Kansas football is in trouble. Three takeaways from last-second loss at West Virginia

Kansas football will look back on Saturday’s game against West Virginia as yet another winnable game lost.

And perhaps a new low point in a season that began with Big 12 title hopes.

For the third straight week, Kansas allowed a go-ahead fourth-quarter touchdown. The Jayhawks failed to stop West Virginia quarterback Garrett Greene all day — especially when he scrambled — and it ultimately became their undoing.

The Jayhawks, who led by double-digits midway through the fourth quarter, lost 32-28 to the Mountaineers at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown, West Virginia.

The Jayhawks (1-3, 0-1 Big 12) had one last chance to drive for the win with 26 seconds left and two timeouts. They needed a touchdown, trailing by four. Quarterback Jalon Daniels found Lawrence Arnold for a 36-yard reception at the West Virginia 40, but Daniels was stripped the following play and West Virginia (2-2, 1-0 Big 12) recovered with eight seconds left.

As mentioned, the Jayhawks held an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter, and still led 28-25 when West Virginia took possession with 2:23 left. Greene scrambled to multiple first downs, and the drive advanced to first-and-goal after Kansas cornerback Mello Dotson was called for defensive pass interference in the end zone.

WVU scored the winning touchdown with 26 seconds left.

Daniels finished 15-of-25 passing for 184 yards with one passing touchdown and one interception, plus the lost fumble. Devin Neal had 110 rushing yards on 27 carries.

The game was also marked by a near-two-hour weather delay, after which the Jayhawks responded with a stop and a 32-yard rushing touchdown by wide receiver Luke Grimm.

The Jayhawks had other issues closing out halves, a familiar theme of the season. The Jayhawks gave up a touchdown in the final minute of the first half. Greene ran for a score with 25 seconds left.

Devin Neal had an 11-yard rushing touchdown for Kansas. Daniel Hishaw also ran for an 11-yard score, while Grimm (one receiving TD, one rushing) had the other KU touchdowns.

Up next: Kansas will host TCU at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 28.

Here are three takeaways from the game…

KU’s offensive line was a problem

It’s no secret that Daniels has struggled so far this season — he already had six interceptions entering Saturday.

So one thing the Jayhawks’ offensive line needed to do when facing WVU was give Daniels time to get comfortable and throw the football.

In the first half, the line’s pass protection was abysmal. Daniels was skittish in the pocket, had to evade multiple WVU defenders to get throws off and generally looked uncomfortable.

KU’s offensive line allowed one sack and two credited quarterback hurries in that time, but those numbers undersold how often Daniels was under immediate pressure, often having to leave a pocket early without a chance to go through his reads.

That said, the bright spot for the offensive line was its run blocking. Neal had 14 carries for 79 yards, including an 11-yard touchdown, in the first half. Kansas finished with 247 rushing yards and three rushing scores.

Along those lines, the offensive line looked better in the second half, with the Jayhawks scoring touchdowns on their first two possessions.

Boom-or-bust secondary, including two picks

West Virginia wide receiver Hudson Clement had himself a first half.

Clement had five catches for 123 receiving yards … through two quarters. KU’s secondary struggled to stop the connection between Greene and Clement, who averaged 24.6 yards per catch.

Greene had a fantastic first half. He threw for 156 yards and two touchdowns. Entering the day, Greene had completed 48 of 81 passes for 607 yards and five touchdowns (three games).

The Jayhawks’ ball-hawking corners, Mello Dotson and Cobee Bryant, did each come away with an interception, which allowed the Jayhawks’ defense to get off the field. But Dotson was also flagged for pass interference in the end zone on the Mountaineers’ final offensive drive.

The Jayhawks allowed 295 passing yards for the day — the most they’ve allowed all season. Greene also had 87 rushing yards, averaging 5.1 yards a carry.

Let’s talk about Jalon Daniels’ day

One major question entering Saturday was whether Daniels could stop turning the ball over at an uncharacteristically high rate.

For a while, yes. For a while, no.

Heading into Saturday, WVU had allowed 280.7 passing yards per game, ranking 120th of 133 FBS teams. Teams also averaged 16.5 yards per completion — second-worst in the nation — against the Mountaineers.

So, naturally, it seemed like the perfect game for Daniels to return to form.

Daniels didn’t exactly take advantage of a bad WVU secondary, finishing with 184 passing yards. He also threw an interception in the first half when under pressure and was strip-sacked to end the game, though part of that falls on the offensive line. He now has nine turnovers this season.

But overall, he looked closer to the Daniels of the old, especially when he had time to throw. He made several key throws to convert critical third downs and had a long run of 21 yards.

Still, Daniels needs to be better if Kansas wants to win games in the Big 12. And the Jayhawks notably ran the ball on a key third-and-4 when two first downs could have allowed them to run out the clock.