The Thanksgiving weekend provided a bellyful of food and a pot full of fodder in discussing the Chiefs, Kansas and Kansas State.
- The Chiefs won one by taking advantage of Denver Coach Gary Kubiak’s decision to go for the victory in overtime instead of a tie. In a fitting ending for this wild, crazy, exciting, back-and-forth, fun-filled game, the winning field goal came when the ball hit the left upright and bounded through for a 30-27 triumph.
- Kansas football fans believe they can build on a loss. The Jayhawks lost 34-19 Saturday at Kansas State to drop their record to 2-10. But the faithful saw enough moxie and progress to spin positive outlooks for next season.
- Coach Bill Snyder recorded his 200th victory, but, as expected, he wasn’t happy about a lot of things that happened during the game.
- This could have been a great weekend for the Cats if the basketball team had made open shots and shown poise at the end against Maryland in the Barclays Center Classic Championship game. K-State lost 69-68 after holding a 3-point lead in the final minute.
- KU’s basketball team has won five in a row and will play four straight games at home before taking on Davidson in Kansas City.
The Chiefs and Broncos exchanged field goals in the overtime and then Kubiak decided to let his kicker, Brandon McManus, try a 62-yard field goal. Like a golfer not taking enough club for the distance at hand, he over-swung and the ball duck-hooked way short.
The Chiefs took advantage of the ensuing shortened field and moved the ball in four plays to the 16. Coach Andy Reid called time with six seconds left and Cairo Santos managed to get ball through the uprights.
What a game!
Yeah, 57 points but the defense, for the most part, was something — maybe you could du this as the Titans at Linebacker as Denver’s Von Miller and KC’s Justin Houston were all over the place. Houston had 3 sacks, 4 quarterback hits and one caused fumble.
Oh, but in the fourth quarter, Denver appeared to get the game under control as the Chiefs secondary faltered. Defensive back Phillip Gaines gave up two touchdowns, one a 35-yarder and another one of 76 yards. In regulation play, Gaines was targeted eight times, allowing six receptions for 206 yards. In the overtime, Denver threw at him three times without success.
With those TDs in the fourth quarter, the Broncos forged a 24-16 lead.
But the really big lady in the fourth row wasn’t singing yet. With 2:37 left in the game, the Chiefs made their move and Tyreek Hill’s reception with 12 seconds cut the margin to 2. Even that action had high drama as the replay officials finally ruled that Hill had crossed the goal line. The Chiefs tied it at 24 when an unlikely receiver, tight end Demetrius Harris, made the two-point grab.
You want more bizarre? The Chiefs took 3 points off the board in the third quarter when an arcane rule came into play — Denver had too many linemen on one side of the ball during the Chiefs field goal try. The kick was good but Reid said let’s go for more. And they did. Hill scored on a short run with 30 seconds left in the third quarter to help give the Chiefs a 16-10 lead.
The first half had ended with the Chiefs building a 9-3 lead behind a safety and Hill’s 86-yard kickoff return. Hill had been close to breaking a couple other kick returns but tip-of-toe tackles brought him down.
The Chiefs managed just 49 yards of offense in the first half — 4 first downs and 1 of 6 third-down conversions. The Broncos had 126 yards.
Before the game, TV analysts mentioned that the Chiefs would have to rely on the run because their quarterback just wasn’t that good. Well, Alex Smith wound up with 220 yards passing on 26 of 44 attempts — and threw for one TD.
The much maligned Denver quarterback, Trevor Siemian, logged a 125.6 QB rating on 20 completions out of 34 attempts for 368 yards and three TDs and no interceptions. But his team lost.
The Chiefs are now alone in second place in the AFC West with an 8-3 record. Denver is 7-4 and the leader is Oakland at 9-2.
KC, no doubt frazzled after the terrific struggle in Mile High Denver, must get ready to play next Sunday at Atlanta.
A big reason for KU’s optimism is freshman quarterback Carter Stanley. He threw for 302 yards and two touchdowns Saturday. And he did it under extreme pressure, taking blow after blow from the K-State defenders.
Stanley connected with LaQuvionte Gonzalez for a 95-yard touchdown pass — the third-longest in school history. Stanley also found Michael Zunica with a short TD pass early in the fourth quarter.
Kansas was coming off an overtime win over Texas, its first Big 12 win in two years, and aiming for back-to-back victories for the first time in five years. But the Jayhawks still have a long way to go to catch up to their biggest rival, which has won 21 of the past 25 meetings.
Senior running back Ke’aun Kinner believes the Jayhawks are moving in the right direction: “We came closer. The class of young guys on this team is spectacular. They got a lot of talent, and as long as they keep jelling together and getting better every day … they’re going to be a force next year.”
How appropriate that Snyder picked up his 200th by beating KU. He knows how the K-State faithful snarl at the Jayhawks and how much they desire posting big scores.
K-State picked up its seventh victory of the season but mistakes in the secondary, mental errors all game long and questionable play-calling kept this from being a usual magical day for Snyder against a KU team.
Snyder knew this. You could tell by the way he spoke to reporters after the game. “You know, I probably don’t sound in a pretty good mood, but I’m responsive to how we played and we played rather ugly today. I don’t feel good about that, I assure you.”
The Wildcats piled up 342 yards and four TDs rushing, the fifth straight game they’ve gone over 200 yards. But their three quarterbacks combined to go 6 of 11 for 99 yards passing, and Snyder lamented the lack of balance in the offense. “I’m not overly enthused,” he said. “We have to get better.”
There was a muffed onside kick, an extra point that was blocked, a fumble by quarterback Joe Hubener in the closing minutes and five penalties that left Snyder miffed on the sideline. Before you had your second helping of turkey leftovers, the Cats had three major penalties, two face mask and one roughing the kicker. A setback of 45 yards.
Oh well, Snyder became the 26th coach to achieve 200 wins and the sixth to do so spending his entire career at one school, joining Joe Paterno, LaVelle Edwards, Tom Osborne, Chris Ault and Vince Dooley.
The Wildcats (7-4, 5-3 Big 12) went through three quarterbacks because of injuries, though Hubener managed to return to the game. Starter Jesse Ertz went down early in the second half, though Snyder said he didn’t believe the undisclosed injury was serious.
But those play-calls and mistakes, ouch! Were the Cats conservative or didn’t they want to throw a pass with KU stacking it inside? Dunno. On the very first drive, a KU receiver ran wide open in the secondary for a 30-yard reception. Then that 95-yarder, geez.
K-State will play TCU next week in Fort Worth with bowl sites in the offing.
In basketball, the Cats just can’t seem to close out teams in prestigious games during pre-season tournaments. In the Maui Invitational in 2014, they could have dropped Arizona but fell 72-68. In the CBE Hall of Fame Classic last season, the Cats had a legitimate hope of staying undefeated and claiming their first signature victory of the season, but faded late and lost 80-70 to North Carolina.
Saturday night, the Cats took a 64-61 lead on a 3-pointer by Kamau Stokes and held a 66-63 edge on two free throws by D.J. Johnson. The Wildcats had a 68-65 lead when Johnson rebounded a miss by Barry Brown and easily scored with about a minute to go.
D.J. Johnson, big man most of the night, scored a career high 26 points but missed an opportunity to seal the game but missed the put-back attempt of Brown’s missed 3-pointer; then, with 44 seconds left, he turned the ball over. Melo Trimble drove by Johnson for a layup to make it 68-67.
Wesley Iwundu, who scored 16 points and added 11 rebounds, missed the front end of a one-and-one with 14 seconds left and Trimble managed his game-winning layup with 6.6 seconds left.
Brown had another chance but his jumper bounced off the rim at the buzzer. He was 6 of 14 from the field, including 0 for 3 on treys, for 13 points.
Johnson could have been Mr. Hero, but a peek at the stats and the late miss really shows how a player needs that little extra. He missed 8 of 18 shots, most of them from close range. He added 8 rebounds as the Cats won that war 33-32.
The Cats bench scored just 2 points and starter Dean Wade didn’t score at all in 33 minutes of action; he did have 5 rebounds. Xavier Sneed, who had 16 points in the game Friday night in the 72-54 victory over Boston College, didn’t score against Maryland either.
Maybe all the pre-season misfires are the KU voodoo. Roy Williams coached at KU before going to North Carolina. Mark Turgeon was a player and an assistant at KU before winding up at Maryland. You think, maybe!
Whatever, Kansas is doing quite well on its own.
A change in the starting lineup made Coach Bill Self a little more chipper. After pounding North Carolina-Asheville 95-57 Friday at home, the Jayhawks praised the play of new starters Lagerald Vick and Udoka Azubuike.
On KU’s website, Self said, “This was the probably the best we’ve looked with the exception of the start to the UAB game and the second half of the Duke game. We did some good things. We actually rebounded the ball better, without question. We got a lot of assists and we took a lot of chances, but that’s okay. I think having Udoka and Lagerald both play very well, I think they combined for 32 points, I was really happy with that.”
Frank Mason III supplied the three-pointers and Azubuike the dunks during a 33-9 run to close the first half.
The Jayhawks will play Long Beach State Tuesday night.