I said last week the loss to Illinois was a bad one. Well, I go one step further and say the loss to UNLV was worse.
This was supposed to be a "get the bad taste out of your mouth" game and get back to winning ways at home. A game where they correct mistakes and clean things up. But it was a carbon copy of Illinois and now is forming a pattern.
It is one game you chalk it up to not playing good football and making mental mistakes. But two in a row raises concern.
For a half I thought the KU offense was back. It was creative and looked sharp. There was pre-snap motion, even some wrinkles with motion in the backfield and it had UNLV off balance. They were chewing the UNLV defense up. In the first half they had 260 yards offense highlighted by 160 yards rushing. I told someone at half, "now that's what the offense is supposed to look like."
And then the second half kicked off and I didn't recognize the offense. It was day and night from the first half. In the second half they produced 92 yards of total offense and only 39 yards rushing. In the third quarter UNLV held the Jayhawks to 14 yards on the ground. It didn't even look close to the first half.
Some if it is self-inflicted. They got behind the chains. In the second half they had 2nd and 10, 1st and 20, 2nd and 15, 3rd and 10 on four consecutive drives in the second half. That's not how you get drives going. They have to be better in down and distance.
Going into the fourth quarter UNLV only had 193 yards of offense. The KU defense played well enough to win for the second straight week. But when the game was on the line they couldn't get a stop. I am not faulting the D and it is hard to put any blame on them.
The thing that probably gets my antenna up the most are turnovers, lack of forcing turnovers and penalties. Averaging three giveaways is not going to to win you games. Last year KU averaged 1.3 per game. KU is sitting at 116th in the country in giveaways per game. Penalties are forcing them in bad situations on offense and extending opponents drives on defense. If the TO and penalty numbers don't change it is going to be trouble.
I don't have an answer on Jalon Daniels. From what I can tell, I don't see them going away from Daniels. Now, that could change if the decisions and bad throws continue but I don't currently think a change is on the table. One of the most interesting choice of words Leipold used in the post game was "fragile" to describe where Daniels and the QB situation is right now.
Leipold was clear on several occasions in the post game he is taking the blame. He said they have to coach Daniels better. They have to coach the team better.
"He's (Daniels) playing hard, but he's not playing of the Jalon that we know," he said. "I'm going to put this on me. I'm not going to put it on the kids right now. We've got to figure out a better way to stay in rhythm and do it. And you can start with the head coach and we'll get it figured out."
These are two tough losses to take. Especially in a season where there were so many expectations. This is going to impact the fans on the fence who might be thinking about going to Arrowhead for future games. It will impact the students that make the 45 minute drive.
The only piece of good news that I can take out this is KU is beating themselves. If they were lining up and getting pushed around and losing because the other team is better then I would be more concerned than I am. But that's not happening. KU has been better physically than all three teams they have played. They have won the line of scrimmage the first three games. But they aren't playing sound football. And that's the trademark of a Lance Leipold team.
Leipold touched on the fact Daniels didn't play any football until fall camp. He didn't play in the spring. He didn't mince his words.
"I believe in Jalon Daniels," he said.
The coaching staff is in the office this morning and they have a tough job to find answers with a senior-dominated team to get things fixed as conference play starts.
"It starts with the head coach and I need to do better," Leipold said. "Our staff needs to do better. We will find a way. I mean, there's a lot of football to play yet with this group and we haven't played a conference game yet."
They are going to be underdogs at West Virginia. I don't know what the line will be, but I don't know how they can be favored. They have to find a way to duplicate the first half from last night, where the offense looked good and things were clicking. They were dominating the game at one point. You have to hope a senior led team can come together and put four good quarters together. This isn't about not being good enough. KU should be 3-0 and they have let things get away from them the last two games.
This was supposed to be a "get the bad taste out of your mouth" game and get back to winning ways at home. A game where they correct mistakes and clean things up. But it was a carbon copy of Illinois and now is forming a pattern.
It is one game you chalk it up to not playing good football and making mental mistakes. But two in a row raises concern.
For a half I thought the KU offense was back. It was creative and looked sharp. There was pre-snap motion, even some wrinkles with motion in the backfield and it had UNLV off balance. They were chewing the UNLV defense up. In the first half they had 260 yards offense highlighted by 160 yards rushing. I told someone at half, "now that's what the offense is supposed to look like."
And then the second half kicked off and I didn't recognize the offense. It was day and night from the first half. In the second half they produced 92 yards of total offense and only 39 yards rushing. In the third quarter UNLV held the Jayhawks to 14 yards on the ground. It didn't even look close to the first half.
Some if it is self-inflicted. They got behind the chains. In the second half they had 2nd and 10, 1st and 20, 2nd and 15, 3rd and 10 on four consecutive drives in the second half. That's not how you get drives going. They have to be better in down and distance.
Going into the fourth quarter UNLV only had 193 yards of offense. The KU defense played well enough to win for the second straight week. But when the game was on the line they couldn't get a stop. I am not faulting the D and it is hard to put any blame on them.
The thing that probably gets my antenna up the most are turnovers, lack of forcing turnovers and penalties. Averaging three giveaways is not going to to win you games. Last year KU averaged 1.3 per game. KU is sitting at 116th in the country in giveaways per game. Penalties are forcing them in bad situations on offense and extending opponents drives on defense. If the TO and penalty numbers don't change it is going to be trouble.
I don't have an answer on Jalon Daniels. From what I can tell, I don't see them going away from Daniels. Now, that could change if the decisions and bad throws continue but I don't currently think a change is on the table. One of the most interesting choice of words Leipold used in the post game was "fragile" to describe where Daniels and the QB situation is right now.
Leipold was clear on several occasions in the post game he is taking the blame. He said they have to coach Daniels better. They have to coach the team better.
"He's (Daniels) playing hard, but he's not playing of the Jalon that we know," he said. "I'm going to put this on me. I'm not going to put it on the kids right now. We've got to figure out a better way to stay in rhythm and do it. And you can start with the head coach and we'll get it figured out."
These are two tough losses to take. Especially in a season where there were so many expectations. This is going to impact the fans on the fence who might be thinking about going to Arrowhead for future games. It will impact the students that make the 45 minute drive.
The only piece of good news that I can take out this is KU is beating themselves. If they were lining up and getting pushed around and losing because the other team is better then I would be more concerned than I am. But that's not happening. KU has been better physically than all three teams they have played. They have won the line of scrimmage the first three games. But they aren't playing sound football. And that's the trademark of a Lance Leipold team.
Leipold touched on the fact Daniels didn't play any football until fall camp. He didn't play in the spring. He didn't mince his words.
"I believe in Jalon Daniels," he said.
The coaching staff is in the office this morning and they have a tough job to find answers with a senior-dominated team to get things fixed as conference play starts.
"It starts with the head coach and I need to do better," Leipold said. "Our staff needs to do better. We will find a way. I mean, there's a lot of football to play yet with this group and we haven't played a conference game yet."
They are going to be underdogs at West Virginia. I don't know what the line will be, but I don't know how they can be favored. They have to find a way to duplicate the first half from last night, where the offense looked good and things were clicking. They were dominating the game at one point. You have to hope a senior led team can come together and put four good quarters together. This isn't about not being good enough. KU should be 3-0 and they have let things get away from them the last two games.
