Kansas football fell to 1-3 on Saturday with a 32-28 loss at West Virginia. But as has happened in the first month of the season, KU has been in a position to win each of these games. In fact, the case can be made that KU should have won each of these games this season.
KU had a 28-17 lead over West Virginia in the fourth quarter, before WVU put together two touchdown drives in the final minutes to win the game. This continued a theme for the Jayhawks this season, who had heavy in-game odds to beat Illinois and UNLV, including fourth quarter leads, before losing both of those games as well.
Here’s the data courtesy of Kansas-based broadcaster Derek Johnson.
Here’s a visual of the same data.
While some may chalk this up to just awful luck, there’s also something to be said for the coaching staff taking some responsibility for the team losing all three of these games, which is less than a one percent chance of happening.
On Saturday, with West Virginia trailing 28-17 with just over five minutes left, the Mountaineers scored a touchdown in two minutes on a nine-play, 75-yard drive that included two big third-down conversations, with Kole Taylor making both catches. The first was a 3rd and 10 from the KU 33, and the second one was a 3rd and 7 from the KU eight-yard line, that resulted in Taylor’s touchdown grab.
After forcing a three-and-out, West Virginia had the ball back with just over two minutes to play, and there was enormous third-down conversion. This one was a 3rd and 6 at the KU 42-yard line and Garrett Greene used his legs for a 13-yard run to keep the drive going. Then on a 2nd and 6 from KU’s 25, Greene took a shot to Hudson Clement in the end zone and drew a pass interference on Mello Dotson. Two plays later, Greene found Rodney Gallagher III on the right side of the field for the go-ahead touchdown with 26 seconds left in the game.
Kansas football is back in action on Saturday, September 28th to take on TCU at Arrowhead Stadium.
