Kansas football: Early lead doesn’t last for Jayhawks as offense falls flat
The Kansas football defense looked good today, but the offense couldn’t back them up today against West Virginia.
Out of the gate, Kansas football forced a major turnover and helped deliver a 10-0 lead in the first quarter. It was a surprising start for our defense, and things were looking good until our offense stalled, preventing us from staying in the game.
Kansas presented an egregious offensive display vs West Virginia. What I found so astounding was not only our inability to score, but the constant refusal to change. Even after our defense bailed out Kendrick’s offense several times, we couldn’t adapt to the West Virginia pass rush.
Miles Kendrick made his first start of the season for Kansas football. The junior made multiple questionable decisions out of the pocket, two of which resulted in interceptions. Our rushing attacked tried to channel opportunities for both Pooka Williams Jr and Velton Gardner but even with some creativity on their part, the Jayhawks posted only 62 rushing yards on the day.
The Jayhawks defense put up impressive numbers throughout the first half and early on in the second. We saw multiple stops with big moves by defensive talent Dru Prox and Marcus Harris, who kept the pressure on quarterback Jarrett Doege. We saw brief life from senior Denzel Feaster, who would be removed from the game after a targeting call.
Our defense was on their toes in Morgantown, bringing a lot of good pressure against the Mountaineers. It was nice to see we could make stops, especially in crucial situations including a drive where Kansas stopped a Mountaineer’s field goal early on to maintain their 10-7 lead.
Leddie Brown was the man to beat for the Jayhawks, and sadly enough Leddie Brown beat Kansas on the ground. Brown rushed for 195 yards and 2 touchdowns against the Jayhawks. He established a much more dynamic rushing pattern that outwitted the Kansas defense nearly every drive.
Kansas simply could not respond offensively, and this ultimately plagued us in the second half. Even without defensive mishaps in the back half of the game, Kansas couldn’t find ways to move the chains. Apart from our early offensive life in the game, the Jayhawks had an embarrassing day on offense.
We saw our defense decline in the second half in almost direct response to both our inability to score and the constant movements of Leddie Brown. The 38-17 road loss moves the Jayhawks to 0-4 on the season.
Must Read. All-time Bill Self era Jayhawks team. light
There will need to be some adjustments made this week in practice to help find some new productive ways to move the ball on offense. Bringing new ideas to our offense is going to be essential in practice this week, it will be much needed as the Jayhawks head to Manhattan for the Sunflower Showdown next week.