Blame Pie: Who is most responsible for Kansas Football’s loss vs UNLV?
By Tyler Key
Following the Kansas Jayhawks abysmal showing at Illinois last week, where KU lost 23-17, all of the players, staff, and fans felt like they would be due for a bounce back performance at home against UNLV. For a bit, that looked to be the case, as Devin Neal and Jalon Daniels were both dominating in the run game and Kansas took an early 14-3 lead.
Unfortunately, that success was short lived and KU never scored another touchdown after the first 15 minutes of the game. UNLV chipped away at the Jayhawks lead thanks to numerous mistakes by Jalon Daniels and Co. and eventually took the lead on a confusing and bizarre goal-line sequence. Kansas ended up losing 23-20 in a game that felt eerily similar to last week.
Last year, KU Football did not suffer their 2nd loss of the season until the 7th game. This year, the 2nd loss has come before even reaching conference play and here are some parties that are more to blame than others for this discouraging loss at home against UNLV.
What does this battered and bruised Jayhawk Blame Pie look like?
55% (and most) to blame: QB Jalon Daniels
Daniels avoided the biggest slice of blame pie against Illinois thanks to the abysmal showing of OC Jeff Grimes last week, but there is no one here to save him this week. After an A+ performance across most of the first half against UNLV, JD6 fell apart for the 2nd time in a row.
The Jayhawks were up 17-6 with the ball before halftime and in the cruelest form of deja vu possible, Daniels yet again had a horrendous interception with under a minute left to go. In what looked to be a few positive plays away from a 20-6 halftime lead, the Jayhawks instead got scored on in the final play of the half in part thanks to Daniels poor decision making and entered the half up only 17-13.
In the 2nd half, the Kansas QB was even worse and looked wildly uncomfortable trying to push the ball down the field. After throwing his 2nd interception of the game, the Daniels-led KU offense only had one more possession when they gained any yards at all.
The other three possessions all ended up with the Jayhawks moving backwards. It was about as bad as it could possibly get for JD6 who completed just 12/24 passes. He has now thrown 6 interceptions in 2.5 games so far this season.
What else needs to be added to this Rock Chalk Blame Pie?