Is this normal? Like, is this what fans of most P4 schools have to deal with? Not the Ohio States of the world, but you know, regular programs. Programs that don't lose 99 games in a decade, but also don't win 99 games in a decade.
Regular programs, ya dig?
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Cuz this… this is insanity. Sure it's mind numbing writing about 40-point loss after 40-point loss but at least those are understandable.
This? I dunno what to do with this.
Kansas outgained TCU 451-286, controlled the ball for nearly 39 minutes, held the Horned Frogs to 141 passing yards, and lost.
Just Kansas football doing Kansas football things.
The Jayhawks led 13-0 at halftime, having outgained TCU 216-129. Kansas was averaging 6.0 yards per play, while the Horned Frogs were managing just 4.0. KU's defense had allowed 54 rushing yards, forced four punts, and stopped TCU at the 1-yard line to preserve a first-half shutout.
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Things were going pretty well, actually. Then the second half happened.
Kansas gained another 235 yards after halftime. You might say, hey, that's more than the Jayhawks gained in the first half! And you would be right! That's great, right?
Right??
RIGHT???
Unfortunately, I'm here to tell you that all those second-half yards turned into three whole points.
Meanwhile, TCU scored 22. Because of course they did.
It's not that Kansas stopped moving the football after halftime. It's that the Jayhawks just stopped scoring. Meanwhile, TCU found just enough offense to take advantage of everything KU was giving away. The result was a 22-16 loss in Fort Worth that dropped Kansas to 3-5 overall and 1-4 in Big 12 play. The Jayhawks have now lost six consecutive meetings with TCU, and their last victory over the Horned Frogs in Fort Worth remains that 52-17 win back in 1996.
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There are some genuinely encouraging things to take away from this game. Cole Ballard, starting in place of the injured Isaiah Marshall, threw for 285 yards against one of the better pass defenses in the country. Two Kansas receivers went over 100 yards. And the defense held an offense that had been averaging nearly 300 passing yards per game to just 141.
But KU also missed a 26-yard field goal, failed on fourth-and-goal at the TCU 2, threw a pick-six, lost a fumble just outside the red zone, and allowed an 84-yard touchdown drive after briefly reclaiming the lead in the fourth quarter.
That's a lot of football mistakes for one afternoon. Because, the most frustrating part is that Kansas did plenty of things well enough to win, just… not the things that actually resulted in winning.
Consider the rushing statistics. The Jayhawks finished with 166 rushing yards on 46 attempts, an average of 3.6 yards per carry. Not great, but not necessarily disastrous against a strong TCU defensive front. Except, that number is doing a tremendous amount of work concealing how ineffective the running game actually was.
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Keaton Kubecka gained 58 yards on just three carries, including a 40-yard run in the second quarter. Take away that one play, and Kansas gained 126 rushing yards on its other 45 attempts. That's 2.8 yards per carry.
And Dylan Edwards, coming off a 156-yard performance against Baylor, was held to just 42 yards on 20 attempts. That's 2.1 yards per carry.
But wait! There's more!
At halftime, Kansas had 122 rushing yards on 22 attempts, averaging 5.5 yards per carry. After halftime, the Jayhawks managed just 44 rushing yards on 24 attempts. A whopping 1.8 yards per carry.
Edwards was particularly ineffective in the second half, gaining just six yards on seven attempts. The Jayhawks simply couldn't consistently generate positive yardage on the ground when they needed it, particularly after halftime, and that had consequences.
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Meanwhile, TCU's rushing attack went in the opposite direction. The Horned Frogs managed 54 rushing yards on 15 attempts in the first half, averaging 3.6 yards per carry. In the second half, they gained 91 yards on just 13 attempts. That's 7.0 yards per carry.
Quarterback Jaden Craig was responsible for much of that improvement, finishing with 87 rushing yards on 15 attempts, including 58 yards after halftime. And while Kansas struggled to gain a couple of yards near the goal line, TCU scored both of its offensive touchdowns on runs of 28 and 17 yards.
But the rushing disparity alone doesn't explain this loss.
Kansas gained 451 yards, averaged 5.6 yards per play, and controlled possession for 38:57.
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TCU gained 286 yards, averaged 5.0 yards per play, and possessed the football for just 21:03.
Kansas had more first downs, more passing yards, and 24 more offensive snaps.
And lost.
The problem wasn't moving the football. It was what happened when KU was in position to score. Let's revisit some of those opportunities.
In the first quarter, TCU muffed a punt, and KU's Jalen Todd recovered at the TCU 32. Kansas advanced inside the 10, only for Martin Connington to miss a 26-yard field goal.
Zero points.
Early in the third quarter, Kansas drove 71 yards to the TCU 2 and failed to convert fourth-and-goal. Ballard had connected with Nahzae Cox for a 44-yard gain to set up the opportunity, and the Jayhawks eventually reached first-and-goal at the 6. But Edwards gained one yard on first down, Ballard gained three on third down, and his fourth-down keeper came up a yard short.
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Zero points.
Then came perhaps the most damaging sequence of the game.
Following that goal-line stand, Kansas' defense forced TCU to punt from deep in its own territory. The Jayhawks took over at the TCU 44, already leading 13-0.
This was an opportunity to put the game away.
Instead, Kansas gained five yards on three plays before facing fourth-and-5 at the TCU 39. Ballard was flushed from the pocket and tried to make a play, but his pass was deflected back toward the line of scrimmage, where TCU's Max Carroll intercepted it and returned it 60 yards for a touchdown.
Zero points (for KU).
First of all, credit to the coaching staff for going for it rather than punting in plus territory; sometimes you make a reasonable decision and get an absolutely unreasonable result. Regardless, just like that, it was 13-7.
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Then, after another KU punt, TCU needed just three plays to travel 72 yards, with Ace Theus scoring on a 28-yard run. TCU led 14-13.
Kansas had gone from the verge of holding a three-score lead to trailing by a point, without TCU's offense having to sustain a single meaningful drive. ( Sound familiar?
)
But wait! THERE'S MORE!
On the opening possession of the fourth quarter, Kansas advanced to the TCU 27 before Ballard was sacked by Koron Hayward on third-and-3. Ballard fumbled, and TCU's Markis Deal recovered.
Zero points.
Kansas eventually reclaimed the lead with a nine-play, 83-yard drive, but once again had to settle for three points. That made it 16-14 with 4:59 remaining. All the defense had to do was get one more stop.
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Instead, after a roughing-the-passer penalty helped TCU get started, the Frogs marched 84 yards in 13 plays, with Craig gaining 37 yards on the ground and converting three third downs, including a 3rd-and-10. Craig's 17-yard touchdown run, followed by a successful two-point conversion, gave the Horned Frogs a 22-16 lead with 1:11 remaining.
Kansas couldn't answer, and the final score was TCU 22, Kansas 16.
And here's perhaps the most infuriating statistic of all: TCU's offense scored only 15 points! Kansas held TCU to 286 yards and 141 passing yards. The Horned Frogs completed just 13 of 29 passes, and their offense scored only two touchdowns.
And KU still lost.
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By the way, I predicted a 20-16 TCU victory on Friday, so I'm totally tooting my own horn here for almost nailing it. That would even win with Price Is Right rules. Not bad, if I do say so myself. (Sure hope you picked up on that Under bet I was hinting at in the preview
.)
Anyway. The Jayhawks had four official red-zone opportunities and scored on only two. Both scores were field goals. There was also the fumble at the TCU 27, which doesn't count as a red-zone possession but certainly represented another reasonable scoring opportunity.
KU converted just 7-of-20 third downs and 1-of-3 fourth downs. The Jayhawks committed two turnovers, both of which were devastating.
This is not a loss that you can pin on one or even two things. I for one am not going to blame this loss entirely on Ballard, the offensive line, the play-calling, the defense, or the kicker(s). There's plenty of responsibility to go around.
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But when you gain 451 yards against a legitimately good defense and only score 16 points? You've got a problem. Actually — you've got lots of problems.
And when you allow only 15 offensive points and lose, you've got an even bigger multitude of problems.
And when you do both in the same game?
Well, what's that old saying?
Kansas football doing Kansas football things.
THE GOOD
Let's start with Cole Ballard and the passing game.
Now before you riot, hear me out.
With Isaiah Marshall unavailable, Ballard made his first start of the season against a TCU defense that had allowed just three passing touchdowns through seven games. Opposing quarterbacks had completed fewer than 53% of their passes, and the Horned Frogs were allowing only about 4.1 yards per play against Big 12 competition. It's not an ideal situation for a backup quarterback who had barely played this season.
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So naturally, Ballard completed 20 of 35 passes for 285 yards and a touchdown, averaging 8.1 yards per attempt — just like we all expected
!
And Ballard wasn't simply completing short passes to inflate his numbers. Kansas generated legitimate explosive plays through the air, with Nahzae Cox catching five passes for 145 yards and Cam Pickett adding 10 receptions for 113 yards and a touchdown.
Now, obviously, we can't discuss Ballard's performance without acknowledging the interception and fumble. Both were enormously consequential. But I don't think it's fair to ignore everything he did well simply because the mistakes were so costly.
If I would have offered you those passing numbers before kickoff, with Ballard starting in place of Marshall?
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You would have taken them.
Every. Single. Time.
Honorable Mention:The Kansas defense deserves recognition for an excellent first half. KU held TCU to 129 yards, 4.0 yards per play, and zero points. The goal-line stand at the end of the half, capped by Taylor Davis stopping Jacobe Hayes at the 1, was particularly impressive.
Unfortunately, there was another half to play.
THE BAD
What happened to the Kansas running game? We've already covered the numbers, and they're not pretty. But the bigger problem was that Kansas couldn't reliably gain the two or three yards necessary to finish drives. You can't expect to score touchdowns every time you reach the red zone, especially against a defense like TCU's. But you also can't repeatedly put yourself in position to score, come away with nothing, and expect to win.
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The failed fourth-and-goal was a perfect example. Kansas had moved the ball 71 yards, consumed more than four minutes, and couldn't gain the final two yards. And when the Jayhawks regained the lead at 16-14 late in the fourth quarter, they'd done so by driving 83 yards and kicking a 27-yard field goal.
Again, Kansas moved the football.
Again, they couldn't finish the job.
THE UGLY
This is not a new problem. According to sources
(Derek Johnson at RCST), Kansas is just 8-8 against Power Four opponents since the beginning of the 2024 season in games where the Jayhawks held a lead at some point in the fourth quarter.
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I'm not suggesting every one of those games was necessarily a blown lead of 13 points or more, or that KU should have won every one of them. But the larger problem seems pretty obvious: Kansas has become competitive enough to put itself in position to win a lot of football games.
And then it keeps finding ways to lose them.
Is this normal?
Asking for a friend.
THE STATS
Cole Ballardcompleted 20 of 35 passes for 285 yards, with one touchdown and one interception in his first start of the season. He also rushed 13 times for 36 yards. The interception was a tipped pass that was returned for a touchdown, and he lost a fumble on a fourth-quarter sack.
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Nahzae Coxcaught five passes for 145 yards, averaging 29 yards per reception. He had receptions of 35, 44, and 50 yards, providing several of KU's biggest offensive plays.
Cam Pickettled Kansas with 10 receptions for 113 yards and a touchdown. His 29-yard scoring reception gave the Jayhawks a 13-0 second-quarter lead.
Dylan Edwardswas held to 42 yards on 20 carries, an average of 2.1 yards per attempt. He also caught one pass for eight yards.
Keaton Kubeckarushed three times for 58 yards, including a 40-yard run that helped set up KU's second-quarter touchdown.
Chase Belcheradded 18 yards on seven carries, while Chase Jenkinsrushed twice for five yards. Carson Bruhncaught two passes for nine yards, and Tate Nagyhad one reception for five yards.
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Trey Lathanled Kansas with seven tackles, including half a sack, half a tackle for loss, and a quarterback hurry.
Jalen Toddrecorded five tackles, recovered TCU's muffed punt in the first quarter, and added a quarterback hurry.
Austin Alexanderfinished with four tackles and two pass breakups, helping limit TCU's passing attack.
Taylor Davishad four tackles and a pass breakup, including the critical fourth-down stop at the goal line to end the first half.
Corey Gordonand Christian Pritchetteach recorded four tackles. Roman Pearsonhad two tackles and two pass breakups.
Leroy Harris IIIwas credited with one assisted tackle and two quarterback hurries. Kevin Oatiscombined with Lathan on KU's lone sack.
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Martin Conningtonconnected on field goals of 34, 42, and 27 yards but missed a 26-yard attempt in the first quarter. He also made his only extra-point attempt.
Matthew Gillpunted four times for 164 yards, averaging 41 yards per attempt, with one punt inside the 20.
Dane Efirdhandled five kickoffs, averaging 54 yards with no touchbacks. Three traveled 50 yards or fewer, including the game's opening kickoff that reached only the TCU 20.
UP NEXT
Kansas returns to Memorial Stadium on Saturday, November 7, to face Directional Florida. Kickoff has been scheduled for 2:45 PM on ESPN2.
The Jayhawks are now 3-5 overall and 1-4 in Big 12 play, meaning they'll need to win three of their remaining four games to reach bowl eligibility. Those final four opponents are UCF, West Virginia, BYU, and Oklahoma State.
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So, yes, a bowl is still mathematically possible. But after watching Kansas gain 451 yards, lead 13-0 at halftime, and lose to a team that managed 15 offensive points? I'm going to need considerably more convincing. And we clearly can't trust the Great Pumpkin to deliver.
Now, go ahead and admit you got Rick Rolled so we can all get on with our lives.
