Kansas Jayhawks at Texas Tech Red Raiders Statistical Recap: Lots of good and bad.
The Kansas Jayhawks continued to struggle on the road this season, losing to the Texas Tech Red Raiders in Lubbock after turning the ball over at exactly the worst times.
But there were still some good performances to be found, so here is a look around the box score to highlight some of those top performances.
Offense
In general, the offense wasn't an issue in this game, as the Jayhawks were able to amass yards on the day. And they got it in a very balanced way, with only a small difference between the rushing and passing yard totals. But the big difference in this one was turnovers, as the Jayhawks had two critical turnovers, one late in each half. Penalties were also a problem, with Kansas committing 10 for 75 yards.
Passing
The passing game was fairly efficient, but there were too many hiccups in this one. Overall, the unit collected 283 yards, with three touchdowns, but the Kansas quarterbacks only completed 20 of their 33 pass attempts, or less than 61% of their passes. But there were plenty of highlights to be had in the game.
Jason Bean was just 17-28 for 270 yards and 3 touchdowns. He had several highlight throws, including his early long pass to Jared Casey and then a huge pass to Lawrence Arnold on the very next offensive play for Kansas. But it's probably the miscues that many will remember, including an ill-advised pass down the left sideline that was ruled as an interception towards the end of the first half and his lack of awareness of a rusher coming free and forcing a fumble late in the fourth quarter.
Mason Fairchild led the team in receptions, with 5 catches for 49 yards. He made some big catches to help extend drives.
Arnold led the team in receiving yards, with 110 on his 4 catches. He did not score a touchdown.
Quentin Skinner caught 3 passes for 29 yards, including one touchdown.
Luke Grimm also caught 3 passes, this time for 21 yards and one touchdown.
Jared Casey had just a single catch in this game, but it was a 66-yard touchdown reception where he found himself behind the defense on a very bad blitz decision.
Rushing
The running game was once again very productive, with the majority of the production coming from star Devin Neal. In fact, there was only one other rushing attempt by a running back on the roster, which was actually a screen pass that was behind the line.
Neal was extremely efficient, averaging almost 8 yards a carry on his 24 carries for 190 yards. The only thing he didn't do was get a touchdown.
Bean had 4 carries for 10 yards and a touchdown.
Ky Thomas had a single carry for 40 yards. However, it was actually a pass from Ethan Vasko out into the flat.
Defense
The defense clearly struggled in this game, especially in the running game. Kansas couldn't seem to find a way to get off the field, as Texas Tech was able to use a balanced running attack to hit the Jayhawks from all directions. Overall, Tech totaled 264 yards on the ground and 246 yards through the air, neither of which are great numbers.
Ultimately, Kansas was not able to get consistent pressure on Tyler Shough, and that prevented them from finding the success that we are used to seeing from them.
Kenny Logan Jr. led the way with 11 tackles in this game, which gives him the overall lead on the season with 80 tackles. Rich Miller only tallied 6 tackles on the day.
Taiwan Berryhill had 8 tackles on the day, including one tackle for loss.
Lonnie Phelps only had 6 tackles, but one was in the backfield, and he was also credited with 2 QB hurries.
The only other notable performance was that of Malcolm Lee, who got the lone sack for the Jayhawks in this game.
Special Teams
The special teams was awful in this game, so much so that Lance Leipold actually addressed the kicking situation in his press conference earlier this week.
Reis Vernon had two punts on the day, with both having some distance and one inside the 20. There were no returns on the day for either team.
Tabor Allen had 4 touchbacks on his 5 kickoffs.
Jacob Borcila was 0-2 on field goals, with both kicks hitting the uprights. He is now 7-12 on the season.
The Jayhawks did not look good in big stretches of the game, but they have a chance to move on and improve their bowl standing this Saturday with a Senior Day matchup against the Texas Longhorns. Kickoff is scheduled for 2:30pm Central.
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