Hawking Points: Kansas Holds Off Nevada 31-24
Kansas fans waited all day for the Kansas Jayhawks to kick off in Reno against Nevada. It did not go as planned. The 28-point favorites got off to a strong start but then limped into halftime tied and continued to let Nevada hang around all game until finally winning 31-24.
Here’s what to know from a late night in Reno.
Key Plays
Kansas wasted no time on the road on the offensive end, capping an efficient nine-play, 75-yard drive with a Devin Neal touchdown run. But that would be about all the positive plays for the first half. Though Seth Keller did hit a 44-yard field goal to remain perfect on the year, which was a nice change of pace from the inconsistency last year.
The defense stepped up early in the second half when the offense was struggling, forcing back-to-back three and outs to start the third quarter.
On the possession after the Jalon Daniels fumble (see the eye-covering moments), KU marched down the field with Daniels finding Mason Fairchild, who was tackled a yard short of the endzone. Daniel Hishaw punched it in. But it would have never happened if Jared Casey didn’t fall on a Hishaw fumble earlier in the possession.
Nevada tied the game at 17 and Daniels passed to Neal out of the backfield, who took it 59 yards down to the one. He then finishes it off with a one-yard run to again give KU a touchdown lead.
Quentin Skinner made an incredible 24-yard leaping catch with the game tied at 24 to get his feet down and get Kansas into Nevada territory. Daniels then found Fairchild on third and five for 17 yards down inside the Nevada 10. Neal got it to the three on a run the next play and then finished it off with a rushing touchdown to give KU another seven-point lead with 6:20 to play.
Eye-Catching Stat Lines
Daniels seemed a bit out of sorts early – holding onto the ball too long and making a few bad reads – but still managed to complete 21 of 27 passes for 298 yards and would have had multiple passing touchdowns if not for receivers being ruled down at the one yard line.
Devin Neal was again virtually unstoppable. Along with his 59-yard reception, Neal ran for 89 yards and three touchdowns on 17 carries.
The issue in the first half was not the defense, specifically the passing defense. Nevada quarterback Brendon Lewis completed four of his first six passes, but for -9 yards. That’s right. Even midway through the third quarter, Lewis only had 13 yards passing. But a few big plays changed that and even the defense wore some blame for this being a close game.
Luck was not on KU’s side when it came to the turnover battle. Nevada put the ball on the ground five times and recovered all five. Two of those going KU’s way would have drastically shifted the game.
This was eye-catching in a bad way but Kansas was uncharacteristically undisciplined this game. The Jayhawks committed seven penalties for 53 yards, with five of them coming in the first half for 43 yards.
Eye-Covering Moments
As beautiful as the first offensive drive was for Kansas, the second was disastrous. Daniels was nearly picked off, left guard Armaj Reed-Adams was called for back-to-back penalties, and on third and 25, Daniels was sacked and KU had to punt for just the second time this season.
Most of the second quarter could fit into this section. Daniels is nearly intercepted again. Kansas had to punt again. And then Nevada goes down and scores to tie the game at 10 with 25 seconds left in the first half.
After forcing a three and out to start the second half on defense, Kansas moved the ball downfield but Daniels was hit on third down, fumbled, and held his arm coming off the field as Nevada took over off the turnover. Daniels would come back in the next drive.
Kansas took a 17-10 lead in the third quarter and then the Wolf Pack answered immediately. Lewis connected on a 53-yard pass to get into the red zone and then ran it in himself to tie the game after a four-play, 65-yard drive.
Up 24-17, Kansas forced Nevada into fourth and two but again penalties hurt the Jayhawks. KU jumped offside and gave Nevada a first down at the end of the third quarter.
Takeaways
Kansas had no business barely squeaking by in this game. Granted, it’s a road game and a late start against a team with nothing to lose and with an undefeated BYU team coming to Lawrence next week. It’s easy to look ahead.
I don’t know that it means anything too huge in the long term. It’s been a wild week with lots of surprising results. But as optimistic as the fan base was after the Illinois win, this was a week of pessimism. Though a win is a win and KU turning around and beating BYU at home would make all right with the world again.
