Hawking Points: Kansas Takes Down Illinois 34-23

Jalon Daniels returned and the KU offense exploded in a big win over the Illini.

A nationally televised game on a Friday night with new Blackhawk uniforms and a Big Ten opponent in town; the stakes were high for the second week of September. But with Jalon Daniels back starting at quarterback, Kansas beat Illinois 34-23 to start the season 2-0 for the second consecutive year for the first time since 2008-2009.

Key Plays

Kansas came out and completely dominated the game, starting with shutdown defense to force multiple Illinois punts. Meanwhile, Daniels took no time to heat up, finding Torry Locklin in the end zone for his first touchdown pass of the game to cap a 10-play, 82-yard drive.

The first half featured a ton of big plays, including a 28-yard run by Devin Neal to set up Kansas’ second touchdown and a 43-yard run on the first play of the second half.

Daniels also made big plays in big moments. After the Illini scored its first touchdown of the game with 41 seconds left in the half to make it 21-7, Daniels scrambled to keep the play alive and found Luke Grimm on a big pass to the Illinois 19 yard line with 19 seconds left. The Jayhawks would cap the drive off with a Daniel Hishaw touchdown run.

Arguably the biggest play of the game came on defense when Kwinton Lassiter intercepted Luke Altmyer to seal the game in the final two minutes with Illinois driving down 11.

Eye-Catching Stat Lines

Daniels wasted no time showing off his Big 12 Preseason Offensive Player of the Year potential. He finished with 280 yards on 21-29 passing, two touchdowns and a pick while adding 24 yards on the ground.

Speaking of the ground, the running back room was exceptional again. Kansas racked up 262 rushing yards on 44 carries, led by Neal’s 120 yards on 10 carries and Hishaw’s 98 yards on 12 rushes. On the other side of the ball, Kansas shut down the Illini on the ground. Illinois gained just 139 yards rushing on 28 carries, but if you take out Altmyer’s 72-yard run, it would be 27 carries for 67 yards.

Kansas outgained Illinois 542 to 341 and a big reason for that was its ability to keep drives alive. KU converted eight of 12 third downs, while Illinois went just 4-10.

Eye-Covering Moments

A large portion of the second half could qualify here. After Altmyer’s long touchdown run, the Illini go for two and Austin Booker is called for targeting, giving Illinois another chance to convert. It was a questionable call at best that would be one of several questionable calls by the referee crew.

Kansas moves the ball on the next possession but then Daniels is picked off in the endzone. Another targeting call, this time on Cobee Bryant, moves Illinois inside the 10 and Altmyer again runs it in for the score.

The final one came when KU got the ball back, when Hishaw was ruled short of the first-down marker (a call many in the stadium and on Twitter disagreed with) to bring up third and one. Daniels slipped on the next play to bring up fourth and three and then Kansas was stuffed and gave the ball back to the Illini.

Takeaways

Illinois might not be the 8-5 team it was last year, and it gained momentum in the second half, but Kansas dominated a Big Ten team for much of the game. The defense played really well for three quarters and the offense is lethal with Daniels under center.

Next week’s game against Nevada should be an easier game for the Jayhawks, even on the road, which means if KU can take care of business, it could be undefeated going into Big 12 play.