what we heard What do you want me to do, start crying? You've gotta be kidding me." Missouri coach Gary Pinkel, responding to a reporter's question about Missouri fans berating him from the stands following Kansas' 35-14 victory.
2B the university daily kansan
off the bench
sports commentary
Kevin Flaherty
kflaherty@hansan.com
Defense steps up Saturday
Okav, so I was wrong.
I picked Kansas to beat Missouri in a high-flying offensive game and said that Brad Smith would have a big game.
Now, to be totally fair, there were probably two reasons that the Missouri offense was held back. One was a total lack of coaching intelligence. The other was a fantastically played game by every player on the Kansas defense.
The defense played as one cohesive unit, finally showing off the gap-control defense the players had talked about. The defensive linemen applied pressure, but were never out of position. The passing lanes were never open because the defensive backs shadowed the receivers every step.
monday, September 29, 2003
Smith passed for 62 yards and ran for 33 on 17 carries, averaging just under two yards per carry.
It seemed like Smith only hit an open receiver twice. One was on the touchdown pass when Kansas was shuffling players and was not ready for the play. The other was when Smith passed to himself, courtesy of a defensive lineman's arm.
Where did this defense come from? Wasn't Kansas tenth in the Big 12 Conference in total defense? Kansas couldn't stop the run against Northwestern or UNLV, while Wyoming threw the ball all over the secondary.
This Kansas defense has been talented from the start. Toomey, Reid and Floodman all have potential to play on Sundays, while Monroe Weekley and David McMillan get better with every week. John McCoy and Brandon Perkins are good situational pass rushers.
The defensive tackles have played well despite being banged up, and Tony Stubbs and Remuise Johnson have been solid to save the least.
The biggest problem to date was that the defense had trouble playing the gaps.
Most if not all of the big plays against Kansas this year have not come from a lack of physical talent. Most happen when a player overpursued or was out of position. If the players play their gaps, there are few openings for opposing offenses to exploit.
The defense first showed its potential against Division 1-AA Jacksonville State, and now against Missouri. Kudos to the coaches for getting them ready.
If the defense plays like it did on Saturday for the rest of the season, this team should have no problem becoming bowl eligible.
Thanks for proving me wrong
Flaherty is a Lenexa senior in journalism.
Greene improves his record
After a brutal week last week, a 9-3 finish was more than acceptable and kept the number of kicks I felt down to a minimum.
This week, with a more than impressive record of 11-1, the big winner was Kavvon Sarrat, Lawrence freshman.
Sarrat's only incorrect pick was his choice of Mississippi to defeat Texas Tech.
I missed this game as well, but hey, how do you expect Ole Mole to pull off the victory when Texas Tech quarterback B.J. Symons throws for 661 yards?
My other follies
Idaho over Montana.
I will finally have to accept that this year's A&M team is nowhere near where they have been in the past, and Pittsburgh absolutely torched the Aggies' young secondary.
I did originally pick Montana to
defeat Idaho, but then sitting down and thinking how much thanks I have to give to the great potato state, I figured they deserved my pick. Sometimes, you've got to pick with your stomach instead of your brain.
Next week the conference season will really start to kick into high gear in college football, with big matchups such as Michigan traveling to Iowa and Texas hosting Kansas State.
Rams bounce back from loss
Until next week, keep kicking.
The Associated Press
ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Rams found the solution to becoming a dominant team again: playing the Arizona Cardinals.
Greene is a Vernon Hills, Ill., senior in journalism.
The Rams held the ball for more than two-thirds of the game, getting good work from Lamar Gordon, and limited the Cardinals to 161 yards total offense in a 37-13 victory yesterday. That came a week after a one-point loss in Seattle in which they lost a 13-point fourth-quarter lead.
"I was a little concerned, but we practiced extremely well," coach Mike Martz said. "They were upset by what happened and they wanted to rectify that."
"If you don't do things that you're capable of doing, you get your behind torn up like we did today," said Emmitt Smith, held to 25 yards in 12 carries and scored on a 1-yard run, his first TD as a Cardinal.
As Marshall Faulk nursed a broken hand that will sideline him four to six
The Cardinals (1-3) were 0-for-8 on third down, the first time a team has been shut out on third down this year. The last time the Rams held an opponent to zero, third-down conversions was Dec. 11, 1983, in a 21-7 loss to the Patriots when New England was 0-for-11.
weeks, Gordon ran for 81 yards on 21 carries and scored the game's first touchdown in his first start of the season. Gordon capped the Rams' first drive with a 3- yard TD run.
Marc Bulger threw two touchdown passes and ran for a third in his second start since replacing Kurt Warner, including a 7-yarder to Torry Holt that put the game away at 30-13 early in the fourth. He was 28-for-41 for 272 yards.
"I was feeling it, getting in the groove, and the line was dominating," Gordon said. "We were having fun out there."
"We were able to run the ball and pretty much do what we wanted," Bulger said. "When you can dictate the game, that's huge."
The Rams (2-2) led 20-7 at halftime. Josh Scobey had a 100-yard kickoff return in the third quarter that briefly cut the deficit to 10 points, but the Cardinals couldn't keep the St. Louis offense off the field — the Rams had an 83-36 advantage in plays and held the ball for 42:27.
"There's no way you're going to have a successful game against that offense or any offense playing that kind of defense," Cardinals coach Dave McGinnis said. "They converted third downs. We blitzed, they converted. We covered, they converted."
St. Louis had four scoring drives that lasted more than 10 plays, and ate up more than eight minutes before Bulger's 2-yard run for the final touchdown.
Jeff Blake was 10-for-17 for only 88 vards.
"We didn't have the ball enough to make anything happen," Blake said.
Rookie Anquan Boldin caught seven passes for 86 yards for Arizona, setting NFL records for most catches (30) and yards (464) in his first four career games.
Bulger scrambled before hitting Dane Looker on a 6-yard score near the end of the first quarter for a 14-0 lead, and Jeff Wilkins added field goals of 24 and 53 vards in the second.
Bulger also had a 7-yard TD pass to Torry Holt that made it 30-13 in the fourth quarter.
Wilkins, who is 10-for-11 this season, added a 31-yarder in the third quarter for a 23-7 lead before missing on a 39-yarder late in the third.
Rams wide receiver Isaac Bruce caught four passes for 58 yards, and set the franchise career record for receiving vards.
Bruce has 9,790 career yards in 10 seasons and previously had set franchise marks for receptions and receiving touchdowns.
Bruce was overshadowed yesterday by Holt, who tied his career best with 12 catches for 133 yards.
Kick return ensures Chiefs' victory
The Associated Press
BALTIMORE — Given a second chance, Dante Hall did what he does best, he returned a kick for a touchdown.
Hall's 97-yard kickoff return with 5:08 left kept the Kansas Chiefs unbeaten with a 17-10 victory yesterday against the error-prone Baltimore Ravens.
Led by running back Priest Holmes, Kansas City (4-0) came in averaging an NFL-best 37 points per game. Holmes was held to 90 yards rushing on 22 attempts and the Chiefs' offense produced only 10 points, but on this day Holmes & Co. received plenty of help.
Kansas City intercepted three Kyle Boller passes, and Hall won the game with an electrifying return following one of several Baltimore blunders. It was his third kick return for a touchdown this season, including one last week in Houston.
But the Ravens' Adalius Thomas was called offside, and Hall took the next kickoff all the way, encountering few would-be tacklers.
Baltimore's bid to rally was slowed when Ed Reed fumbled a punt with 2:21 remaining. The Ravens got the ball back, but Dexter McCleon's second interception, with 29 seconds to go, capped an excellent performance by the Chiefs' surprisingly potent defense.
After the Ravens (2-2) tied it on a touchdown run by Jamal Lewis, who finished with 115 yards rushing. Baltimore pinned the Chiefs inside their 20 on the kickoff.
The game was billed as a showdown between Holmes, who started his career in Baltimore, and Lewis, who ran for an NFL-record 295 yards two weeks earlier. Holmes finished with fewer total yards than Lewis (159-103), but he got a victory to savor.
Boller was 15-for-26 for 140 yards. He was sucked three times.
and quarterback Trent Green with some well-timed trickery. After a reverse by receiver Johnnie Morton gained 36 yards, the Chiefs moved to the 1 yard line before Green faked a handoff to Holmes and hit a wide-open Tony Gonzalez for a 10-3 lead.
Held to five first downs in the first half, the Ravens opened the third quarter with a 67-yard drive that produced a goal goal by Matt Stover and a 3-3 tie. The kick came after a 1-yard touchdown run by Lewis was nullified by a holding call.
The Ravens got into position to tie it early in the fourth quarter, moving from their 21 to the Kansas City 23 yard line before Boller was picked off in the end zone by McCleon.
Kansas City responded with a 71-yard march that blended the talent of Holmes
The Ravens' opening possession ended with Boller throwing long into double coverage and being intercepted by Greg Wesley at the Kansas City 7.
Neither Lewis, Holmes or anyone else reached the end zone during a first half that ended with the Chiefs leading 3-0.
Then, after Thomas tipped a punt, the Ravens took over at the Chiefs' 28. But on fourth-and-1 from the 8, Lewis fell down on a sweep and lost a yard.
Kansas City punted on each of its first four possessions before Morten Andersen kicked a 46-yard field goal to conclude a 10-play drive with 3:23 left in the second quarter.
Free for All
The Jayhawks just scored, and I would like to say that Mizzou really, really sucks.
B
hate yo
I have been to every single home KU football game this season and have stayed until the very end. I am missing today's game because someone called in sick. I
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Whittemore is a god.
I am at the football game, and did anyone else notice that guy that was on the flag team? Is it bad that he is the best one?
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Bill Whittemore rocks my world.
四
Mangino,can I have a hug?
We won. We won. We won. We won. We won. We
won. We won. We won. We won. We won. We won.
图
KU just kicked the crap out of Mizzou. It is National Destoy Your Liver Day.
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I lost my hat as we were carrying the goal
at the game. If you find it, please call
me.
me
I just want to clarify for future games that you sit on the seat behind you, and you stand on the seat in front of you. Also Muck Fizzou.
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I don't know what I like more: KU beating Mizzou or seeing a bus with Mizzou fans broken down on K-10?
图
The NBA sucks. Rock Chalk Jayhawk.
Remember exactly who we are fighting this Saturday
I think that they should cut the goalpost into pieces and sell it to take care of the cost for the goalposts.
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Mangino got me on SportsCenter. Rock
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All fat jokes aside, Mangino is building one hell of a program here. We have got to give the dude some props.
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cienr
This is the greatest day in the world:
Kansas beats Missouri and the Cubs
I would like to thank coach Mangino, the football team and 50,000 KU fans for making this the greatest Saturday of my life.
KU rules. Mizzou drools.
Kansas athletics calendar
wednesday
Volleyball at Missouri, 7 p.m., Columbia,
Mo.
friday
Soccer vs. Texas, 5 p.m., SuperTarget Field
saturday
Cross Country, OSU Cowboy Jamboree,
Stillwater, Okla.
sunday
Soccer vs. Texas A&M, 12 p.m., Super-Target Field
Apartments currently leasing for Fall 2003 One Month's Free Rent on
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One Month's Free Rent on:
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2401 W. 25th, 9A3
842-1455
- Now allowing two pets, not over 25lbs. apiece.
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MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL