Manhattan — The Kansas football team went into halftime of the 122nd Sunflower Showdown on Saturday night down just two points, a reasonably solid outcome given that host Kansas State had entered as the heavy favorite.
But the 16-14 deficit looked vastly worse in the context of all that preceded it: a dropped touchdown pass that could have put the Jayhawks up 14-0 early, a bizarre special-teams blunder that led to a safety for the Wildcats and an ill-advised pass that led to a somewhat controversial but nonetheless costly pre-halftime interception.
Even despite those blunders, KU had the ball and the lead with under four minutes to go. But a fumble by quarterback Jalon Daniels led to a go-ahead 51-yard field goal by Chris Tennant, and Daniels wasn’t able to lead the Jayhawks down for a field goal of their own in the final moments. He tried to scramble for a first down on fourth-and-7 but got sandwiched by a pair of Wildcat defenders.
K-State extended its streak in the Sunflower Showdown to 16 straight games, and KU fell to 2-6 on the season with the 29-27 defeat.
Head coach Lance Leipold said the loss “stings as much as any of them.”
“I thought we competed extremely hard, fought,” Leipold said. “I thought we were extremely physical throughout the game. I thought we battled all the way through. We just once again left some opportunities out there in all three phases that prevented us from winning the game.”
Daniels and running backs Devin Neal and Sevion Morrison ran for one touchdown each while combining for 192 yards on the ground, and Daniels also threw a touchdown pass to Luke Grimm. But Daniels’ pair of turnovers came at critical times for KU.
“I know Jalon ended up having a couple turnovers, but at the end of the day I thought he played extremely hard and well and created a lot of plays for us,” Leipold said. “And (I’m) so proud of the way he’s played and led our team.”
The Jayhawks converted a pair of third downs on their opening drive and advanced into K-State territory on Daniels’ third rushing attempt. With Neal in the blue medical tent and Daniel Hishaw Jr. out due to injury, the third-string running back Morrison took an outside handoff on third-and-long and outmaneuvered a couple Wildcats at the goal line on his way to a 38-yard game-opening touchdown.
K-State didn’t have quite the same luck on its opening drive and punted. KU got out of its own end on a 15-yard run by the returning Neal, aided by a 15-yard defensive penalty, but had to punt shortly after Quentin Skinner dropped a potential touchdown on a deep ball from Daniels.
At the start of the second quarter, Dylan Edwards was able to run for an 11-yard gain on third-and-10 to get the Wildcats into KU territory and converted a second third down soon afterward. Avery Johnson hit Will Anciaux for a 24-yard touchdown to even the score.
Disaster struck for the Jayhawks when Jameel Croft Jr., seemingly attempting to catch a kick out of bounds to induce a procedural penalty on K-State, instead caught it in bounds and went out at the 1-yard line. Neal got immediately tackled for a safety, forcing KU to put its defense right back on the field immediately after the 13-play Wildcat scoring drive.
“We’re not going to tell a guy to go catch the ball as his momentum’s taking him out of bounds, OK, I think that would be common sense,” Leipold said. “But the young man was trying to make a play and he lost track of where he was at. Human mistake.”
It didn’t go well for the Jayhawks. Johnson completed passes of 13 and 25 yards before throwing a 2-yard touchdown pass, completing a four-minute 16-point swing in KSU’s favor.
To its credit, KU’s offense was undaunted, as Daniels found Trevor Wilson for 36 yards and Luke Grimm drew a pass-interference penalty before Daniels connected with Grimm for a short touchdown pass.
The Jayhawks were able to get a rare pre-halftime stop and Wilson kick-started another drive with another pair of big grabs. But with a chance to take the lead before the break, Daniels tried to force the ball to him in double coverage in the end zone and threw an interception to Marques Sigle, who returned the ball near midfield and was threatening to go all the way before Wilson himself tripped him up.
“I thought Trevor played outstanding, probably maybe his best overall game as a Jayhawk,” Leipold said.
At the start of the second half, KSU running back DJ Giddens, who had previously been limited to nine carries for 19 yards, broke free for a 54-yard run, and then Johnson took it in himself to give the Wildcats back a two-possession lead.
The Jayhawks came back with a productive if unsteady drive, and Neal — who had also been bottled up like Giddens — capped it off with a 24-yard touchdown to more than double his own yardage. However, Tabor Allen missed the extra point to keep it at 23-20.
After a fumble by Johnson and a pair of punts, Daniels underthrew Grimm on a first-down deep ball, but Grimm still managed to make a 42-yard reception. Daniels promptly gave KU its first lead since 7-0 with an 8-yard touchdown run.
Once again, the Jayhawks gave up an early-drive explosive play, this time a catch-and-run by Keagan Johnson. But a wide-open Anciaux couldn’t haul in a touchdown and the Wildcats settled for a short field goal by Tennant to cut KU’s lead to one point.
“I feel like we had a lot of key stops,” defensive tackle Caleb Taylor said. “Obviously there were a couple that we came up short on that we wish we could have back.”
Neither offense could get much at all going in the fourth quarter. KU started to get some traction midway through the fourth quarter before committing a pair of penalties, which in combination with a short punt gave K-State good field position near midfield with seven minutes to go.
Marvin Grant sacked Johnson for a massive loss and Mello Dotson knocked away a fourth-and-12 pass to give KU the ball back. But Daniels fumbled to give KSU the ball right back.
Grant almost had another significant sack, but Johnson got the ball away at the last moment. That proved critical, as Tennant nailed the 51-yard attempt.
“We almost have a sack, takes them out of field goal range like I said, and … who knows what happens after that, but it didn’t happen that way,” Leipold said.
The last drive saw K-State ramp up its pressure against Daniels — he said he tried to slide the protection toward it “but we weren’t able to pick it up and they brought more people than we were able to handle” — and on a fourth down, he couldn’t get close to the marker.
“Thought I was going to be able to beat him to the first down,” Daniels said. “Somebody was behind me when I tried to make the person in front of me miss, and the K-State defense made a play.”
KU has its second bye week coming up ahead of a game against No. 10 Iowa State at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on Nov. 9.
How they scored
First quarter
8:51 — Sevion Morrison 38-yard run. Tabor Allen PAT good. Eleven plays, 75 yards, 6:09 TOP. KU 7, KSU 0.
Second quarter
11:09 — Will Anciaux 24-yard pass from Avery Johnson. Chris Tennant PAT good. Thirteen plays, 95 yards, 6:35 TOP. KU 7, KSU 7.
11:02 — Safety (Devin Neal rush). KSU 9, KU 7.
7:13 — Garrett Oakley 2-yard pass from Johnson. Tennant PAT good. Eight plays, 59 yards, 3:43 TOP. KSU 16, KU 7.
3:29 — Luke Grimm 10-yard pass from Jalon Daniels. Allen PAT good. Six plays, 75 yards, 3:44 TOP. KSU 16, KU 14.
Third quarter
13:15 — Johnson 10-yard run. Tennant PAT good. Four plays, 75 yards, 1:45 TOP. KSU 23, KU 14.
8:47 — Devin Neal 24-yard run. Allen PAT missed. Nine plays, 65 yards, 4:21 TOP. KSU 23, KU 20.
0:36 — Daniels 8-yard run. Allen PAT good. Three plays, 54 yards, 1:31 TOP. KU 27, KSU 23.
Fourth quarter
13:23 — Tennant 28-yard field goal. Seven plays, 66 yards, 2:08 TOP. KU 27, KSU 26.
1:42 — Tennant 51-yard field goal. Seven plays, 15 yards, 2:02 TOP. KSU 29, KU 27.
