When Kansas coach Lance Leipold reviewed last week’s 35-24 loss at Kansas State on video, he found one revealing factor.
“You’ve got to match someone’s physicality, and I don’t think we did that,” he said. “If you knew the magic potion and the right button to push, you’d get it changed as quickly as you can.”
Leipold will try to find that potion and button ahead of Saturday afternoon’s game against Big 12 Conference rival Baylor in Lawrence, Kan.
One stat from the Jayhawks’ loss to their Sunflower State rival said everything. Kansas allowed a whopping 359 rushing yards — including a pair of 100-yard rushers — and gave up an average of 7 yards per carry. Leipold said poor tackling hurt the team.
Kansas’ usually potent offense couldn’t take up enough slack. A unit that is averaging 449.5 yards per game came up with just 319 and was only 3 of 11 in third-down efficiency.
Quarterback Isaiah Marshall continued to have trouble with accuracy as he hit just 12 of 26 passes, lowering his completion percentage to 52.7. He did rush for 117 yards to give him 372 for the year, second on the team.
While the Jayhawks (2-4, 0-3) have dropped four of their last five games, the Bears (4-2, 2-1) are coming off a loss as well. TCU beat them 17-6 last week, limiting them to 310 total yards and sacking DJ Lagway four times.
Lagway, who completed 63.2% of his passes last year as Florida’s starter, has hit only 93 of 186 this year (50%). He managed just 22 completions in 53 attempts last week, with an interception.
Baylor’s offensive line didn’t help. Not only did it allow those sacks but it blocked poorly for the run and committed four penalties on the Bears’ final possession.
“The first thing you stare at is me,” coach Dave Aranda said when asked about the line. “I have to get that group ready to go. When you talk about tough, smart, dependable, it all starts up front. So that’s a failure on my part.”