BY KADEN WARNER | @profkjwarner
Kansas City, KS – In the fourth city that these two teams have squared off in, UNLV found their second victory of the series. Several Kansas offense mistakes and a long fourth quarter drive paved the way for a UNLV victory.
Both offenses fizzled in the third quarter, leaving the job to the defenses–with UNLV ultimately coming away victorious 23-20 in the Friday night nail-biter.
The first half of action was quarterback dominated. All of the two touchdowns scored in the contest for Kansas were from rushing attempts by senior quarterback Jalon Daniels.
On the flipside, Matthew Sluka, the senior quarterback at UNLV, was the rushing leader for UNLV. The only touchdown of the first half for UNLV came off a Sluka pass that connected with Jai’Den Thomas, the sophomore running back.
A couple of field goals in addition to the touchdowns from both teams put the score at 17-13 going into halftime.
Kansas found themselves fortunate in the third quarter as Daniels threw his second pick of the night, being returned to the fourth yard-line. Daniels was bailed out by his defense who were able to hold the Rebels to just another field goal. Little momentum could be gained by UNLV’s offense alone, with two of the four scoring plays coming after interceptions.
A failed fumble recovery from Kansas and an untimely pass interference call against Kansas allowed UNLV to find the red zone with time winding down.
After what seemed like an eternity between penalty calls, booth reviews and timeouts UNLV finally made their way into the endzone to score their second touchdown of the night, taking the lead by three points and giving the ball back to Kansas with just under two minutes to go.
A couple of rushes from Jalon Daniels and senior running back Devin Neal earned the Jayhawks a first down, but a chop-block penalty call would put the game out of reach as the Jayhawks needed to move the ball 15 yards on fourth down. This would end up being an impossible feat, giving the ball back to UNLV with just over a minute to go in the contest.
A revived sense of urgency for UNLV and a couple of difficult penalties against Kansas paved the way for a Rebel victory, tying the all-time record up at 2-2.
“We just got to turn the page and figure out how we can be better for next week,” said senior defensive end Jereme Robinson in a post-game press conference.
The Jayhawks’ next game will be their first test in conference play when they travel to Morgantown, West Virginia to take on the Mountaineers on September 21 at 11 a.m. CST on ESPN2.