Lance Leipold on end-of-half playcalling, decision to punt in fourth quarter
In two different situations during Kansas’ 42-31 loss to Missouri on Saturday, the Jayhawks opted for a more conservative approach. First when Kansas got the ball with a minute left and three timeouts in the first half, the Jayhawks didn’t stress Missouri’s defense much and went three in out. Then, in the fourth quarter, Kansas punted from its own end after failing to gain a first down trailing by four with 2:48 to play.
Both decisions proved to pay off poorly for the Jayhawks. In the first half, Missouri tied the game at 21-21 after the defense gave up a pair of chunk plays to get the Tigers in scoring position. By the time Kansas got the ball back after the fourth quarter punt, the game was decided as Jamal Roberts broke a 63 yard run to give Missouri the deciding 42-31 lead.
Momentum of the game kept Kansas’ offense conservative
The momentum of the game dictated Kansas’ decision to act conservatively at the end of the first half. Missouri had scored 12 unanswered points and been on the field for the majority of the second quarter.
“We just felt momentum wise, it was still at a point, you know, where it was that were going to try to run it,” Lance Leipold said.
However, Kansas didn’t execute the situation well. Missouri had just two timeouts left, but Daniel Hishaw Jr. failed to stay in bounds on his second down run. The Tigers got the ball with 0:28 left and quickly marched into field goal range to tie the game heading into halftime.
“We didn’t do a good enough job coaching Daniel Hishaw about making sure we stay in bounds. I thought he was in bounds. It sure looked like he was, but that were going to run the ball, run the clock out,” Leipold said. “To give them that opportunity by burning timeouts and giving them the ball back with much time left was not where we wanted to be at that time.”
Leipold thought Kansas had the chance to win if it got a fourth-quarter stop
Kansas had the ball in the fourth quarter trailing 35-31 with 4:14 to play. Jalon Daniels failed to connect with Emmanuel Henderson Jr. on fourth down, leaving Leipold with another decision to make with 2:48 to play and the ball on the Jayhawks’ 28.
Lance Leipold opted to punt with Kansas having all three remaining timeouts. The Jayhawks would’ve been able to stop the clock four times with the two-minute timeout looming. Leipold said he thought Kansas had a chance to win if it was able to get a stop. Kansas wasn’t, and Missouri iced the game with a 63-yard touchdown run.
“Between the two minute timeout and our three was that if we can get a stop– which again you’re probably going to say, ‘well shoot, they’ve run 80 some plays, you haven’t stopped them yet,’ which is probably fair criticism,” Leipold said. “But at the same time, at that time, with that much time in the game, we thought if we could get a stop with that we’d have a chance then to go win the football game.”
