Volume 128 Issue 52
kansan.com
Monday, November 24, 2014
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY & ANSAN
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COMMENTARY
Kansas' progress doesn't carry over on the road
H history was made in Norman, Okla., on Saturday, and the
Jayhawks could do nothing but watch.
Kansas football had made big strides in the last couple of weeks, culminating in a near-victory against TCU on Nov.15.The offense was clicking, especially in the passing game.Receivers were emerging as go-to targets.
In the last two road games against Oklahoma and Baylor, the team was blown out. Kansas lost by a combined score of 21-104.
But the difference in the way the Jayhawks play on the road and at home has been huge.
In the last two home games — against Iowa State in a victory and TCU in a loss — Kansas has scored a combined 64 points and given up 48.
45 points and give up 20.
It's common for teams to play better at home. The unfamiliar atmosphere and opposing fans on the road take a toll. Earlier in the season co-offensive coordinator John Reagan said on the road, there is a smaller margin of error. He said teams have to do the same things they do at home, but better.
Against Oklahoma, they didn't do those small things better. There was an errant snap on a punt. There were missed tackles.
Everything in the last two road games sort of snowballed for the layhawks. They got behind and never looked like they could come back.
Oklahoma freshman running back Samaje Perine rushed for an NCAA single-game record of 427 yards. At first it was one touchdown, then two. Finally, he rushed for his fifth touchdown. It just kept getting worse for the Jayhawks. The yards and touchdowns are the most given up to a Kansas opponent in both categories.
The defense had a hard time against the Sooner run game, but the offense didn't offer any help in keeping and moving the ball. Kansas' lone score came when senior safety Cassius Sendish recovered a fumble and took it to the end zone.
Junior quarterback Michael Cummings, who averaged 305 yards against Iowa State and TCU, had only 84 yards through the air. He overshot receivers on multiple plays.
Kansas has shown it can play with anyone in the Big 12. Coach Clint Bowen has said multiple times that his players know they are Big 12 players and play like it. He doesn't want them to be intimidated by a name like Oklahoma.
The game just had a different feel than the last two games. It was a game that dragged on, instead of a game filled with hope.
On Saturday, the Jayhawks played like they thought they didn't belong. Bowen's next goals should be to move on, find a way to wipe away the road mentality and focus on Kansas State.
Edited by Emily Brown
Senior safety Cassius Sendish tries to break through Oklahoma defenders to get to running back Samaje Perine. Kansas was unable to contain Perine in its 44-7 loss in Norman, Okla.
Kansas unable to stop Perine, Oklahoma
DAN HARMSEN
@UDK_Dan
Postponed an hour and a half due to a crop of lightning clouds in the area, Kansas took the field in Norman, Okla., at 12:30 p.m. Saturday looking to carry the momentum from its previous eight quarters - a victory against Iowa State and a close defeat to the highly favored Horned Frogs.
But following a 44-7, record-breaking defeat to the Oklahoma Sooners (8-3, 5-3) at Gaylord Family Stadium, that improvement from the past two games will be shrouded by the blowout as Kansas fell to 3-8 and 1-7 in the Big 12.
“[The Sooners] obviously had a good game plan,” Kansas coach Clint Bowen said. “Their offensive line played very physically, came off the ball hard and got movement on us. That Sooner offensive line paved the way to history on Saturday.”
Just last week, while Kansas was giving No. 4 TCU fits in Lawrence, Wisconsin junior running back Melvin Gordon was etching his name in college football lore a few hundred miles north.
With his 408 yards on 25
carries against No. 16 Nebraska, Gordon set the NCAA single game rushing record, eclipsing LaDainian Tomlinson's output in 1999 by 2 yards.
On Saturday — just seven days after a performance unseen in history — Gordon relinquished his title to Sooner freshman Samaje Perine. Perine stole Gordon's thunder from last week on a dreary, rainy day finishing with 427 rushing yards and five touchdowns.
what we didn't do was stop [Perine]. In any way, shape or form."
CLINT BOWEN Kansas football coach
"I really can't [put my feelings into words] right now," Perine said after the game.
With 12 minutes left to play in the game, Perine checked out for the final time to a standing ovation from the smattering of Sooner fans, who braved the windy and rainy conditions.
freshman safety Fish Smithson said of the Oklahoma running back after the record-breaking performance. "He got the best of us."
"He's hard to bring down,"
Despite the late start due to inclement weather, for Perine, the groundbreaking began right on schedule.
On his first carry of the game — Oklahoma's second possession — Perine went off left tackle 49 yards for the game's opening score.
Adding two more touchdown runs of 33 and 34 yards before halftime, the tailback snapped former Oklahoma running back Adrian Peterson's freshman touchdown record and his single-half output — the best in Sooner history.
Perine's first and second touchdowns were his 15th (tying) and 16th (record-breaking) of the season, cruising to 222 first-half yards along the way, which was an Oklahoma record, passing Peterson's 2005 record of 205 yards.
The first half was crazy enough as it was. The second half, though, became downright absurd.
With the nation abuzz at his first two quarters, Perine took the opening handoff of the second half 66 yards for
the touchdown.
"The guy is just so exceptional in everything that he does," Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said of Perine.
With a 27-yard scoring scamper later in the third quarter, the record was all but his. Perine ran left, he ran right, and he went through and around the Jayhawk defense on his way to a historic day.
"What we didn't do was stop him." Bowen said. "In any way, shape or form."
The last time an opponent rushed for 200 or more yards on Kansas was in September when Duke freshman Shaun Wilson went for 245.
"It's tough," Smithson said. "No one wants to be that team that gets a record broken on them."
Kansas senior defensive tackle Keon Stowers said a lot of the credit goes to the Sooner offensive line.
"They're an experienced group." Stowers said. "Big and physical. They were gashing us."
As a whole, the Sooners combined for 549 yards on the ground, the most a Jayhawks defense had allowed since the 604 yards rushing in 2011 against Georgia Tech.
The Oklahoma offensive
line blew open the floodgates all afternoon, something Kansas failed to do, averaging just 5 yards per carry.
It was the Kansas defense that scored the most points in this game for the Jayhawks. Senior safety Cassius Sendish scooped a fumble and returned it 63 yards for the lone Kansas score.
"If we make big plays like that," Sendish said, "it will turn into a snowball effect. We were hoping that to be it, but it wasn't."
One game remains in a 2014 season filled with many downs, but a few ups. The Jayhawks want to put this one behind them.
"You can't dwell on it," Smithson said.
The record may hang heavy to fans of the program, but the players are already thinking about next week, the final game for 21 seniors.
"I've already forgotten it," Stowers said. "If you keep thinking about it then it will go into next week."
Next week doesn't get any easier. Kansas travels to Manhattan on Saturday to take on the No. 12 Kansas State (8-2, 6-1) at 3 p.m., where Kansas hasn't won since 2007.
- Edited by Brian Hillix
Jayhawks' defense strengthens in tournament
KIRSTEN PETERSON
@KeepUpWithKP
The Jayhawks (4-1) defeated Georgetown 55-42 Sunday, finding their second win of the three-game slate of games this weekend in the Naismith Hall of Fame Women's Basketball Challenge at Allen Fieldhouse.
The Jayhawks struggled defensively in Friday's game against Alabama, allowing over 50 percent shooting from three, 30 free throws and 10 offensive rebounds.
nior forward Chelsea Gardner goes for a lay up against Georgetown on Sunday as part of the Naismith Hall of Fame Women's Basketball Challenge.
"We knew the reason why we lost [against Alabama] was because of our defense," senior guard Natalie Knight said. "The last couple days we've really just focused on being where we're supposed to be on help side and think ball pressure. Really, we just focused on defense the last few days and you know, if you can stop a team, you can always score, but you have to be able to get stops, too."
BROOK BARNES/KANSAN
Three games in three days is tough for any team, and the Jayhawks looked past the fatigue and made sure to keep their teammates motivated.
"It was a little difficult to get going [against Georgetown]." Knight said. "But once we got going, we were able to pick up the energy. It was really just about finding energy from the bench and then being able to come together and be
Kansas held Temple and Georgetown's offensive game in check by filling the holes they were missing against Alabama. The tournament helped the Jayhawks learn quickly what they needed to
like 'look, we got to get three stops in a row and be able to put some points on the board and just really come together as a team.' "
"I know more today than I did before we got into this [tournament]," coach Bonnie Henrickson said. "Certainly of what we need to work on, where I think we're solid, where some pieces in some parts of the game and some pieces individually that we
work on and make quick fixes in order to secure the win in the following game.
On Tuesday, the Jayhawks will take on the Iona Gaels who are led by senior guard Damika Martinez, who has averaged 27.3 points per game so far this season. The Jayhawks will need to recover from this long weekend in order to ensure their best performance.
need to improve and get better at."
"I think the good thing is that we are off [Monday], because we need to be," said Henrickson. "I couldn't imagine what practice would be like if we tried to go [Monday]. So we practice on Tuesday and play lona, who's got a really, really good guard [Damika Martinez]"
Edited by Ben Carroll
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