Saturday marked the resumption of the Border War, the first matchup on the gridiron between Kansas and Missouri since 2011. The 121st ever meeting promised to be a good one, and it was looking great for the Jayhawks in the early going in Columbia.
While a three and out from KU’s offense was followed by a five-play touchdown scoring drive by Mizzou to put the Tigers up 6-0, Kansas’ Tommy Dunn blocked the ensuing PAT attempt and KU, despite the deficit, found some early momentum. The ‘hawks would score 21 consecutive points in the first quarter, with two Jalon Daniels touchdowns, one a pass to DeShawn Hanika and one a quarterback sneak, sandwiched around a defensive score – a forced fumble by Mason Ellis taken to the house by Austin Alexander. One quarter in, Kansas led their bitter rivals on their own turf, 21-6.
Things started going poorly in the second quarter when Mizzou manufactured a 15-play touchdown-scoring drive to cut the KU lead to 21-13. Bad went to worse when on KU’s first offensive play of their ensuing drive, Daniels had the ball knocked loose, and it was eventually (seemingly illegally) batted back into the endzone by a Tiger defender. Kobe Baynes of KU recovered the loose ball to ensure it was 2 points for the Tigers rather than 6 or 7, but it essentially was an immediate turnover, and KU’s lead fell to six at 21-15. Mizzou’s next possession took even more plays than its prior – a 17-play drive, at the end of which KU actually held the Tigers to a field goal, but meant that Kansas’ defense had been on the field for 32 of the last 33 plays from scrimmage. KU’s offense would go three and out with time trickling down in the half, and the defense would allow two chunk plays to allow Mizzou to tie the game heading into the break, 21-21.
Kansas would hold brief leads of 24-21 and 31-28 in the second half, the latter of which followed Hanika’s second touchdown reception, but ultimately a lack of run game and ability to eat the clock from KU’s offense, paired with the KU D’s inability to get the big stop on Mizzou’s 3rd and 4th down opportunities, proved to be vital. Mizzou’s game-winning touchdown made it 35-31 when quarterback Beau Pribula found tight end Brett Norfleet for a 27-yard score on 4th down. Kansas would opt to punt after not converting a 3rd down in their own territory with just over two minutes to play, a 3rd down play that featured a crucial drop from wideout Emmanuel Henderson. The Tigers would ice it when Jamal Roberts, one of two Mizzou tailbacks who eclipsed 100 yards rushing on the day, scampered free for a 63-yard touchdown, icing the game and giving the home team a 42-31 win.
What was frustrating watching this one and in reflection today, aside from KU letting a 15-point lead slip away, was the realization that the Jayhawks just didn’t play good enough football to win. While there were good moments, it sure felt to me as though Mizzou played their A/A- game whereas Kansas was closer to a C+. From a fundamental standpoint, KU had dropped passes, in addition to Henderson’s, from Daniel Hishaw and Doug Emilien. The run game produced very little to nothing. Mizzou, meanwhile, caught everything Pribula threw their way, including a handful of spectacular grabs, and they seemed to deliver on every crucial play.
In the interest of complementary football, the Tigers got the two 100+ yard rushers in Roberts and Ahmad Hardy, plus 334 yards passing out of Pribula. Kansas, meanwhile, was essentially asking Daniels to be Superman, as the running game (outside of Daniels himself) produced just 11 rushing yards on nine carries. KU offensively was one-dimensional, and often that led to KU’s D being on the field for way too many plays. Defensively, Kansas very rarely made Pribula uncomfortable.
Moving forward, Kansas will first and foremost need to establish a run game. Not only will that help JD and KU’s offense immensely, but it won’t force the defense into a situation where it’s on the field all game long. While special teams tackles are taken into account on this stat as well, Kansas’ 107 tackles is an alarmingly high number, particularly when compared to Mizzou’s 47. Some fans can point a finger at Kansas defensively and say the Jayhawks needed to be better on the “money downs” of 3rd and 4th, and that’s fair to say as Mizzou was 10/19 on 3rd down and ⅘ on 4th, but it’s also fair to say the offense put the defense in that position at times. Kansas was spoiled with Devin Neal, the program’s all-time leader in many rushing categories, the past four years. What a great challenge it is moving forward for Daniel Hishaw, Leshon Williams and others to attack heading into conference play on September 20. I know they’ll look forward to it. Rock Chalk!
Sean Kellerman