This is the Depth Dossier: the Kansas Jayhawks, Week 8.

Kansas finally snapped a fourteen-game losing streak against Baylor, winning 25 to 24 in a game that came down to an extra point that wouldn't stay blocked.

Quarterback Isaiah Marshall accounted for all three Kansas touchdowns, two through the air and one with his legs. The biggest was a 34-yard throw to wide receiver Nik McMillan that opened the fourth quarter, and then Marshall won it himself with a 15-yard scramble on fourth and six with just over a minute left. Running back Dylan Edwards did the grinding work, picking up 156 yards on 30 carries to help Kansas control the clock. Head coach Lance Leipold kept leaning on his offense in short yardage, converting five of eight fourth down tries. Baylor still had a shot to steal it with a 45-yard field goal attempt in the final seconds, but defensive lineman Blake Herold blocked it to seal Kansas's first Big 12 win of the season.

Now, about that extra point situation. Herold actually blocked two Baylor extra points during the game, and both of them still somehow went through the uprights anyway. Twice. By all accounts he was audibly frustrated getting his hand on the ball both times and watching the points go up regardless. That makes his game-saving block on Baylor's final field goal attempt land even heavier. The guy who couldn't catch a break on special teams all night ended up being the difference between Kansas sitting at three and four instead of two and five.

The fourth down aggressiveness is really the backbone of this comeback. Going five for eight isn't just bold play-calling, it's what kept the final drive alive in the first place. The go-ahead touchdown only happened because Kansas converted fourth and six to set it up. Add in a time of possession edge of nearly 37 minutes to 23, and the story becomes pretty clear. Kansas didn't out-explosive Baylor. It just refused to give the ball back.

There was also a lucky break buried in there. Baylor came in leading the conference with 22 sacks, and they got five more on Marshall, including one that should have buried Kansas with third and thirty-six on one drive. An illegal formation penalty wiped that sack out instead, and the possession survived. Those are the small moments that usually separate a fourteen-game losing streak from the win that finally ends it.

No injuries were reported, which is notable given how much Kansas leaned on both lines through an 86-play grind.

Shifting over to the depth chart, the defensive front keeps reshaping itself. Herold, defensive lineman Leroy Harris the third, and defensive lineman David Santiago all climbed up to playing about four-fifths of the defensive snaps, while Marcus Calvin and Kevin Oatis picked up bigger rotational roles. Meanwhile Alex Bray, Dakyus Brinkley, Jibriel Conde, Clifton Thompson and Eamon Smalls all shrank down to spot duty or less. That's now a multi-week trend of the top of that rotation consolidating around a smaller group of players.

Linebacker usage is trending the opposite way. Trey Lathan and Bam Crouch dropped down to four-fifths shares, Quincy Davis and Malachi Curvey scaled back even further, and Jibreel Al-Amin is down to spot duty now too. The coaching staff clearly trusts the line more than the second level right now, even though linebacker Daveon Crouch put up a double-digit tackle game.

In the secondary, defensive back Trey Brown jumped up to roughly half the defensive snaps, while Elijah Cannon dropped down to a rotational role. That's worth watching next week. If this run-funneling, front-seven-heavy approach holds up against a more explosive offense, it stops looking like matchup management for Baylor specifically and starts looking like the actual defensive identity going forward.

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