Kansas football survives close call vs. winless Nevada. Takeaways from Saturday’s win
Kansas football fans won’t be re-watching that game anytime soon. The same isn’t true for Kansas players and coaches, who will have plenty of game tape to learn from.
Lots of it.
Coming into the game as 28-point favorites, the Jayhawks (3-0) narrowly beat Nevada 31-24 in a late Saturday game in Mackay Stadium.
“You know, we found a way,” said Kansas coach Lance Leipold. “We found a way. We did not play our sharpest. We had too many penalties. Credit coach (Ken) Wilson and Nevada for coming ready to play.”
Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels finished 21-for-27 passing for 298 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions. Kansas running back Devin Neal scored three touchdowns while running for 89 yards.
It didn’t take long for KU’s offense to get out and running.
Neal capped a nine-play, 75-yard drive with a 3-yard rushing touchdown on KU’s opening possession. Daniels went 5-for-5 passing for 60 yards on the first drive.
But after that opening drive, KU’s discipline was lacking. KU penalties extended a Nevada drive that ended in a field goal, and the Jayhawks failed to pull away in the first half.
Kansas scored only three more points through two quarters. That came on a 44-yard field goal by Seth Keller — a lone bright spot in the second quarter. Nevada running back Sean Dollars finished a 10-play, 78-yard drive with a 3-yard rushing touchdown that tied the score at 10-all at the break.
The fireworks came in the second half.
The scoring onslaught started with KU’s 11-play, 84-yard drive that ended with running back Daniel Hishaw Jr. punching in a 1-yard run with 5:07 left in the third.
Even as the Nevada offense awoke, the Jayhawks maintained a touchdown advantage, thanks to two more scores from Neal. His final score put KU up 31-24.
But Nevada (0-3) had two chances late to drive for a game-tying touchdown — or even a go-ahead two-point conversion. The Wolf Pack’s last gasp came on a fourth-and-1 at the Nevada 23. Kenny Logan Jr. made the decisive stop on a jet sweep to give KU the stop and let the Jayhawks kneel it out.
Here are three takeaways from KU’s win over Nevada...
Jalon Daniels has seen better first halves
After looking like a magician in KU’s win over Illinois last week — similar to how he looked last season — Daniels didn’t look like himself early.
After a flawless opening drive that ended in a Neal touchdown, Daniels kept going for home run plays. He waited too long to get rid of the ball multiple times and threw deep balls that missed the target. He was nearly picked off twice.
Late in the first half, Daniels was unable to move the ball downfield quickly and cost KU extra seconds by holding the ball on a minimal gain. The Jayhawks were unable to get into field goal range and had to settle for an unsuccessful Hail Mary attempt.
Daniels looked like a renewed quarterback in the second half. He didn’t take too many deep shots, made better decisions with the ball and seemed to have better timing overall.
He had 197 passing yards in the second half.
Despite the uncharacteristic start from Daniels and the offense, he said he never felt like he was pressing.
“I feel like we played our game,” Daniels said. “I feel like we stayed within ourselves. And I feel like it showed in the second half — where we got back into a rhythm — that our offense is going to be able to stay on pace with whatever we do.”
Self-inflicted mistakes hurt KU
It felt like every time Kansas found itself in a crucial situation — on either side of the ball — the Jayhawks committed a penalty.
The penalties allowed Nevada to gain momentum and stick around in a game the Wolf Pack had no business being in.
For example, Nevada had the ball at its own 44-yard line on fourth-and-1. Then, KU defensive lineman Austin Booker jumped offsides and gifted Nevada a first down.
“Austin Booker, not to call out one guy on a penalty, but you know he wants to get back in the game. He’s not in the first half (due to a targeting suspension) and wants to make a play,” Leipold said. “He gets caught on fourth down.”
The Wolf Pack turned that opportunity into seven points on a 14-play, 75-yard drive. It’s those kinds of plays that made the score a lot closer than it needed to be.
Not to mention, the Jayhawks failed to recover four different Nevada fumbles — including when a KU player touched the ball out of bounds before a teammate could recover.
KU appeared unfocused and lethargic for much of the game. Oh, and the Jayhawks had two fumbles of their own.
It was a sloppy outing.
Issues defending scrambling QBs
KU has shown a weakness against scrambling quarterbacks through three games.
After giving up a 72-yard touchdown scramble to Illinois last week, Kansas’ QB contain wasn’t much better against Nevada.
This comes after Kansas defensive coordinator Brian Borland called it a point of emphasis earlier in the week.
Wolf Pack quarterback Brendan Lewis wasn’t lighting it up in the air — he had 113 yards passing — but he finished with 63 on yards on the ground for an average of 5.3 yards per carry.
He extended plays with his legs multiple times, allowing Nevada to stay in the game. It seemed to demoralize the KU defense.
“We’ve just got (to return) to doing the small things, paying attention to our keys,” Logan said. “Those are little things that we’re going to build on to make sure we kind of clean it up.”
This story was originally published September 17, 2023 at 1:20 AM with the headline "Kansas football survives close call vs. winless Nevada. Takeaways from Saturday’s win."
