Texas Longhorns at Kansas Jayhawks Statistical Recap: No Silver Lining Here
The Kansas Jayhawks were outclassed from start to finish by the Texas Longhorns last Saturday, and regardless of your thoughts on the officiating, there was no way that Kansas was going to be able to stay in that game.
Nowhere is that more clear than when looking at the box score. Normally I look for some good performances when diving through the box score, but instead this one was bad from start to finish. So let's rip off the band-aid and see just how bad it got.
Offense
You don't normally think of a 346 total yard performance as a really bad one. But when you consider that more than 200 of those came in a second half that was never close, and that the Jayhawks didn't get their first points until Texas had scored 41, it becomes a bit more clear just how bad this performance was. The Jayhawks only had one turnover, but it came at the end of the first half and both stopped a scoring opportunity and set Texas up for another quick score before halftime.
Passing
I guess you could say that the passing game was the highlight of the offense, but given how bad the team was as a whole, that isn't saying much. The timing was off, throws were just a touch too far, and the lack of a quarterback running game made it much harder to keep defenders honest when Kansas dropped back to pass.
Jalon Daniels completed 17 of his 26 pass attempts for 230 yards and 2 touchdown, but he also threw an interception late in the first half. It was his first action back since the injury he sustained against TCU, and you could tell that he was rusty in this game. He was also hurt by the his hesitancy to pull the ball and run, which made it much clearer when he was passing.
Jason Bean entered in the fourth quarter and only completed 1 of his 3 pass attempts. He totaled just 12 yards.
Quentin Skinner led the Jayhawks in receiving yards, thanks to a huge 55 yard reception that came on the second touchdown drive of the night. He finished with 4 receptions for 98 yards.
Mason Fairchild led the team in receptions with 5. He gained a total of 48 yards, with most of them coming in a long drive in the first half that ended with a missed Jacob Borcila field goal.
Jared Casey was only credited with one reception for 9 yards, but he had a touchdown catch called back on a bogus ineligible man downfield call late in the first half.
Lawrence Arnold's only reception on the night was a 42 yard catch on the right sideline that kickstarted the first touchdown drive for Kansas.
Luke Grimm caught 3 passes for 22 yards and a touchdown. Torry Locklin also caught a single reception for a touchdown, this time for 12 yards.
Rushing
The running game was held in check most of the night, with the Texas defensive line pushing Kansas around for most of the day. The Jayhawks couldn't pick up crucial yards in key situations, and the longest run of the day was 15 yards.
Devin Neal led all rushers, but only had 13 carries for 51 yards.
Ky Thomas had 6 carries for just 15 yards.
Sevion Morrison had 5 carries for 11 yards, Daniels ran twice for just 12 yards, and Locklin had three carries for just 10 yards.
Defense
The run defense was atrocious in this game, giving up 427 total yards, including 243 to Bijan Robinson and 108 to Jonathon Brooks. The duo scored 6 touchdowns on the ground. The only reason the passing defense only gave up 112 yards on the day was because Texas ran 57 rushing plays to just 22 passing plays.
Kenny Logan Jr. led the way with 10 tackles in this game. Lorenzo McCaskill was the next highest at 7 tackles. OJ Burroughs and Marvin Grant were the only other players to get more than 5 tackles.
Kansas only had two tackles for loss on the day, one by Grant and another by DJ Withers. Rich Miller was credited with the only QB hurry on the day.
Special Teams
The special teams were awful in this game, as the kicking situation devolved so much that Lance Leipold was forced to make a change.
Reis Vernon had three punts on the day, but he got none inside the 20. All were returned, with Xavier Worthy getting one particularly long 22 yard return to give Texas great field position.
Tabor Allen had 4 touchbacks on his 5 kickoffs.
Jacob Borcila missed his only field goal attempt, a 34-yard try late in the first half.
Owen Piepergerdes entered the game to handle extra point duties, and made both of them.
The Jayhawks have one last chance to put a good performance together in the regular season. They end the regular season this Saturday on the road in Manhattan against the Kansas State Wildcats. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00pm Central.
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