For the second straight season, the Jayhawks did not execute to the best of their ability in the Sunflower Showdown. Special teams mishaps, crucial drops, and turnovers all added up as Kansas lost another heartbreaker to Kansas State, 29-27.

The Jayhawks had an opportunity to take an early 14-0 lead. After scoring on their first possession, the defense forced a stop. Jalon Daniels took a deep shot to Quentin Skinner. It should have been a touchdown, a ball that Lance Leipold said Skinner catches nine out of 10 times. Instead of it being a momentum-building touchdown, Kansas was forced to punt, and the Wildcats tied the game on their next possession.

On the ensuing kickoff another mishap created a massive momentum swing in Kansas State’s favor. Redshirt freshman Jameel Croft caught the kickoff as his momentum pushed him out of bounds, pinning the Jayhawks at their own one yard line.

“I don't want to get into criticizing a player,” Leipold said. “We're not going to tell a guy to go catch the ball as his momentum's taking him out of bounds. Okay, that I think that would make common sense. But you know, the young man was trying to make a play, and he lost track of where he was at. Human mistake.”

Kansas State forced a safety after stuffing a run play and scored a touchdown on the following possession. It was a nine-point swing that Leipold called a “huge momentum shift.”

KU once again struggled to execute in the middle-eight. The Jayhawks got the ball with 1:46 left in the half and looked to be driving before Daniels was intercepted in the end zone looking for Trevor Wilson.

“It was one-on-one with Trev,” Daniels said. “The safety that ended up intercepting him, I thought I was going to be able to get a one-on-one pass. The DB didn't even let my receiver get a chance to be able to make a catch and he ended up intercepting the pass.”

The Jayhawks had a chance to take the lead before halftime. However, they didn’t, and Kansas State scored on the opening possession of the second half to extend its lead.

After battling to take the lead at the end of the third quarter, the Kansas offense went quiet when it came time to put the game away. The Jayhawks had four drives in the fourth quarter, resulting in two punts, a fumble, and turnover on downs as Kansas State made a field goal to win the game.

“I think like what coach Leipold says is, I mean as true as it gets, you can't blame it on one of the three parts of the game because all three parts are not making plays when they should or so it's not like one side's doing the heavy lifting and one side isn't,” Luke Grimm said. “One game, one side will play really good at the time. Maybe we have a special teams blunder and then sometimes, when it gets down to it, our offense, we just didn't produce when we needed to produce. So, it's just all three, just gotta pick it up.”

Grimm said Kansas will go into this week searching for any way to try and close games better.

“We're going to finish games,” Grimm said of what the Jayhawks want to prove. “However, we’ve got to do it, we're going to do it. We're going to scratch, claw, bite, chew, whatever it is, we're going to finish games and like this game, you can make a big play. We are going to make a play just as big, if not bigger. And that's what we want to be, and that's what we are going to be.”