Blake Herold's Late Field Goal Block Lifts Kansas Past Baylor 25-24 to End 14-Game Skid

Kansas had already gotten a hand on two Baylor field goal tries on Saturday, and Blake Herold admitted afterward that those near misses bothered him. So when Rhett Armstrong lined up a 45-yard attempt in the final minute with the Bears trailing by one, Herold went after it.

This time he got all of it. The block, with 22 seconds left, sealed a 25-24 win for Kansas over Baylor on Homecoming at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, and it ended a streak that had followed the Jayhawks for nearly two decades.

"They kind of stung a little bit for sure," Herold said of the earlier tips. "Finally getting that third one is where everything paid off."

Kansas had lost 14 straight games to Baylor. Its last win in the series came in Lawrence in 2007.

Where both teams stood

Kansas arrived at 2-4 and still looking for its first Big 12 win. The Jayhawks had lost two straight, falling 41-24 at Utah and then 35-24 at Kansas State in the Sunflower Showdown. Both of their wins had come outside the league, including a 55-0 rout of Middle Tennessee, and they had also dropped a 24-17 game to Arizona State in London.

Baylor came in at 4-2 and 2-1 in conference play, and it had not lost to Kansas since 2007. It did not take long to see that this one would be different.

A careful first half

Both teams tried to make a statement on fourth down early. Kansas went for it near the Baylor 32 and the drive ended in an interception. The Jayhawks' defense answered with a fourth-down stand of its own at the Kansas 34 and got the ball back with 11:04 left in the opening quarter.

The offense took advantage. Isaiah Marshall led an 11-play, 66-yard drive and found tight end Carson Bruhn over the middle for a 22-yard touchdown with 6:03 left in the first. It was the first touchdown of Bruhn's career.

Baylor answered right away. A six-play, 39-yard drive ended with Dawson Pendergrass running it in from 1 yard out, and it was 7-7.

Then nobody scored for a long time. The Kansas defense came up with its second fourth-down stop midway through the second quarter, sacking DJ Lagway to keep the game tied. The second quarter went scoreless, and the teams went to the locker room level at 7.

The third quarter belongs to Baylor

The second half could not have started worse for Kansas. On the Jayhawks' first offensive snap after the break, Devon Jordan stepped in front of a Marshall pass and returned it 42 yards for a touchdown. Baylor led 14-7 before the Kansas offense had run a second play.

Martin Connington cut it to 14-10 with a 40-yard field goal at 10:30 of the third quarter, but Baylor kept answering. Lagway led a seven-play, 72-yard drive and finished it with an 8-yard touchdown pass to Jayden McGowan with 6:41 left in the third. Baylor led 21-10, and the Kansas Homecoming crowd had plenty of reason to worry.

This had the look of a third straight loss.

Fifteen fourth-quarter points

The comeback started on the very first play of the fourth quarter. Kansas had put together a 12-play, 75-yard drive that reached the Baylor 34, where it faced fourth-and-3. Marshall threw deep to Nik McMillan, who caught it for a 34-yard touchdown. The two-point try failed, leaving Kansas behind 21-16 with 14:53 to play.

Kansas got the ball back and went 42 yards in 10 plays for Connington's 42-yard field goal. That made it 21-19 with 9:45 left.

The Kansas defense kept making plays. Facing third-and-15, Lagway threw a pass that was tipped, and Trey Lathan intercepted it for his first pick of the season. Baylor still found three more points when Armstrong hit a 42-yard field goal with 2:40 to go, pushing the lead back to five.

At 24-19, Kansas needed a touchdown. Marshall delivered one. The Jayhawks went 71 yards in six plays, and Marshall finished it himself with a 15-yard touchdown run with 1:13 left. The two-point try was stopped again, so the lead was only one point.

That left Baylor with more than a minute and a real shot. The Bears moved into range for Armstrong's 45-yard attempt, and Herold got there first.

Marshall, Edwards and the run game

Marshall accounted for all three Kansas touchdowns. He completed 17 of 29 passes for 212 yards with the two scoring throws, and he added 31 rushing yards and the go-ahead touchdown run. It was not a clean afternoon, since he threw two interceptions, including the pick-six that opened the second half. But when Kansas needed him in the fourth quarter, he made the throw on fourth-and-3 and the run at the end.

Dylan Edwards did the heavy lifting on the ground, carrying 30 times for 156 yards. Kansas outrushed Baylor 209-122, and that ground game is a big reason the Jayhawks held the ball for 36:41 to Baylor's 23:19.

Defensively, Bam Crouch led Kansas with 10 tackles. The Jayhawks sacked Lagway five times, according to CBS Sports, and held Baylor's offense to 358 total yards.

For Baylor, Micah Gifford joined Jordan with an interception, and the Bears won the passing yardage battle 236-212. Their biggest problem was the rulebook. Baylor was penalized for 116 yards, compared with 30 for Kansas.

The numbers that tell the story

Kansas finished with 421 total yards to Baylor's 358, and it held a 24-16 edge in first downs. The Jayhawks went 5 for 8 on fourth down, which is how a team that missed both of its two-point tries and threw a pick-six still found a way to win.

Kansas went for it often and made it work most of the time, including the touchdown to McMillan that started the comeback. Add two fourth-down stops by the defense and the blocked field goal, and the Jayhawks won the game in the moments that carried the most risk.

The Kansas box score (opens in a new tab) has the full numbers. The Kansas recap (opens in a new tab) walks through every scoring drive, and Baylor's view of the finish is in the Baylor recap (opens in a new tab).

What Leipold said

Lance Leipold did not pretend this was anything other than what his team badly needed.

"We needed a win like this," Leipold said. "It's great to get a win in this way in a kind of back-and-forth game."

Leipold is now 18-32 in Big 12 play at Kansas, according to CBS Sports. After two straight losses and a long day spent chasing, a one-point Homecoming win against a team that had owned this series felt like more than one result in the standings.

What it means

Kansas is now 3-4 overall and 1-3 in the Big 12. The losing streak is over, the Baylor streak is over and the Jayhawks have something to build on with five games left. Next on the schedule was a trip to TCU on Saturday, Oct. 31, followed by a home game against UCF on Nov. 7.

Baylor drops to 4-3 and 2-2 in conference play. A win would have kept the Bears in a strong spot in the league race. Instead they left Lawrence wondering how a game they led by 11 entering the fourth quarter got away. Next on the schedule was a short week and a Friday trip to UCF in Orlando on Oct. 30.

The last word

This game had every reason to go Baylor's way. The Bears scored a defensive touchdown, led by 11 going to the fourth quarter and watched Kansas fail on both of its two-point tries. Baylor still had the ball, a kicker and a 45-yard try with the game on the line.

Kansas had Blake Herold, and the Jayhawks had already been close twice. The third time, after nearly two decades of losing to Baylor, Herold got there.

Sources: Kansas Athletics recap and box score, Baylor Athletics, CBS Sports, WIBW and The Associated Press. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Kansas Athletics.