On a cold, wintery night, fans at LaVell Edwards went home disappointed for the first time all season.
The magical well that BYU dug into to beat SMU, Oklahoma State and Utah ran dry against the Kansas Jayhawks. The game was a slugfest and BYU ended up on the wrong side of a 17-13 rock fight.
While the loss was devastating for their at-large CFP chances, BYU is still tied for first place with Colorado in the Big 12 and has a path to the College Football Playoff if it wins the Big 12 Championship. The defeat will sting for BYU, mainly because of its opportunities to win the game, but it came up empty repeatedly.
“They gave us their best shot and I’m not sure we gave them ours,” said BYU coach Kalani Sitake.
Kansas started the game strong, scoring an opening touchdown on the game's first possession. The Jayhawks benefited from a missed offensive pass interference call on a Jalon Daniels pass to Luke Grimm for a 29-yard completion. Devin Neal and the Kansas running game finished off the drive to put Kansas ahead 7-0 early.
After forcing a Kansas punt, the BYU offense started with great field position and ran the ball down inside the 10-yard line but came away with a field goal. The Cougars had multiple chances to score, but quarterback Jake Retzlaff overthrew Darius Lassiter and made a poor decision to keep the ball and run instead of handing it to LJ Martin, squandering the Cougars' first red zone opportunity.
The lone bright spot of the game occurred for BYU in the second quarter. The Cougar defense stuffed the Kansas offense and BYU capitalized with a touchdown. Retzlaff hit Hinckley Ropati on a wheel route for a 30-yard touchdown reception, reminiscent of their touchdown against Baylor. The Cougars led 10-7 before things turned south.
The Cougars had an opportunity to dominate the middle eight minutes of the game. They had the ball on the last drive of the first half and received the ball first in the second half.
Retzlaff did everything on the last drive of the half, rushing for multiple first downs and completing all of his passes. He was at his best, that is, until he threw a back-breaking interception in the end zone on a fade route. Against Utah, Retzlaff threw a similar ball on an end zone fade that also ended in the arms of an Utah defender. While BYU out-gained Kansas by over 100 yards, its red zone struggles negated all the positives they had during the entire game.
Tied 10-10 at halftime, the Cougars still had an opportunity to win the middle eight. However, BYU’s opening drive in the second half ended in another Will Ferrin field goal. It was a grueling, physical, exhausting 17-play, 10-minute drive.
The Cougars dinked and dunked their way down the field and elected to take the field goal on fourth down and three yards to go inside the red zone. Typically, Sitake is eager and aggressive on fourth down, but he decided to trust his defense that has made big stops all season. The gamble almost paid off until one of the strangest plays in the program's history happened on Kansas’ next drive.
The Jayhawks' offense and the BYU defense traded blows. Eventually, BYU’s defense landed a blow on a third down when Isaiah Glasker and Tyler Batty corralled Daniels for a 5-yard loss, knocking the Jayhawks out of field goal range.
That is when it all unraveled for BYU. Outside of field goal range, Kansas put its offense on the field and had Daniels pooch punt to pin BYU deep in its territory. The punt was devastatingly accurate and hit BYU defensive back Evan Johnson’s helmet. BYU defensive back Jakob Robinson dived onto the ball, but the ball and BYU’s perfect season slipped out of his hands and into the arms of a Kansas player at the 3-yard line, 1st-and-goal for the Jayhawks.
ICYMI ⬇️👀 https://t.co/rMH3w1iS1h pic.twitter.com/qENEmNgJDz
— Kansas Football (@KU_Football) November 17, 2024
On the next play, Neal rushed in for the touchdown to put Kansas up 17-13 with 13:19 left in the fourth quarter.
After another BYU punt, the BYU defense looked like it would get the offense the ball back, but Daniels hit Skinner for a 22-yard reception on third and 11. Now on its heels, the defense forced another third down, and Daniels made his first big mistake of the game: an interception to Marque Collins. However, the Cougars could not capitalize and punt again after another three-and-out on another inaccurate pass from Retzlaff.
As has been the case all season, BYU’s defense came up huge again, forcing another Kansas punt. With four minutes left, BYU had the ball to win the game and remain perfect on the season.
The drive started with Retzlaff making his most impressive pass of the night, threading the needle to BYU wide receiver Chase Roberts, who was between three Kansas defenders. Retzlaff found Roberts again for another first down into Kansas territory. Martin and Ropati wanted in on the party and rushed the Cougars into the red zone on multiple rushes that had BYU at the Kansas 15-yard line at the two-minute warning. After three unsuccessful plays and a false start, BYU faced fourth and 10 with their hopes of a perfect season on the line.
Retzlaff dropped back, surveyed the field, and hit Roberts short of the first down line.
The game was ugly and quirky, and ultimately, BYU squandered away its perfect season in a disappointing fashion. BYU’s offense had five drives in the red zone and only scored 13 points.
“We can’t score in the red zone,” said Roberts. “We struggled this week in practice in the red zone, and it carried over. … [There were] some mental errors, some mistakes, especially when we got down to the red zone.”
For the first time all season, Retzlaff did not put on the superhero cape and bring BYU to victory. It was bound to happen eventually, and the Cougars' luck ran dry against the Jayhawks.
The road does not get any easier as BYU travels to Tempe to face a red-hot Arizona State team with its championship aspirations hanging in the balance.