West Virginia football will be latest Big 12 foe to use Kansas as punching bag

After a bye week, West Virginia football is hoping to stay in the Big 12 title picture with a win over Kansas. Can the Mountaineers pull it off?

The Big 12 has been nothing short of sporadic and truly unpredictable this season. The top two teams are those that wear orange and red. However, it’s no crimson or burnt. West Virginia may have a say so, in this conversation with them being 1-1 in conference play.

The Mountaineers are coming off a bye week after beating Baylor at home, 27-21. They won the contest with a dominant run defense and 93 yards and two scores from running back Leddie Brown.

For Kansas, 2020 seems to be a forgotten season halfway through the month of October. The Jayhawks have given up an average of 44 points per game and let backup quarterback Shane Illingsworth throw for 265 yards and three touchdowns.

Chuba Hubbard had 145 yards on 20 carries for two touchdowns, while Tylan Wallace had nine catches for 148 yards and found the end zone twice.

Kansas offensively has not been as dynamic as those in the preseason expected it to be. Pooka only had 32 yards and leading receiver Andrew Parchment had just two catches for seven yards against Oklahoma State.

If you’re Kansas, you need to get your best players the football to give you any sort of chance to win on offense. Kansas did not do that last week and the result showed.

Positivity from the Jayhawks last week was that their defense was able to make stops behind the line of scrimmage. Oklahoma State got tackled behind the line of scrimmage seven times, as it was a group effort from the Jayhawks.

Leading that charge was safety Nick Channel and linebacker Denzel Feaster. Another big game from those two is going to be needed.

Here’s how you can watch the contest between the Jayhawks and Mountaineers.

Date: Saturday, Oct. 17
Time: 12 p.m ET
Location: Morgantown, W.V.
Venue: Milan Puskar Stadium
Channel: FOX
Stream: FOX Sports Go

Keys to Victory

For West Virginia, they have to find a sense of explosiveness on offense. Even while splitting their last two games, the Mountaineers combined for just 27 points in regulation. Even if Oklahoma State and Baylor’s defenses are better than Kansas, they need to threaten down field early and often.

The Mountaineers have three receivers of 100 yards so far on the season in Winston Wright, Sam James and Bryce Ford-Wheaton. Jarrett Doege needs to throw the ball downfield and create more opportunities against Kansas’s strongest unit on defense.

Brown is explosive, but West Virginia out wide, needs to beat the Jayhawks, in order to get a comfortable win at home.

For Kansas, it needs to try everything in their power to keep Miles Kendrick upright. Kendrick got sacked six times last week against Oklahoma State. Meanwhile, West Virginia tallied up six sacks against Baylor two weeks ago.

The Stills brothers dominated in the trenches, specifically, Darius as he collected four tackles, 3.5 for loss and 2.5 sacks.

How Kansas will be able to contain West Virginia’s tenacious defensive line is unknown. For the Jayhawks to get any sort of rhythm on offense, they have to find ways to roll Kendrick out of the pocket and stay away from the Stills brothers.

Prediction

After a bye week, West Virginia’s offense might get out to a slow start. Missed opportunities was a common theme in their last contest. Brown will get some big holes from his offensive line after a while, and Doege will get into a rhythm.

Kansas’ offensive line will not hold up and West Virginia may have their backups in late in the fourth quarter.

Final Score: West Virginia 41, Kansas 21