensive side of the ball. You know, I've been critical, and I think a lot of KU fans have been critical of the fact that it's felt like sometimes the KU defensive scheme hasn't adjusted. That it's just been, hey, we're just going to continue to do what we're doing, and, you know, maybe it's a little bit too passive at times. Felt like KU was the aggressor in this game. Felt like they adjusted a little bit. They blitzed a little bit too passive at times. Felt like KU was the aggressor in this game. Felt like they adjusted a little bit.

Starting point is 00:07:07 They blitzed a little bit more. They used J.B. Brown in a bit more of a pass. We've seen J.B. Brown in a pass rushing role before, but it felt like he got used even more there in this game. And that was really impressive to see the adjustments that you made, whether that was self-scouting just for the game plan or whatever. Offensive side of the ball, I don't know that the offense was that much different. It just felt like things were more in sync and it felt like you had more time

Starting point is 00:07:29 to prepare for this game. And you look at a lot of KU's best, you know, performances game in and game out. It's been in the early drives when they have more time to prepare. So you get an extra week to prepare. They should be doing a little bit better there. So it certainly couldn't have hurt. We'll see how much that carries over to the rest of the season. Hopefully it is something that does carry over. At the end of the day,

Starting point is 00:07:50 sadly, this win does not change the season now. It doesn't change the fact that KU is still two and five, the fact that they're still not in the Big 12 title race like you were hoping before the season, that it's still going to be a major uphill climb just to make it back to a bowl game. None of that changes with this win, though it gives you maybe a little bit more of a modicum of hope about the bowl game thing, but with three straight-ranked opponents and stuff upcoming, that's not really, at least on my ledger right now, it's just about getting some of those wins and feeling better about the trajectory of the program. But it does make you feel better, and it's important to win these types of games because you're trying

Starting point is 00:08:31 to continue to build the fan base. I mean, I think 38,000 was the announced attendance. I don't know if that was fully accurate, but I was there. It was pretty filled up at the home side in the 100 levels between probably like the goal line to goal line. You know, students seem to have a pretty good attendance in this game. So, you know, I would buy that it was 30,000 above 30,000 certainly there, which was more than I thought coming in. So, you know, pat on the back to KU fans who showed out for this game. Obviously, it was great weather and you got to see a really good performance.

Starting point is 00:09:03 But it's important for that. It's important for, you know, getting that momentum back in the positive way for the program um and again the season goals like they're still not going to be achieved the next three games are ranked opponents that's going to make it tougher but in a weird way this has you thinking you know more about like oh what if you would have just won that illinois game who all of a sudden beats michigan gets a top 25 win, they look good. And now looking back, like really a majority of those losses, it's like, oh, those are pretty good teams.

Starting point is 00:09:31 But in a weird way, you look back and you're just like, oh, man, they just blew out Houston. Like maybe they're starting to find their footing a little bit. If they could have just won two of those games or won more of those games, it'd be three and four, maybe the bowl wouldn't be out of reach. It'd be four and three, you know, all that sort of stuff. Now, if this leads to a starting of momentum to get rolling and you win one of those next three games against a ranked opponent, or you pull an upset at K state next week, like now

Starting point is 00:09:53 you have my attention about what this would mean in terms of this season. Um, so I don't really want to view this one game necessarily as like a program changer or a season changer. It could be, it could be the catalyst. It could be the spark, but here's where I just want to focus on this because I feel like this is almost sounding like a turd in the punch bowl type of situation. And that's not what I'm trying to do. What I'm trying to say is just enjoy this one game, enjoy the win, feel good about yourself, feel good about the team you watch, feel happy about the performance you saw. If you went to the game, feel happy that you decided to spend a Saturday doing that. Feel joy, and I hope that you let yourself have a fun Saturday because it certainly was that for KU football.

Starting point is 00:10:33 Hopefully there are more to come, but if not, enjoy this one for the very least of what it was. Certainly if they play like that moving forward, there should be more enjoyable Saturdays, and that would be the hope moving ahead. Who are the good and bad goats for KU? We'll get to that next on Locked on Jayhawks. Our episode today is brought to you by Zbiotics pre-alcoholic probiotic drink, which is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic.

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Starting point is 00:12:02 You can check out what's going on around the country. So let's get to our goats. We've got a lot of good ones to get to, as you'd imagine, in a performance like this. Let's start with Kobe Bryant. Three tackles, had a TFL, hit a really good hit on the quarterback, Donovan Smith, at one point. At least I think that was Smith.

Starting point is 00:12:15 Was that Chris at that point? Anyway, the bigger thing, though, three interceptions for Kobe Bryant. I mentioned in the preview show, it felt like Kobe Bryant was due for a pick six. We didn't get the pick six, but we did get three interceptions, which I don't know. What would you rather have? Would you rather have three interceptions or pick six? I'd rather have three interceptions, right? That's three game-changing plays right there.

Starting point is 00:12:35 Now, unfortunately, KU didn't do great off of turnovers. I think they only had seven points off the four interceptions that they had in this game. Part of that, though, is a little misleading. It's not like they started at the 20-yard line of the opposition after an interception. A couple of them, you're backed up in your own end zone. You'd like to have even more points off of it, but still, it was important for changing the momentum, making stops on the defensive end. So Kobe had himself a whale of a game, and that tied the KU record for most picks in the game with, I think, three other players. It also moved Kobe into tied second all-time for career interceptions.

Starting point is 00:13:08 Ray Evans is first with like 17, so he got like 10 of them in a season. And then Aqib Tlaib and Kobe are tied second at 13. So pretty cool numbers there for Kobe Bryant, who gets a good goat. J.B. Brown gets a good goat. I thought this was an excellent game for J.B. Brown. It stinks for J.B. Brown because I think he'd have a real chance to win Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week this week. Unfortunately, his own teammate with Kobe Bryant, it's going to be hard not to give a guy who had three interceptions Defensive Player of the Week in the Big 12. So, you know, in a lot of other weeks, J.B. Brown might win that award.

Starting point is 00:13:39 But J.B. was really good. Six tackles, three TFLs, two sacks. He had another quarterback hit. He was all over getting his nose dirty, making big tackles in three TFLs, two sacks. He had another quarterback hit. He was all over getting his nose dirty, making big tackles in the middle, plugging up the run. I really liked what we saw with the extensive use of him as a pass rusher. I thought that was really good for KU and using him as a blitzer. I think he's their best blitzing linebacker, and we saw a lot more of that in this game. On the offensive side of the football, we do have more defensive. Let's

Starting point is 00:14:03 just get to that one actually first. DJ Withers. DJ Withers had two sacks in this game on the offensive side of the football we do have more defensive let's just get to that one actually first uh dj withers dj withers had two sacks in this game and i think had three tackles for the game i mean he continues it seems like different games we're getting different d tackles who flash for ku which is a good place to be in because you're seeing a lot of the potential for a lot of the different guys um devin neal gets a good goat 17 carries 108 yards two touchdowns i also like the back-to-back games now we've seen him catch multiple passes, three catches for 26 yards. We've seen that a lot early in the game script for KU. That's been something where it feels like a lot of KU fans have been like,

Starting point is 00:14:36 why aren't you getting these guys more involved in the passing game with some of the running backs? That's one way to get them the ball out in space. They're good players, and we've seen that the past couple weeks. I think that's a good way to, you know, add something else to the offense. And Devin Neal just continues to be that dude for KU.

Starting point is 00:14:52 And it's just like, it feels like it's almost forgotten. Sometimes you have all these other performances, Kobe and, you know, the offense put up 42 points and it's, it's just like, he's just so automatic.

Starting point is 00:15:02 He's just so smooth. And, and it's such a beautiful thing to watch with Devin Neal running the football. Jalen Daniels gets a good go here. I thought this was his best game of the season. You now have his two best games of the season back-to-back, which has to make you feel good about the trajectory going up.

Starting point is 00:15:15 He was 16 of 21, 247 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions. That's the big one right there. No picks for Jalen Daniels. And he had seven carries for 58 yards and a touchdown. So we saw everything that we have typically seen from vintage Jalen Daniels. He ran the football well. He took some hits over the middle even. That's 305 total yards, four touchdowns to no turnovers. And some of the throws we saw too, like whether it's taking the deep shot downfield for Quentin Skinner for the touchdown, the pass that sticks out in my mind the most that it's like Jalen looked like, like that game looked exactly like a Jalen Daniels game last year or two years

Starting point is 00:15:54 ago. That was the guy we were looking for is the, the play where he ends up scrambling to the opposite side. He's going to his left side, obviously throws, you know, on out of his right arm. So opposite side body and is being

Starting point is 00:16:05 chased to the sideline throws a dart downfield to Trevor Wilson who makes a nice catch at the sideline and gets inbounds that was vintage Jalen that was an unbelievable play and yeah I think there were maybe two throws that maybe he overthrew the guy or something like that but like I've said this before if you want to to critique a college quarterback, quarterbacks in general, you can't go into it being like, I expect not a single throw to miss. Even Patrick Mahomes misses throws. You know what I mean? You like to not have that and have everything be perfect,

Starting point is 00:16:34 but it's better. It's more about, okay, if you missed a few other throws, did you make enough big plays? Did you not have turnover-worthy plays? Those sorts of things. And Jalen was excellent. A-plus game for Jalen in this one. Obviously, like I said earlier, helps that everything around him was good right he ran the ball well that's gonna help a quarterback LJ Arnold was really good four catches for 80 yards

Starting point is 00:16:52 Houston did a good job you know limiting Luke Grimm and what he was able to do though Grimm was able to get involved in that reverse game which that reverse play continues to be nice for uh for KU but LJ Arnold good catches, 80 yards. That one catch he had on the sideline, fantastic grab to get there. Quentin Skinner, only two catches this time, but 59 yards, had that big touchdown where he kind of mosses the guy. Those are the plays where if you're Jalen, you see one-on-one, you got your 6'5 speedster downfield, you throw it up to him and let him give him a chance to make the play. And in the Illinois game, some of those chances were just underthrown, led to interceptions. This one was further down the field and he let him make a play and he did.

Starting point is 00:17:28 And Quentin Skinner had a nice game. Offensive line gets a good go. Gave up zero sacks, but you also gave up zero quarterback hits. Some of the long pockets were insane, how extensive they were. And you only allowed four tackles for loss. You also had 220 rushing yards, 6.7 yards per carry. Offensive line, outstanding job for KU. And then, I mean, honestly, I'll throw Cornell Wheeler in there. A, it was just good to see Cornell Wheeler get back into the football game. We saw Tywon Berry Hill as a starter. Wheeler eventually rotated in, quickly made his name known, ended up with four tackles at the interception late in the game, which was cool to see. And that's a big one for KU to get him back because he is, for my money, you know, I don't know that he's the best player on the defense, right?

Starting point is 00:18:10 You got Kobe Bryant and J.B. Brown and some of these guys, but he almost is like the heart and soul of the defense is what it kind of seems like to me. He was the one calling plays, leader of that defense, middle linebacker. You see the difference when he's been on the field versus off the field in terms of your run defense. As far as the bad goats, I don't really have much here. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:18:27 I'd like to see the PFF grade before I go fully into this one, but I did notice Caleb Purdy, who seems like KU is certainly beat up at some of those safety positions. I think both Dye brothers, Mason Ellis, were out. So you saw a lot more Taylor Davis, who had some nice flash plays. I thought OJ Burrows, Marvin Grant had some good tackles here and there. I did notice Caleb Purdy. I don't know this for sure as well, but I think that one touchdown, their first touchdown, I want to say it was, of the game

Starting point is 00:18:50 where he was just like wide open. It was like the running back wheel route. It was a blown coverage, clearly. Who blew the coverage? I don't know. I think it might have been Purdy. He also got called for like a defensive flag later, but it was still cool to see him get some snaps,

Starting point is 00:19:04 like a young guy who I think will still end up being a good player, along with Taylor Davis and some of these other guys. Special teams gets a bad goad here. This was not a good special teams game for KU. At least it wasn't like an abject disaster. But still, going into the Kansas State game next week, you have to tighten everything up. Damon Graves had the one bad punt, not kneeling kickoff returns for KU,

Starting point is 00:19:23 which you did have one good kickoff return. And then the opening kickoff return, you got bailed out a little bit because they had the face mask that you would have had bad field position. You ended up with okay field position. I don't know why KU is not kneeling more of these kicks. You also missed the field goal.

Starting point is 00:19:35 So again, you got to tighten that stuff up for next week with K-State. And then the end of the first half, like that you have to tighten up against K-State. You were being outscored 45 to zero in the final two minutes of the first half. You were a two and five football team with a lot of close losses. That's one way to make up those close losses, do better in those final two minutes. But outside of that, it was a pretty

Starting point is 00:19:52 incredible effort from KU all the way around. All right, let's finish up. What's next for KU football? This episode is brought to you by GameTime, which has a new feature called GameTime Picks that makes getting tickets to see your favorite teams play live even easier. GameTime Picks filters out all the fluff to show you all the incredible deals on great seats so you don't have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets. They have all-in pricing where you can toggle this feature, shows the total up front with no surprise fees at checkout. You can take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime,

Starting point is 00:20:25 and you get to see the seat views of what you want to purchase. Maybe you're looking to go to the KUK State game this upcoming weekend, and let's see what tickets we can get for for this one. So I'm looking at, let's see, we can get in the building, $226 with the all-in pricing. You can see a 50-yard line. You got some extra coin lying around, $ 477 for one of the front rows. And if you download the GameTime app, create an account,

Starting point is 00:20:48 and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE, L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N-C-O-L-L-E-G-E, for $20 off. Download GameTime today. What time is it? GameTime. Finishing things up, this episode of Locked on Jayhay hawks thanks for tuning in next up for ku

Starting point is 00:21:07 will be at k state last i checked kansas state was winning 23 to 10 against west virginia so we'll see how that one finishes up i never like playing good teams when they're coming off a loss so i you know i'm almost hoping that the wildcats come through with that one um i don't know if it actually matters or not but looking at college football insiders. Now these are numbers before both teams results. So K state could end up being ranked better on this. KU certainly will be end up being ranked better on this because they were projected to lose the Houston game there. And that one will certainly help, but coming in on that projected score 37 to 16, basically for K state. So KU is going to be dogs in this one. Now I don't expect it to be a 21 point line. I would smash it. Honestly, if it was KU plus 21, I don't know

Starting point is 00:21:49 what the line will be in this game. I don't know. You could convince me like seven, honestly, maybe sounds a little bit low. Maybe it ends up being 10, but you look at what K state does. Well, this is a team that is very balanced as they typically are. They run the football really well. Like DJ Giddens, really good running back. they typically are. They run the football really well. DJ Giddens, really good running back. Avery Johnson can really run the football. You look at the defensive side of the football for Kansas state and they have been just balanced again,

Starting point is 00:22:16 their top 30 and EPA per rush and EPA per drop back. So they do a little bit of everything. It's a really good team. Kansas is going to have to, you know, mind their P's and Q's, play a clean football game. Like this is going to take an A-plus effort for KU,

Starting point is 00:22:30 and it's going to be tough to do that back-to-back weeks, much tougher opponent next week. But at this point in time, if you said Kansas wins next week against Kansas State, you know, I think a lot of people would just say, okay, wrap it up. At this point, like, you know, wasn't the full season we wanted, but you got something done that you hadn't in the previous years. Like, great.

Starting point is 00:22:47 On the other side, you'll be saying, if they can find a way to win that one, like, uh-oh, here they come. Could they squeak back into a bowl game? If they win next week, maybe we'll have that conversation. But that is going to be an uphill climb for KU, and we'll preview it later this week on Locked on Jayhawks. We'll also talk some KU basketball and our three biggest takeaways from this game later in the week on LOJ.

Starting point is 00:23:06 So make sure you're tuning in for that. Thank you. Every day is tuning into every show and we'll see you next time with Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - RECAP: Kansas Jayhawks Football Crushes Houston Cougars 42-14 with All-Around Effort

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