Kansas Football Pass Defense Needs To Redeem Itself Against UCF

The Kansas football defense as a whole was a disaster last week against Cincinnati, surrendering 603 total yards and letting the Bearcats move the ball downfield all game.

We had written in the days leading up to the contest about how quarterback Brendan Sorsby had struggled against the only real competition UC had faced, with an abysmal 69-yard passing outing against Nebraska in Week 1.

Myself and many others within the fanbase believed this would somewhat carry over to last Saturday's game, but I couldn't have been any more wrong. He threw for 388 yards on 29-of-43 passing, doing whatever he wanted against a helpless Jayhawks defense led by coordinator D.K. McDonald.

Once again, KU will face a quarterback who hasn't exactly impressed through the air this weekend in Orlando. UCF signal-caller Tayven Jackson is throwing for just over 200 yards per game and had his worst performance of the campaign a week ago against Kansas State, tossing 115 yards with no touchdowns and one interception.

While UCF's real strength lies in its potent rushing attack, it is abundantly clear that KU's secondary needs major improvement before it can trot out again.

One positive note is that Utah State transfer DJ Graham II is mostly back to full health and has finally ramped up his snap count. That leaves him, Jalen Todd, and Austin Alexander as the team's primary cornerbacks.

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They will need to do everything in their power to cover UCF receivers like Duane Thomas Jr. (16 receptions, 203 yards) and DJ Black (10 receptions, 187 yards, two touchdowns).

However, how Jackson performs in the passing game is directly tied to the rushing attack. If the defensive line can stifle UCF's running backs in the backfield, the pass defense will have a much easier time holding the Knights' receivers in check.

"They’re really good at running the ball," McDonald said about UCF earlier this week in a press conference. "Watching their game from last week against Kansas State, man, they did a good job of running. Those running backs are special. They both got great speed. They were running away from the defense. They do that a lot on film."

Kansas simply cannot afford another poor defensive performance like last week. McDonald must be aggressive with his play-calling by dialing up the occasional blitz to force Jackson into difficult situations and giving UCF receivers less time to create separation.