Ames, Iowa — The Kansas football team had a hard enough time stopping Iowa State on downs one through three, but when the Cyclones got to fourth down, the Jayhawks’ defense reached a new level of porousness.
KU allowed a fourth-down conversion on ISU’s game-opening touchdown drive, then three touchdowns on fourth downs in the second half.
The defense’s inability to get off the field at those moments prevented KU from seriously challenging for a sixth win that would have earned it bowl eligibility, or even making Saturday afternoon’s game close, and the Jayhawks instead lost 38-14 at Jack Trice Stadium.
“I thought we played soft and timid,” KU coach Lance Leipold said, “and again, when we did have moments to flip it, we didn’t make enough plays to answer that to try to make it a better football game.”
While KU’s defense struggled most frequently, it was by and large a disjointed performance in all three phases for KU that saw errant snaps derail punt and field-goal attempts and quarterback Jalon Daniels fail to seriously challenge a depleted ISU secondary.
Daniels finished 13-for-23 for 154 yards with an interception. Meanwhile, the Cyclones’ quarterback Rocco Becht, who over his past three games had completed 53% of his passes with three touchdowns and six picks, was an efficient 18-for-23 for 241 yards and three scores.
ISU also ran the ball a whopping 50 times for 221 yards and in doing so controlled the time-of-possession battle from the opening moments. Many of the same basic defensive issues KU has been harping on all season — gap integrity, setting the edge, preventing missed tackles and so on — played a role in Saturday’s loss.
“Any time you’re at this (point) and you’re saying some of the same stuff it’s concerning,” Leipold said. “It’s concerning that you got to continue to look at it, and what you’re doing, and how they’re doing it, and who’s on the field doing it. It’s everything — who’s coaching it, who’s doing it, everything has to be evaluated or we’re kidding ourselves.”
The Jayhawks fell to 5-6, and their postseason hopes now hinge on Friday’s home matchup with No. 12 Utah: “It’s a must-win game,” tight end Boden Groen said. “There’s no second chance.”
ISU started the day with a heavy dose of that power run game, including 10- and 14-yard chunk plays on rushes by Carson Hansen. KU halted Hansen on an inside carry on third-and-1, only for him to get the necessary yardage on a fourth-down toss play.
Becht converted ISU’s first third-and-long by finding an open Benjamin Brahmer, then put the Cyclones on the board with a touchdown pass to Brett Eskildsen to cap off the methodical scoring drive.
KU had to punt on its next drive and avoided disaster when a snap sailed over Finn Lappin’s head, but Lappin was able to track it down deep in his own territory and get off a line-drive punt, which rolled all the way down to the Cyclones’ 28-yard line.
Becht threw the ball directly to KU linebacker Bangally Kamara, but it was called back due to a defensive holding penalty on Lyrik Rawls. Instead, ISU moved the ball again with another clock-killing drive including a series of completions from Becht to Eskildsen, and Hansen scored. Becht did not throw an incomplete pass on either of the Cyclones’ first two drives.
KU made better progress on its second offensive drive with a pair of quick passes from Daniels to Emmanuel Henderson Jr. and Cam Pickett. The Jayhawks made it into the red zone before an unsuccessful attempt to go no-huddle, followed by a third-down false start, forced a field goal attempt from 41 yards out — which Laith Marjan missed.
ISU responded with a 55-yard field goal of its own after an unsuccessful direct snap to Brahmer on third-and-2.
KU punted again after neither of two receivers in the area of a third-down pass by Daniels turned around to look for the ball.
“There’s just small, little details of lack of execution and those tiny things come back to bite you,” Groen said of the slow start. “It’s tough when you’re playing a team like that and you have those small details that in some games they don’t matter, but (it) reared its ugly head today.”
The Jayhawks had the Cyclones in third-and-9 but allowed a 25-yard run to Hansen on another toss play. However, ISU stalled and had to punt. KU got the ball back with 23 seconds left and three timeouts but opted to take the game into halftime with a 17-0 deficit.
After the break, KU marched down the field with a new level of urgency, as a 22-yard run by Daniel Hishaw Jr. and 30-yard completion from Daniels to Wentz set up a short touchdown run by Leshon Williams to put the Jayhawks on the board.
KU had a chance to get off the field in short order on third-and-12 (after a pair of penalties had slowed ISU down), but a blitz didn’t get home and Chase Sowell made a leaping grab for 36 yards.
“We talked about again that here we have a chance to flip the script (on offense), and then they answered that,” Leipold said. “I thought we did a good job. The disappointing part was … we have Iowa State first-and-25 and they convert, go down. That one really hurt. You think you got yourself in a position to really keep the momentum coming and making things happen.”
Abu Sama III got stopped on a third-and-3 run up the middle, but ISU opted to go for it on fourth down, and the ensuing play-action pass went for a touchdown from Becht to Eskildsen to kill any momentum the Jayhawks might have accrued.
“It gets difficult but at the end of the day, we all, as a team, got one common goal and that’s to win,” middle linebacker Trey Lathan said. “We try not to take our anger out on each other, no matter what, we try to flush all the bad plays and try to rally back up to each other, go out there for the next series and try to get a stop.”
A reverse to Cam Pickett on the kick return gave KU good starting field position, which it followed up with a 34-yard connection up the seam from Daniels to Groen.
On the next play, a designed run, Daniels took a hard hit plowing forward on the tackle from Marcus Neal and Carson Van Dinter and missed a play. Cole Ballard entered at quarterback, and the Jayhawks faked a designed run to the right before Ballard took a hit and lofted the ball over the top to Groen for a touchdown.
“That was an amazing call because they’re not thinking pass over the top when JD goes out,” Groen said. “It’s a little bluff play, and they didn’t bite on it as hard as I thought they (would) and Cole put it — he threw an absolutely perfect ball and put it only where I could get it, so that was awesome.”
Unfortunately for KU’s comeback hopes, its defense continued to allow big gains on third down. Reserve running back Aiden Flora’s 13-yard carry on third-and-15 at KU’s 25 set up Becht to find a completely uncovered Brahmer in the end zone.
“I can’t sit here and say that it’s all players’ issues,” Leipold said. “I want to make sure I make that very clear here, OK? We got to coach it better, drill it better and get there. But to say that we’ve never seen a tight end pop pass, play-action pass from Iowa State on film isn’t true.”
The Jayhawks’ next drive ended when Daniels came up short on a fourth-down scramble in ISU territory; the Cyclones also turned the ball over on downs on their own ensuing series after starting the game 3-for-3 on fourth down.
What looked like Daniels’ most efficient and consistent drive as a passer ended in disaster when he got intercepted on the goal line by Marcus Neal.
Flora ran for a touchdown on fourth-and-6 late to put an exclamation mark on ISU’s victory.
Notes and observations
Hishaw had been listed as questionable for Saturday’s game on the Wednesday and Thursday availability reports before KU elevated him to probable on Friday; he was ultimately available for the battle with the Cyclones and started the game. Defensive tackle Kenean Caldwell, meanwhile, was a game-time decision, but appeared late in the first quarter.
Former Cyclone DeShawn Hanika, a KU tight end who suffered a season-ending injury on Sept. 27 against Cincinnati, traveled with the team for Saturday’s game and served as a captain.
Lappin’s 27-yard desperation punt after the snap went over his head was unusual in another, less noticeable way: he kicked it with his left foot. Lappin is ambipedal and kicked a number of punts with his left foot last year at McNeese as well.
Ballard’s touchdown pass was the third of his career and the first since Aug. 29, 2024.
How they scored
First quarter
8:23 — Brett Eskildsen 9-yard pass from Rocco Becht. Kyle Konrardy PAT good. Twelve plays, 75 yards, 6:37 TOP. ISU 7, KU 0.
Second quarter
14:56 — Carson Hansen 4-yard run. Konrardy PAT good. Ten plays, 72 yards, 5:24 TOP. ISU 14, KU 0.
6:43 — Konrardy 55-yard field goal good. Seven plays, 40 yards, 3:49 TOP. ISU 17, KU 0.
Third quarter
13:06 — Leshon Williams 4-yard run. Laith Marjan PAT good. Four plays, 65 yards, 1:54 TOP. ISU 17, KU 7.
8:52 — Eskildsen 20-yard pass from Becht. Konrardy PAT good. Eight plays, 75 yards, 4:14 TOP. ISU 24, KU 7.
7:35 — Boden Groen 21-yard pass from Cole Ballard. Marjan PAT good. Four plays, 62 yards, 1:08 TOP. ISU 24, KU 14.
2:18 — Benjamin Brahmer 12-yard pass from Becht. Konrardy PAT good. Ten plays, 59 yards, 5:08 TOP. ISU 31, KU 14.
Fourth quarter
1:07 — Aiden Flora 38-yard run. Konrardy PAT good. Nine plays, 84 yards, 5:54 TOP. ISU 31, KU 21.
AP Photo/Matthew Putney
