Well, anyone thinking that maybe Kansas needed a change of venue for their luck in close games to change was sorely mistaken this weekend, as the Jayhawks won nearly every single stat except for the important ones in their 24-17 Union Jack Classic loss to the Arizona State Sun Devils.
A loss like this is unfortunately not new for the Jayhawks, as Saturday showed the continuation of errors that have slogged Kansas for the past two seasons.
Today’s task, nearly 48 hours after the debacle, is to analyze one place where things went right and a few where they went horribly wrong.
Winner: Tate Nagy
Nagy can leave Wembley with his head held high. Heading into the season with Kansas racking up a wideout room of Nahzae Cox, Nik McMillan, Cam Pickett and Keaton Kubecka, it became harder and harder to see where Nagy would get targets.
However, he played a big part in Kansas’ two most inspiring plays of the slugfest.
The first, a 72-yard punt return touchdown to catapult KU into a 7-3 lead. It is worth mentioning that Arizona State’s punt defense did an elite job of pushing Nagy towards the sideline, but then had little support when it came to getting Nagy out of bounds.
With the game teetering on a blowout, sitting at a 17-point 24-7 deficit, Nagy snatched Kansas’ last touchdown of the game thanks to a dart over the middle from redshirt sophomore quarterback Isaiah Marshall, which then opened up Nagy to expose busted coverage and race to the paydirt.
Loser: Special teams, mostly
Nagy’s punt return is the only reason there is a “mostly” in that heading. To end the first half, when forced to punt, Kansas’ Matt Gill sent a kick waving out of bounds to set the Sun Devils up at the 25-yard line. One play later, ASU took the lead with a touchdown.
To open up the second half, Jaren Hamilton scored a kickoff touchdown to open the lead up to 10 points.
With 3:25 to play in the third and the Jayhawks down by 10, kicker Martin Connington missed a 44-yard field goal to shrink the ASU lead to just seven points.
Three separate errors helped flip the tide on what should have been a win for the Jayhawks.
Loser: Turnovers
As mentioned in the intro, Saturday’s overseas matchup was the perfect example of winning every battle except the turnover one and paying for it. Kansas had nine more first downs, 186 more yards and a higher third-down conversion rate (although 37.5% is nothing to be too proud of), but because they went -3 in the turnover battle, everything got pushed to the wayside.
Final Thoughts
While Arizona State is excellent in one-score games under head coach Kenny Dillingham, that excuse is losing its power by the second. Saturday marked another game where the ball felt stale, not tilting towards any team’s momentum, and yet Kansas couldn’t take advantage. The Jayhawks do a great job muddying the game and forcing the opposition to win; the problem is they often find a way to lose.
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