A 4-3 record does not tell the whole story for this Kansas football season. The Jayhawks have painfully lost in two of their games, and their 42-17 loss to the No. 14 Texas Tech Red Raiders is more indicative of how powerful the Lubbock, Texas, team is.
Yet it doesn’t take much looking into to find out why Kansas struggled to close out Missouri in a 42-31 loss (which was much closer than the scoreline suggests) and the 37-34 loss to the Cincinnati Bearcats, a gashing rushing attack.
In all three of Kansas’ losses, the Jayhawks have given up over 500 yards, and at least 200 of those have been on the ground. When head coach Lance Leipold spoke with the media on Monday, Leipold was asked about what allowed for such massive rushing performances from teams this season.
“It’s a different thing on different plays sometimes…is it gap integrity? Is it missed tackles? Is it angles? Is it communication that causes the breakdown, and somebody being free? There's usually one of those components usually happen in there that is the problem, and we continue to work on it.”
These are problems that could have been sprinkled all across any of the aforementioned performances.
The Jayhawks have given up 211 rushing yards per game, which ranks 127th in the nation.
A polarizing factor in all of this is the fact that Kansas has shown an ability to be resolute defensively, and yes, I am referring to games that weren’t against Fresno State and Wagner.
Look at when the Jayhawks took the flight to take on the UCF Golden Knights.
In the first half, to go along with the 20 points the Jayhawks gave up, Kansas also allowed for a monster 162 rushing yards and 253 total yards. It looks like a recipe for disaster, no? Yet thanks to acute changes in the second half, Kansas allowed just 122 total yards and only 37 on the ground.
Now, by no means is UCF a giant in the collegiate football sphere, but that shouldn’t take away from the fact that the Golden Knights are a conference game and were a must-win for Kansas.
A slight reprieve should come in the fact that in this weekend’s Dillons Sunflower Showdown, the incoming Kansas State Wildcats sit 71st in the nation with 143.7 rushing yards per game, meaning hopefully Kansas will not let another rushing offense ruin their day.
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