Kansas football vs. Iowa State Preview: Jayhawks are longshot on the road
Kansas football will hit the road this Saturday to take on the Iowa State Cyclones. The Jayhawks have been outscored 46-23 in their past two games, will that change this week?
After Kansas played Texas to the wire in Austin and beat Texas Tech at home, Jayhawk fans developed a sense of hope, and rightly so. Kansas football looked like it was truly trending up thanks to new offensive coordinator Brent Dearmon.
The newfound optimism was all but destroyed a week later. The Jayhawks got humiliated at home by Kansas State in front of a packed house. After a bye week, the Jayhawks proceeded to get stomped by Oklahoma State 31-13 in a game that wasn’t really that close.
Kansas played awful last week against the Cowboys. Three different Jayhawks threw an interception, and head coach Les Miles made some questionable play calls and personnel decisions throughout the game.
Starting and primary quarterback Carter Stanley finished the game 22 of 37 for 226 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception. The Jayhawks’ rushing attack wasn’t any better, with Pooka Williams leading the way with 26 yards on the night.
It was an ugly game for Kansas football in every facet imaginable, and the final score could have been much worse had Mike Gundy not called off the dogs.
Iowa State, on the other hand, got a season-defining win over the Texas Longhorns last week.
Sophomore quarterback Brock Purdy threw for 354 yards, both of the Cyclones’ touchdowns, and one interception while running back Breece Hall rushed for 101 yards. Deshaunte Jones led the Cyclones receivers with seven receptions for 177 receiving yards and a touchdown.
It was the Cyclones’ kicking game that came up big vs. Texas though. Overall, the kicking unit scored 11 points, as Connor Assalley made the game-winning field goal as time expired.
As of now, Iowa State is a 24.5 point favorite over Kansas football, which isn’t all that surprising after the events of last week (odds courtesy of The Action Network). The Jayhawks have lost a lot of trust, and now they have to earn it back.
There really isn’t a single facet of Kansas football that won’t need a huge improvement over last week if the Jayhawks are going to win this week.
The Kansas offense hasn’t looked good at all recently, and Stanley has been struggling too. To put things into perspective, Kansas football scored more points (37) against Texas Tech than they’ve scored in the past two weeks combined (23). Offensive coordinator Brent Dearmon has his work cut out for him this week, as Iowa State ranks number 41 in total defense.
On the defensive side of the ball, Kansas didn’t do as too bad last week against Chuba Hubbard and Oklahoma State, but there will need to be a lot of improvement if the Jayhawks hope to stop Purdy and Hall. According to ESPN, the Cyclones are averaging 478 yards per game this season, so stopping Iowa State is going to be quite the challenge to the Kansas defense.
KU football. Les Miles needs to be less involved in the offense. light
If the Jayhawks can find a way to win this road game, it’d at least allow Kansas football fans to feel a little better about the last third of the season, because right now, there isn’t a whole lot of faith in the Jayhawks.
Hopefully, that faith gets restored this Saturday. The game is set to kickoff at 11:00 AM and be broadcast on FSN.