The Kansas Jayhawks are now nearly 72 hours out of a 42-17 loss to the now No. 7 Texas Tech Red Raiders, and yet there is still one stinging reason why Kansas really lost that game. The rushing defense.
To be honest, the expectations for the Jayhawks heading into Saturday were narrow. Texas Tech dominates the nation in nearly every offensive and defensive stat, and to make things worse, they were playing at home, during primetime.
Yet the thing that Kansas was probably least expecting was a thumping ground game.
“When you go 70, the first play of the game, you're gonna have a chance to have a really good [game], and then have another 55-yarder. So, I mean, you got 120 right there. So, again, we knew they were a talented running football team, just a talented football team, you know, and both backs and things are very complementary. You add a quarterback run game in there, all the things were going to be challenging for us,” quoted Kansas head coach Lance Leipold after Saturday’s loss.
Of Texas Tech’s 505 yards, 372 yards were on the ground. The Red Raiders managed a whopping 9.3 yards per carry. Starring for Tech was sophomore running back Cameron Dickey. Alone, Dickey totaled 263 yards for 12.5 yards per carry and two touchdowns. Both touchdowns were aforementioned in Leipold’s quote.
ESPN later reported that it was Tech’s highest amount of rushing yards for a single player since 1996 (287).
“… we've got to be better at playing to run more consistently again, getting more people around the ball, getting off blocks, doing those things.”
Redshirt freshman QB Will Hammond stepped in for a further 61 yards on eight rushes and a further two touchdowns, which put the game to bed, after star QB Behren Morton went down in the second quarter with an injury, and sophomore running back J’Koby Williams totaled 48 yards on nine rushes.
After recent stat updates, Joey McGuire’s team has moved up to 14th in the nation with 232.8 yards per game on the ground; those 372 yards are the most Texas Tech has run for this season.
For the Jayhawks, this is in a long line of defensive error-ridden games. Saturday was already the third time this season that Kansas gave up 500 yards, with the other two coming in losses to Missouri, where they gave up 595 yards in a 42-31 Border Showdown loss, and the second in the gut-wrenching 37-34 loss to Cincinnati, where the Jayhawks conceded 603 yards.
Kansas’ defense, meanwhile, is planted towards the very bottom in the nation in terms of rushing yards allowed, with 188.3 given up per game. Leipold’s squad ranks 119th out of a possible 134 ranks.
In total defensive stats, Kansas is 101st in the nation with 394.3 total offensive yards allowed. The Jayhawks currently rank 86th in the nation in total yards given up per play with 5.8. Kansas’ rushing defense allows 5.4 yards per rush, which is 126th out of 136th. Leipold’s team ranks 68th in the nation in terms of points allowed per game, with 26.3 points allowed.
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