Kansas City, Mo. — By the end of the first quarter on Saturday, TCU’s Josh Hoover had thrown for 135 yards against Kansas’ defense. By halftime he had racked up 227 on 21-for-26 passing.
While the Jayhawks were periodically able to force turnovers and benefited from a missed field goal in the third quarter, they never truly found a way to slow Hoover down.
Hoover finished with 356 yards and three touchdowns, more than offsetting a pair of interceptions that gave the Jayhawks some sporadic hope. The Big 12’s leading receiver Jack Bech racked up 10 catches for 131 yards and two of those touchdowns, but the third, a 59-yard catch-and-run by Eric McAlister, gave TCU its biggest lead of the game thus far at eight points early in the fourth quarter.
The Frogs killed the clock and their defense slowed down KU’s playmakers more and more effectively as the game went on, and they finished with a 38-27 victory over the Jayhawks at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
“(Hoover) was in a really good rhythm, and kind of had us going,” head coach Lance Leipold said. “We created a few plays with pressure, pass rush, we had some opportunities in the backfield, didn’t quite bring him down.”
Daniel Hishaw Jr. and Devin Neal combined for 155 yards and a pair of touchdowns, but quarterback Jalon Daniels went just 15-for-34 passing for 179 yards with a touchdown and a pick as he was unable to find a consistent rhythm.
“It’s no other way to say it but (we’re) upset,” Daniels said of the mood in the locker room postgame. “That’s four consecutive games in a row that come down to the fourth quarter. As much as we try to put a big emphasis on finishing, that’s just something that we haven’t been able to do, and I feel like a lot of that is on me.”
Added Neal: “We keep talking about how we almost had a game, but we have to find a way to close out games, have to find a way to execute and quit giving the other team an opportunity.”
Early in the game, Cobee Bryant forced a fumble as TCU was set to cross midfield on its opening drive, allowing KU to take over. The Jayhawks marched down the field in short order, aided by a pass-interference penalty, and then Luke Grimm found a soft spot near the pylon for a toe-tapping touchdown reception from Daniels.
Hoover opened up the Horned Frogs’ next drive with 26- and 20-yard completions as TCU leaned on its no-huddle offense. He then found Bech for a 35-yard touchdown as TCU’s response took less than two minutes in total.
Daniels scrambled for a first down on third-and-9 early in KU’s following drive while also drawing an unnecessary roughness penalty that brought the Jayhawks across midfield. Hishaw converted a key third-down run of his own and Neal finished the job with a 2-yard touchdown to put the Jayhawks back in front.
Bryant made a key tackle to stop Cam Cook short of a first down on third-and-5 at the edge of field goal range, but reserve quarterback Hauss Hejny came in to power his way forward and reach the marker on fourth-and-1.
The second quarter began with a well-executed reverse to JoJo Earle for 16 yards, and Cook scored the tying touchdown shortly afterward.
After a series of punts, with both defenses settling into the game, JB Brown got through to Hoover for KU’s first sack, eventually leading to a third-and-14 on which Hoover put too much air under a long pass. O.J. Burroughs snagged it for an interception and returned it to TCU’s 6-yard line, but the offense went nowhere and settled for a field goal.
The Horned Frogs tried to consume the remainder of the clock ahead of halftime, mixing in some unsuccessful run plays with a 19-yard completion from Hoover to Bech. TCU moved into a goal-to-go situation on a 10-yard reception by Jeremy Payne with 21 seconds left, then after one incompletion by Hoover, Bech snagged his second touchdown reception between a pair of KU defenders in the dying moments of the half.
“It’s just like any other drive, there’s some things that — are we playing too soft, too passive?” Leipold said. “I don’t want to be evasive because you guys don’t deserve that, but it’s not like one thing every play … It might be this on this play and this on this one, because otherwise you would just point at (it) and either make changes or whatever, and it’s just not, unfortunately.”
Two separate holding penalties on Kobe Baynes and a sack threatened to derail KU’s opening drive of the second half, but Daniels found Grimm for 33 yards on third-and-16 to move into the red zone, and then TCU’s JaTravis Broughton held Grimm to give KU another set of downs.
After all that, Hishaw cashed in for an 8-yard touchdown run that put the Jayhawks back in front.
The Horned Frogs were as clinical as ever when they regained possession, until Hoover made his second mistake of the game with a low, inaccurate throw that Mello Dotson snagged before it hit the turf.
With a chance to go up two scores, KU instead embarked on a brief drive that amounted to nothing because what initially appeared to be an 18-yard completion from Daniels to Lawrence Arnold, on which TCU’s Jamel Johnson ripped the ball out after Arnold went to the ground, was instead ruled an incompletion.
Payne scampered for a 32-yard run, and then a potential fourth turnover — a forced fumble by Dylan Wudke — was overturned on review. Leipold said it could have been a “huge play.” From a results standpoint, it didn’t end up mattering because Kyle Lemmermann missed a 42-yard field goal.
“We knew what it was, we knew the situation, we knew they needed us, so we just had to step up,” linebacker Taiwan Berryhill Jr. said.
TCU’s special teams unit didn’t have to wait long for redemption, as KU sputtered after one first down and JP Richardson returned a punt 89 yards for a touchdown.
On their next drive, the Jayhawks made it to the edge of the red zone by converting one third-and-5, but Daniels threw incomplete on another thanks to a pass breakup by Abe Camara and KU settled for a field goal to cut its deficit to one point.
Hoover struck again, finding a wide-open McAlister, who benefited from a series of missed tackles to run for a score, and after a quick three-and-out, the misses piled up on the Horned Frogs’ next drive as Cook started to get deeper and deeper into the Jayhawks’ secondary, setting up a late field goal.
The Jayhawks, who dropped to 1-4 on the year, will travel to Tempe, Arizona, to take on Arizona State at 7 p.m. Central Time next Saturday.
“It’s going to be really truthful this week, because we’re going to be tested,” Neal said. “And so we have to just lead better than we ever have, and yeah, we just have to really find out a way. Whatever that is, we have to find a way.”
How they scored
First quarter
10:18 — Luke Grimm 15-yard pass from Jalon Daniels. Tabor Allen PAT good. Four plays, 54 yards, 2:02 TOP. KU 7, TCU 0.
8:36 — Jack Bech 35-yard pass from Josh Hoover. Kyle Lemmermann PAT good. Five plays, 92 yards, 1:47 TOP. KU 7, TCU 7.
4:09 — Devin Neal 2-yard run. Allen PAT good. Ten plays, 71 yards, 4:25 TOP. KU 14, TCU 7.
Second quarter
14:01 — Cam Cook 3-yard run. Lemmermann PAT good. Twelve plays, 75 yards, 5:10 TOP. KU 14, TCU 14.
2:57 — Allen 24-yard field goal good. Four plays, zero yards, 0:56 TOP. KU 17, TCU 14.
0:12 — Bech 7-yard pass from Hoover. Lemmermann PAT good. Eleven plays, 75 yards, 2:40 TOP. TCU 21, KU 17.
Third quarter
8:57 — Daniel Hishaw 8-yard run. Allen PAT good. Eleven plays, 75 yards, 6:02 TOP. KU 24, TCU 21.
1:46 — JP Richardson 89-yard punt return. Lemmermann PAT good. TCU 28, KU 24.
Fourth quarter
12:07 — Allen 41-yard field goal good. Ten plays, 42 yards, 4:39 TOP. TCU 28, KU 27.
11:19 — Eric McAlister 59-yard pass from Hoover. Two plays, 75 yards, 0:47 TOP. TCU 35, KU 27.
3:02 — Lemmermann 29-yard field goal good. Twelve plays, 57 yards, 6:10 TOP. TCU 38, KU 27.
