Kansas football vs. West Virginia Postgame: Rebuilds aren’t instantaneous

Despite an inspiring win last week at Boston College, Kansas football fell to West Virginia today by a score of 29-24. The Jayhawks will look to rebound on the road next week against TCU.

The Jayhawks lost a close one today that could have been different had a few calls gone Kansas’ way. Some of the penalties and decisions by the officials seemed flat out wrong, and it hurt the Jayhawks’ chances at winning, but that isn’t why Kansas football got beat by West Virginia.

It’s hard to critique the Kansas defense too much though. West Virginia dominated time of possession, and it seemed like the Jayhawks offense could never sustain a drive and give the defense a quick break.

The Mountaineers controlled the clock, and therefore controlled the game. The Kansas running game came up brutally short, especially after being extremely effective the week before. Pooka Williams and Khalil Herbert combined for 22 carries for 103 yards and no touchdowns. It was a far cry from the Boston College game where Herbert and Williams each rushed for a touchdown and each gained over 100 yards.

Carter Stanley played well this game, at the very least, he kept Kansas in the game. The senior quarterback was 19/25 and threw for 275 yards, in addition to three touchdowns and one interception. The only faulty Stanley had was another fumble similar to that of the Indiana State game earlier this season. As Stanley was pressured, he held the ball too long and was hit as he was about to throw, knocking the ball out. Stanley has to be able to feel the pressure, and get rid of the football rather than take a sack, or worse; It’s been a recurring issue this year that needs to be resolved.

Once again, it’s hard to judge the Kansas defense, considering they were on the field for what seemed like the entire game. However, missed tackles are inexcusable. During the third quarter, missed tackles became more and more prevalent as West Virginia began to run the football with authority.

It’s tough to think about, but it makes one wonder if the defense maybe could have made one more stop, or one more tackle, the Jayhawks could have come out on top.

Overall, this was a team loss. Both the offense and defense made mistakes that hurt the Jayhawks. While it may be easy to blame the officials, they weren’t the ones calling plays, or running the ball, or throwing interceptions, or missing tackles, etc.

Kansas football will need to take a deep look into this loss and tighten up the weak parts of their game. The Jayhawks are making progress though and rebuilds never happen overnight. This is a program that won three games last year, and comparing the teams, the confidence, and the atmosphere between 2018 and 2019 seems night and day.

Continuing to improve and show progress should be Kansas footballs’ biggest goals from this point moving forward. The Jayhawks’ next opponent TCU got beat by SMU today 38-41 at home today. Kansas will hit the road next Saturday to take on the Horned Frogs and try to improve to 3-2 on the season.