Kansas now has 295 yds rushing and 449 yds total to go with 32 pts, 9:38 to play. Those are all season-highs in Big 12 play for #RockChalk. Previous highs: 147, 368 & 28. #Sooners
— John E. Hoover (@johnehoover) November 18, 2018
Nicholls State held this Kansas team to 23 points.
— Ruf / Writers – Stephen A (@OUupdatedSB) November 18, 2018
It wasn’t pretty in Norman on Saturday night. It was ugly, real ugly. Against an already fired and replaced lame-duck of a head coach, the Kansas Jayhawks hit conference highs in offense. Yeah, you read that correctly…Kansas Jayhawks…conference highs on offense.
The 40 points is the 2nd most for KU this year
— James Hale (@jhale24) November 18, 2018
Kansas embarrassed the Sooners with 40 points and 348 rushing yards. Freshman Pooka Williams Jr. exploded beyond his previous season high of 163 yards (against Rutgers) by gaining 252 yards on just 15 carries. He scored twice on the ground and also threw a 9-yard touchdown pass. In all, Kansas racked up 524 total yards at a pace of 8.18 yards per play.
This wasn’t Texas, Texas Tech, West Virginia, or Oklahoma State. This was Kansas for crying out loud. This was the perennial cellar dweller of the Big 12 and literally one of the bottom programs in all of college football.
There’s honestly nothing good to say about Oklahoma’s defensive effort. This was a new rock bottom for a unit that has had more lows than highs this season. This effort proved that firing Mike Stoops didn’t fix anything, in fact, it may have made things worse.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Sooners turned it over twice but still showed the type of explosiveness that has them as the top offense in the nation. Despite throwing an early third quarter interception, Kyler Murray was spectacular once again.
The soone to Heisman finalist connected on 21-of-32 passes for 272 yards, two scores and the pick. He also ran for 99 yards and three more touchdowns on eight carries. An injury to Trey Sermon led to Kennedy Brooks getting the bulk of the carries and he certainly didn’t disappoint, going for 171 yards and two scores on 25 carries.
Marquise Brown and CeeDee Lamb each averaged over ten yards per catch, combining for 117 yards on 11 receptions.
It was just another 55-point/566 yard day at the office for Oklahoma’s offense, which leads me to just a few thoughts on next week’s game at West Virginia.
- Oklahoma wasn’t mentally in this Kansas game at all, leading me to believe that they spent the better part of this week scheming for West Virginia. I think you might be able to say the same for the Mountaineers but, unlike Oklahoma, they weren’t able to avoid disaster.
- The injury to Trey puts OU razor thin at the running back position. There’s not telling, at this point, what his status is for next week but regardless, the Sooners need to run the ball. This defense is the biggest liability Oklahoma has had in a long time and running the ball is the best way to keep them off the field.
- I’m not sure what the over/under is going to be on OU/West Virginia but I’m taking the over.
- Kansas will conclude their regular season at Texas on Friday. They will make the Longhorns a bit uncomfortable. That’s a definite trap for UT after all but securing a berth in the conference championship game with the win over Iowa State.
- Defense is the reason Oklahoma will be left out of the playoffs. Even if OU runs the table and wins the Big 12, barring a major upset or two, the playoff committee is not going to pick OU to be in due to the fact that they are so bad defensively. Yes, that’s a real assessment.