Texas Tech Red Raiders at Kansas Jayhawks Statistical Recap: Disappointment All Around

What does the box score tell us about the shocking loss for the Jayhawks?

Coming into Saturday, the Kansas Jayhawks were poised to jump on any mistakes from the teams ahead of them in the rankings to position themselves for a run at a New Year's Six bowl. Instead, it was the Texas Tech Red Raiders who pounced on a mistake-prone Jayhawks squad, dealing them multiple blows to individual players and the teams Big 12 Championship hopes at the same time.

But just how bad was the game? Did the Jayhawks really get dominated start to finish, or did they actually play well enough to win the game?

So let's dive through the box score to see what it says about the effort.

Offense

It's impossible to call the offensive performance in this game a success, as the Jayhawks only had 344 yards total, 132 of them in the first half and the other 212 in the second half. There were definitely some highlights for the offense, but they were sporadic enough and marred by big misses. Kansas was only 7-15 on third down and 0-2 on fourth down, numbers that were even worse coming into the fourth quarter. 

Passing

The Jayhawks started out very poorly in the passing game, as they basically had nothing going in the first half. While the second half was better, there were still enough issues to hold down the offense overall. Kansas gave up three sacks on the day, and a 40% completion rate is just straight up not good.

Jason Bean was only 1 of 4 on the day for 13 yards, as he suffered a head injury late in the first quarter that ultimately knocked him out of the game.

True freshman walk-on Cole Ballard came on in relief and struggled initially before settling in. He ended the day completing 9 of his 20 passes for 124 yards and an interception. Overall, it was a decent performance in his first extended action, especially after being thrust unexpectedly into the lineup.

Lawrence Arnold led the team in receiving yards with 44 on two catches. Also catching two passes were Quentin Skinner (32 yards), Mason Fairchild (20 yards) and Devin Neal (12 yards). 

Torry Locklin caught a single pass for 25 yards, whiled Doug Emilien had a single catch for just 4 yards.

Luke Grimm did not have a catch on the day, after taking a hard hit on the sideline in the second quarter.

Rushing

Outside of a huge 60-yard touchdown run, the Jayhawks struggled to get anything consistent going on the ground, especially in the first three quarters.  

Devin Neal ended the game with 137 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries. His touchdown opened up the offense and allowed Kansas to eventually tie up the game, but it was tough early in the game to get anything reasonable.

Daniel Hishaw totaled 35 yards on 13 carries.

Jason Bean carried the ball 3 times for 15 yards, including a first down rush where he got injured.

Cole Ballard totaled 20 yards on 10 rushes, but he had a clutch run late in the game to pick up 15 yards and a first down.

Defense

It was an up and down game for the defense, as they allowed Tahj Brooks to run all over them early in the game before stiffening up and only allowing 22 rushing yards in the second half. They got some pressure in the second half, ending the day with 3 sacks, but poor defending in the last 30 seconds of the game let Texas Tech drive down for a quick field goal to win the game.

Kenny Logan led the team in tackles with 9. His biggest play of the game was the pass that he broke up on a third and long to force a punt, a perfect hit just as the ball got there to jar it loose.

Mello Dotson and Rich Miller each had 8 tackles on the day, including a sack.

Austin Booker had 4 tackles, including a sack as well, while OJ Burroughs was able to break up two passes and and intercept another to stop a Texas Tech drive late in the first half.

Other than that, there wasn't much to point out defensively.

Special Teams

There was nothing "special" about the special teams in this game, but at least there weren't any huge gaffes either.

Damon Greaves punted four times, including multiple times into the wind. He averaged 33 yards and wasn't really able to completely flip the field on any of them.

Seth Keller was 2 for 2 on his field goal attempts, but the longest was from just 24 yards on the day.

There were no kickoff returns or punt returns on the day.

Up next, the Jayhawks host the Kansas State Wildcats on Senior Day in David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:00pm Central time on FS1.

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