A (Semi) Statistical Recap of Utah

Kansas finally intercepted a pass!

Isaiah Marshall did a pretty good Todd Reesing impersonation!

The Jayhawks forced two turnovers while allowing zero sacks!

And Kansas lost by 17?

College football remains the stupidest sport in America.

Utah defeated Kansas 41-24 Saturday night in Salt Lake City, dropping KU to 2-3 overall and 0-2 in the Big 12. The final score makes this look somewhat easier for Utah than it actually was. The Utes jumped out to a 14-0 first-quarter lead, Kansas fought back to 21-17 by halftime, and Marshall hit Nik McMillan for a touchdown late in the third quarter to make it 27-24.

So, yes, we had ourselves a football game.

Then, as so often is the case for KU football, the fourth quarter happened. Utah scored to go up 34-24. Surprisingly, Kansas answered with a 74-yard drive that reached the Utah 1-yard line with 8:38 remaining. We had a chance!

Fourth-and-goal. Marshall’s read-option keeper was denied at the goal line. Utah took over at its own 1. Three plays later, Wayshawn Parker ran 90 yards for a touchdown. Instead of cutting the lead to 34-31, Kansas was down 41-24 less than two minutes later, and that was that.

That 90-yard run, by the way, came out of a wildcat look, of all things, are you freaking kidding me KU defense??? He isn’t throwing the ball there! Run gaps! Discipline! Contain! Only one defender even had a chance of making the play and over-pursued and Parker blew past him.

I’m okay. I’ll be okay, it’s okay. Breathe… Okay.

Overall, Utah outgained Kansas 545-391, but the yards-per-play numbers were considerably closer than the totals would suggest. Utah averaged 7.0 yards per play, while Kansas averaged 6.7.

The problem is that Utah ran 78 plays. Kansas ran 58.

The Utes had 31 first downs to KU’s 19, converted 7-of-12 third downs, and held the ball for 39:04. KU was just 4-13 on third downs (including 1-6 in the first half) and Kansas had the football for just 20:56. That is… not ideal.

The other rather obvious difference was on the ground. One week after rushing for 480 yards against Middle Tennessee, Kansas rushed for 58. KU averaged 2.8 yards per carry and had only two rushing first downs. Dylan Edwards, who ran for 137 yards last week, led Kansas with 22.

Meanwhile, Utah ran for 287 yards while averaging 6.1 per attempt.

It turns out Middle Tennessee and Utah are not the same football team. Which was unfortunate for us. But hey, you can’t win ‘em all, right?

I guess no one told Curt Cignetti. ANYWAY…

What did we learn?

Before this game, I wondered if Utah might simply be good enough that a Kansas loss wouldn’t necessarily invalidate the progress we’ve seen from the Jayhawks. Maybe all we would learn is that Kansas isn’t ready to compete for a Big 12 championship.

I’m not sure Saturday changed my mind.

This wasn’t Missouri. Kansas wasn’t pushed around for four quarters and rendered helpless offensively. It wasn’t Arizona State, either, where KU spent the afternoon inventing increasingly stupid ways to lose a game it probably should have won.

Utah was simply better.

Kansas did some things well. Utah did more things well. The Utes controlled the line of scrimmage, ran the football whenever they needed to, sustained drives, and eventually wore Kansas down.

But I also came away from this feeling considerably better about Isaiah Marshall than I did going in. Utah completely eliminated KU’s running game and basically forced a quarterback making his fifth career start to carry his offense, on the road, against the #12 team in America. Marshall responded by throwing for 333 yards.

He wasn’t perfect. Far from it. But he was good enough to keep Kansas within three points after three quarters despite getting essentially no help from the running game. That’s significant.

So what did we learn?

Kansas might actually be decent. Utah is better.

Unfortunately, the standings only care about the second part.

THE GOOD

Let’s start with Marshall. He finished 19-of-37 for 333 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. The completion percentage isn’t going to knock anyone over, but Kansas averaged 9.0 yards per pass attempt and 17.5 yards per completion.

Utah entered the game allowing very little downfield. Kansas repeatedly found explosive plays. Cam Pickett was excellent, averaging nearly 17 yards per reception. Nik McMillan averaged 22 yards per reception. Nahzae Cox had a 41-yard reception, Leyton Cure caught one for 30, and Dylan Edwards had a 24-yard touchdown reception. Overall, Marshall had completions of 41, 36, 32, 30, and 24 yards.

More importantly, Utah didn’t sack him once. Considering what the offensive line looked like against Missouri, we’ll take that.

Honorable Mention:

WE GOT AN INTERCEPTION. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

CB Jalen Todd intercepted Utah’s Devon Dampier in the second quarter, finally ending KU’s streak of 15 games with just two interceptions. That’s right, a Kansas cornerback intercepted a pass.

David Santiago also forced and recovered a Dampier fumble on a sack, meaning Utah — which had committed only two turnovers in its first four games — gave the ball away twice against Kansas. After begging this defense to create turnovers for approximately the length of the Roman Empire, KU forced two against #12 Utah, finishing the game with a +1 turnover margin.

Naturally, Kansas lost by 17.

THE BAD

Fifty-eight rushing yards? There’s really nowhere else to start.

Kansas gained those 58 yards on 21 rush attempts. Edwards had 22 yards on nine carries. Marshall had 21 on nine. Jalen Dupree added 10. The longest Kansas run of the night went for 10 yards.

One week earlier, Kansas had nineteen players, including 13 walk-ons, with a run of at least 10 yards against Middle Tennessee.

OK, I made that up. It merely felt like nineteen. Still, this was basically the matchup we worried about in the preview. Utah took away the run and forced Marshall to beat them. The encouraging part is Marshall didn’t implode. The less encouraging part is Kansas had absolutely no Plan B on the ground.

And on the other side, Utah ran for 287 yards. Parker finished with 171 yards on 16 carries and two touchdowns. I think it’s notable that only 37 of those 171 yards came before halftime. KU actually kept Parker under control for two quarters before he ran for a buck-thirty-four in the second half, including the 90-yard touchdown that ended whatever suspense remained.

Dampier added 71 rushing yards and a score.

Yes, Parker had the 90-yard run. Take it away and Utah still rushed for 197 yards, so let’s not pretend one busted play created the entire problem. Dampier was also 23-of-30 passing for 238 yards and three touchdowns, and Utah finished with 545 total yards.

The Kansas defense made some big plays. It also spent far too much of the night being pushed backward.

THE UGLY

The fourth quarter collapse.

Kansas trailing 34-24. Ball at the Utah 1. Fourth-and-goal. Eight-and-a-half minutes left.

This was not complicated.

Punch it in and the game is alive.

Marshall was stopped. Utah took over at the 1.

Three plays later: Parker. Ninety yards. Touchdown. 41-24.

Goodnight.

Kansas entered this matchup a perfect 17-17 on red zone trips on the season. That streak came to an end on Saturday as the Jayhawks reached the Utah red zone five times and scored on only three of those trips. Utah, meanwhile, went 5-for-5.

And that’s pretty much the game right there. You can talk about yards per play, turnovers, explosive passing plays, and whatever else you’d like. But when one team goes 5-for-5 in the red zone and the other team gets stopped at the 1 with the game still in doubt, that’s usually going to matter.

Like, a lot.

Besides, anyone who has played CFB27 knows that when you NEED to score inside the 5-yard line, you go Stick out of 5-wide. Insert C’mon man dot gif.

THE STATS

Isaiah Marshall completed 19-of-37 passes for 333 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. He also rushed nine times for 21 yards and had KU’s only rushing touchdown.

Dylan Edwards led Kansas in rushing with 22 yards on nine attempts. He also caught three passes for 29 yards and a touchdown.

Cam Pickett caught eight passes for 134 yards.

Nik McMillan had four receptions for 89 yards and a touchdown.

Nahzae Cox caught one pass for 41 yards, Leyton Cure had one for 30, and Carson Bruhn caught two passes for 10 yards.

Trey Lathan led Kansas with 11 tackles, including one tackle for loss.

Corey Gordon and Daveon Crouch each recorded eight tackles. Crouch had 1.5 tackles for loss.

Leroy Harris III finished with seven tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, and two sacks.

David Santiago had six tackles, two tackles for loss, a sack, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, and a pass breakup.

Jalen Todd had two tackles and KU’s first interception of the season.

Matthew Gill punted five times for a 48.8-yard average, with a long of 65.

UP NEXT

Kansas will travel to the house of horrors that is K-State Happy Family Fun Valley Stadium or whatever the hell they call it these days. To make it even more fun, K-State is coming off a rather embarrassing showing against Houston, so KU gets the extra-pissed-off version of K-State.

Awesome.

The Jayhawks travel to Manhattan Saturday for an 11 a.m. kickoff on FS1.

KU has only won once in Manhattan since the George H.W. Bush Administration began, and K-State has won 17 consecutive games in the series. You’re likely to hear about it all week. But, Kansas has shown enough over the past few weeks to make me think this isn’t hopeless. However, that is probably the most dangerous feeling possible heading into a K-State game.

BRB, I’m going to go start making the kool-aid – with extra “aid” this year.