Three takeaways from Kansas Jayhawks’ Border War loss at Missouri: What happened?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kansas squandered early lead with errors and conservative second-quarter play.
- Quarterback Jalon Daniels mixed strong passes with key fumbles and turnovers.
- Missouri capitalized on Kansas mistakes to win rivalry game after 11-year break.
About 24 minutes before the start of Saturday afternoon’s Border War football game, the Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium loudspeakers blared a rendition of The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside.”
Encouraging an iconic singalong tradition here in Columbia, the scoreboard read “Beat KU.” Instead, the MU faithful draped in black and gold belted a more explicit version toward the Kansas Jayhawks football players warming up on the field.
KU, wearing icy-white jerseys with crimson pants, stuck out like a sore thumb — especially in its first meeting with a bitter rival since 2011. The players’ response to the MU fans probably didn’t help their case in unfriendly territory:
A number of Jayhawks players turned toward the student section and began to dance. Some even waved their arms up and down in an attempt to rile up the crowd.
That was just an appetizer for the game that ensued. And after 14 long years, the historic rivalry football game managed to live up to the hype.
Kansas had numerous opportunities to defeat the host Tigers. Instead, it was Mizzou that emerged victorious, beating the Jayhawks 42-31.
Kansas vs. Mizzou: Game recap
This game was chaotic. Missouri got on the scoreboard first with a five-play, 71-yard drive that ended with a 32-yard rushing touchdown by running back Ahmad Hardy.
Kansas answered with 21 straight points. The barrage included a scoop-and-score touchdown by Austin Alexander after Blake Herold forced a fumble from MU quarterback Beau Pribula.
The second quarter, however, was a disaster for the Jayhawks. The KU offense spent less than a minute on the field in the period and by halftime it was 21-all.
The teams scored once apiece in the third quarter, but Missouri’s score was a touchdown. The Tigers led 28-24 entering the final quarter.
KU scored a touchdown to take the lead, but the Tigers answered to surge back in front — this time for good. KU got the ball back with 4 minutes, 14 seconds to play, but Jayhawks receiver Emmanuel Henderson failed to catch a third-down pass attempt by quarterback Jalon Daniels.
Kansas punted and Mizzou clinched its victory when running back Jamal Roberts found room on the outside and broke free for a 63-yard rushing touchdown.
Daniels finished 18-of-33 for 223 yards, three total touchdowns and one interception. KU tight end Deshawn Hanika had six catches for 74 yards and two touchdowns. Running Daniel Hishaw struggled, finishing with just 11 rushing yards on six carries.
Here are three more takeaways from Saturday’s game:
Jalon Daniels holds his own
Coming in, the biggest question for KU was how Daniels would look against Missouri.
He held his own. He wasn’t perfect, but he kept Kansas in the game — especially with the Jayhawks otherwise struggling to run the ball effectively.
Daniels extended a couple of drives with a mix of quality passes and his own legs. His throw to receiver Levi Wentz was one of the best passes of his college career. He made several excellent throws Saturday that showcased his improvement this season over last.
Still, he fumbled the ball twice. The Jayhawks were lucky to recover the first fumble, but the other turned into a safety and a field goal on MU’s ensuing drive. Daniels also threw a desperation pick while simply trying to get rid of the ball, but the game’s outcome was decided by then.
Overall, Daniels gave Kansas an opportunity to win. But he was still self-critical postgame.
“The only statistic I believe in is the win and loss category,” Daniels said. “We came up short. As a quarterback, that’s always going to hurt me deeply because, at the end of the day, I didn’t feel like I put our team in enough good situations to be able to come out with the win today.”
KU’s mistakes in second quarter shift momentum
The Jayhawks will have plenty of film to review in the coming days. Kansas was in total control in the first quarter, but the second quarter was a comedy of errors.
First, Daniels fumbled the ball that KU recovered in its own end zone, leading to a safety and possession for MU. The Tigers added three more points on a field goal after a drive that took 8:40 off the clock.
KU got the ball back with 56 seconds left in the first half. Yet, thanks to conservative play-calling and some poor clock management, the Jayhawks managed to take just 28 seconds off the clock. That gave Mizzou the ball again.
“We just felt momentum-wise, where it was, that we were going to try to ride it out,” KU coach Lance Leipold said of the approach to the final minute of the half. “We didn’t do a good enough job coaching Daniel Hishaw about making sure we stay in bounds. ...
“We were going to run the ball and run the clock out. A fair question about what we’re thinking, but a little bit about momentum. We hadn’t really been doing much.”
That conservative offense was a sharp departure from the aggressive play-calling KU had employed in the first quarter. And it proved costly.
The Jayhawks missed a handful of tackles, and two big conversions by the Tigers made it a 21-21 game courtesy of a chip-shot field goal just before halftime.
The entire second quarter felt like a rerun of last season, when KU often had opportunities to put games away and instead made backbreaking errors.
KU’s run game struggles while MU’s thrives
It was tough sledding for KU’s run game at Faurot Field.
The Jayhawks’ offensive line struggled to create holes against Mizzou’s athletic defensive front. In fact, Kansas had a total of 2 rushing yards in the first half.
Meanwhile, Missouri ran wild on the Jayhawks. Led by running back Ahmad Hardy, the Tigers rolled up 142 rushing yards in the first period alone. KU struggled to tackle the slippery Hardy, who seemed to extend drives at will.
KU ended the night with a total of 31 rushing yards while MU finished with more than 250. Jayhawks running back Hishaw averaged just 1.8 yards per carry.
This story was originally published September 6, 2025 at 6:33 PM with the headline "Three takeaways from Kansas Jayhawks’ Border War loss at Missouri: What happened?."
