Kansas Football QB Jalon Daniels’ Miscues Prove Costly in Loss to Missouri

Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels' missed throws and turnovers were a big reason why the Jayhawks were unable to pull off the upset in Columbia on Saturday.

Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

The Kansas Jayhawks fell to their hated rival Missouri Tigers in a disappointing 42-31 loss on Saturday afternoon in Columbia, Missouri.

It was a back-and-forth contest for the majority of the game with four lead changes by the end of the fourth quarter.

After trailing 6-0 following a Missouri touchdown in the first quarter, KU took the lead 7-6 after a touchdown pass from quarterback Jalon Daniels to tight end DeShawn Hanika. KU then took a 21-6 lead following a fumble return for a touchdown by freshman cornerback Austin Alexander and a one-yard touchdown run by Daniels – all in the first quarter.

KU held that lead until the end of the second quarter when Missouri tied it up 21-21. The Tigers then took the lead late in the third quarter to put them up 28-24 before the Jayhawks answered in the fourth quarter thanks to another Daniels-Hanika touchdown which gave KU a 31-28 lead.

Then the Tigers scored with just under five minutes left in the game and they never relinquished the lead again.

There’s a lot of blame to go around for this loss.

The KU defense gave up almost 600 yards of total offense to the Tigers (334 yards passing, 261 yards rushing). Two Missouri running backs (Jamal Roberts and Ahmad Hardy) finished with more than 100 rushing yards each, and wide receiver Kevin Coleman Jr. had 126 yards receiving when the day was over.

Head coach Lance Leipold also deserves his share of the blame with some very questionable play calling at the end of each half.

However, it was the play of Daniels that really cost KU dearly in several moments throughout the game.

When Daniels fumbled for the second time in the game on a strip sack with nearly 10 minutes left in the second quarter, it gave the Tigers a huge momentum swing that resulted in a safety and possession of the football. On the ensuing drive, the Tigers killed almost nine minutes off the clock and made a field goal to cut the Jayhawks’ lead to 21-18.

The fumble was the catalyst to that five-point swing, and the costly turnover was less of a result of the defense forcing it out than it was Daniels being careless holding the ball.

In the third quarter with the lead tied 21-21 and KU sitting at the 12-yard line of Missouri, Daniels chose to tuck and run the ball to try and get the first down versus throwing the ball to an open receiver in the flat who may have been able to pick up the yardage they needed. Instead, Daniels accidentally ran out of bounds short of the marker and KU was forced to kick a field goal.

Down 35-31 in the fourth quarter, Daniels failed to hit an open Emmanuel Henderson deep down the middle that likely would have resulted in a touchdown. He missed him again on the next play, and the game was essentially over after that when Leipold decided to punt with 2:45 left on the clock.

Daniels played hard throughout the game and made some good plays, but the missed throws and turnovers looked eerily similar to what we have seen from him in big games in the past.

And although he’s not the sole reason KU lost, the sixth-year senior does deserve his share of the blame for the Jayhawks coming up short in Columbia.