Moments That Popped: TCU 22, Kansas 16

On a day that the Kansas football team dominated in all aspects for nearly three quarters, the Jayhawks did something that their fans have seen far too often during the past few seasons.

They found a way to lose.

This one hurt, too. For the better part of Halloween afternoon, fans surely were looking ahead a little to next week and a home date with UCF that, with a win, could've moved Kansas to within a single victory of bowl eligibility and a three-game winning streak.

Instead, disaster struck. The Jayhawks lost momentum, started misfiring far too often and watched TCU take advantage en route to a 22-16 home win that that Jayhawks could have a hard time moving on from.

This was, after all, a TCU team that only had wins over Grambling, Arkansas State and Baylor, a list similar to the three wins KU had racked up entering Saturday's game. So, yeah, this was a team — like Baylor — that the Jayhawks knew they could compete with and probably believed they could and should beat.

And for a while Saturday, it looked that way. But the second half was all-Horned Frogs. Even with KU reclaiming the lead at 16-14 after letting a 13-0 lead disappear, the defense surrendered a touchdown on the Horned Frogs' next drive, putting KU down 22-16 with less than 2 minutes to play.

It's worth noting that KU played Saturday's game without starting quarterback Isaiah Marshall, who showed up on the injury report midweek and did not start Saturday's game.

A last-ditch drive in the final 90+ seconds ended when a last-second throw by Ballard from midfield was affected as he threw it and landed incomplete well short of the end zone with no one around it.

The loss moves KU to 3-5 overall and 1-4 in Big 12 play and puts KU in the position of needing to win three of its final four games to become bowl eligible.

The Jayhawks will return home next week to take on a UCF team that recently beat BYU at home when the Cougars were ranked No. 2 but also lost 41-9 to the Baylor team that Kansas just beat the very next week.

So it goes in the crazy Big 12 Conference. The TV channel and kickoff time for KU-UCF will be determined later today or tomorrow.

Here's a look back and some of Saturday's action.

LIKES

• End of first half goes KU's way – A couple of weeks ago, after the Jayhawks struggled to close the first half against Kansas State in a positive manner and reverted to some old habits that have haunted them late in the 2nd quarter, KU coach Lance Leipold noted in the postgame press conference that everyone seemed to have forgotten about how things went well a week earlier in that area of the game during the Jayhawks' loss at Utah. This is very much a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately business. So, yeah. Many people did. Because that didn't matter against the Wildcats. Fast-forward to Saturday and the Jayhawks were back on the right side of things at the end of the first-half. It wasn't that they put up points as much as the fact that they prevented points, by holding TCU out of the end zone on what was by far the Horned Frogs' best offensive drive of the day. More on the whole holding them out thing below. Not only did KU keep TCU off the scoreboard late in the first half, but the Jayhawks also got the ball to open the 2nd half on Saturday, further preventing TCU from climbing back into this one.

• Receivers balled out – Keaton Kubecka was back and a made a couple big plays. Cam Pickett was out there looking like his old self. And Nahzae Cox came down with some clutch catches in traffic and drew a couple of flags, too. KU's receiving corps has been solid all season and they were really good in this one, which no doubt helped Ballard in his first start of the season.

• Physicality shows up again – After getting punked by Kansas State in Manhattan a couple of weeks ago, the Jayhawks have responded with a pair of much more physical games in back-to-back weeks. Good for them. That physicality showed up all over the field on Saturday in Fort Worth. On offense. On defense. On special teams. Kansas on Saturday — much like K-State 2 Saturdays ago — simply looked like the team that wanted it more and believed it was better. And so much of that starts with hitting the other team in the mouth.

• Goal-line stand hit – On 4th-and-goal from the 2 with 8 seconds to play in the first half, TCU coach Sonny Dykes elected to go for the touchdown instead of taking the points. The Frogs ran a solid play, completed a pass at the goal line but could not get in thanks to a massive hit by KU safety Taylor Davis, who lowered the boom after the catch and kept the TCU receiver out of the end zone by what looked like mere inches. In fact, TCU's Jacobe Hayes knocked the pylon over after catching the ball and turning upfield, but replay review determined that the ball never got across the line with him. Taylor Davis, in a lot of ways, is a big time leader for this KU secondary. And he allowed his play to lead as much as his personality or words in this moment. Big-time stuff that kept Kansas in complete control of the game.

DISLIKES

• Little things, right? – So often, you've heard this coaching staff talk about needing to get the Jayhawks to execute the little things and make sure they deliver on key plays and take advantage of every opportunity. That was again a problem on Saturday, when the Jayhawks not only failed to capitalize on a muffed-punt gift given to them by the TCU special teams, but did so by watching place kicker Martin Connington miss wide right on a 26-yard field goal that would've given the Jayhawks an early lead. Leipold looked incredulous after the miss. And those are the exact things he's talking about when he talks about little moments and plays that KU has to come through on but doesn't always do it.

• Jayhawks left points on the field – And we're not even just talking about Connington's missed field goal. At least one of those drives early in the game should've led to 7 instead of 3. Then there was the 4th-and-goal stand by TCU's defense midway through the third quarter that kept the game at 13-0 instead of allowing KU to blow it open. I like going for it there. You needed a yard and if you got it, it was game over. You've gotta get it, though. They called a second straight QB draw for Ballard right up the middle and he could not find his way in to the end zone. After coming up short, he was shown on his stomach just shy of the goal line, dropping his helmet to the ground at how close he came without getting in. Even a score on one or two of those other opportunities would've put this game to bed way earlier than we're used to seeing.

• That'll make you miss Zeke – KU starter Isaiah Marshall missed Saturday's game, opening the door for the man he competed with for the starting job all offseason to get the start. But, it's been a while since Cole Ballard played. And he had an injury keep him out for a while, too. Still, Saturday's game showed us clearly (a) why the KU coaching staff went with Marshall and (b) how far along the third-year Jayhawk has come in the starting role. KU simply can do more things with Marshall on the field than it can with Ballard. And that was painfully obvious over and over on Saturday, even if Ballard was put into a pretty tough spot. Give Ballard credit for hanging tough on the final drive. He battled. He made good decisions and he gave KU a chance. But he missed on too many plays earlier in the game and it killed Kansas.

WHAT THE?

• Why not punt? – With KU in total control after the three-and-out following their failure to get into the end zone midway through the quarter, the Jayhawks' elected to go for it on 4th-and-5 from the TCU 40 instead of punting, pinning the Frogs back deep again and maintaining control. What ensued was the worst-case scenario, as Cole Ballard threw a pick-6 interception that pulled TCU right back into the game, down just six with more than a quarter to play. Before the end of the quarte, TCU had the lead. The decision and ensuing disaster gave the Frogs life that they did not have. I like being aggressive on pretty much any occasion. And I'm guessing KU felt like they should go for that because of the solid job the defense did in forcing the short field. But boy did it backfire. Horrifically.

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