Kansas Jayhawks v Texas Longhorns Tale of the Tape

	National	Conf	Actual	Category	Actual	Conf	National
Advantage	Rank	Rank				Rank	Rank
Kansas	31	5	188.14	Rushing Offense	181.83	6	37
Kansas	73	8	217.14	Passing Offense	203.50	9	85
Kansas	52	7	405.29	Total Offense	385.33	8	72
Kansas	50	8	30.14	Scoring Offense	30	9	53
Texas	119	10	232	Rushing Defense	121.83	4	37
Texas	119	10	172.03	Pass Efficiency Defense	103.69	1	9
Texas	120	10	550.86	Total Defense	338.17	2	30
Texas	120	10	50.43	Scoring Defense	25.33	4	56
Texas	48	6	37.19	Net Punting	37.89	4	36
Texas	97	9	5	Punt Returns	10	4	40
Texas	76	8	20.91	Kickoff Returns	26.61	2	8
Texas	104	9	-.86	Turnover Margin	0	5	57
Texas	119	9	318.86	Pass Defense	216.33	1	49
Kansas	16	3	154.44	Passing Efficiency	129.34	9	65
Texas	113	10	.86	Sacks	1.33	8	100
Texas	111	10	4.29	Tackles For Loss	4.83	9	95
Kansas	80	7	2.29	Sacks Allowed	2.83	10	98

It's been said that the first half of the Kansas schedule was more difficult and from a statistical standpoint this Texas tale of the tape certainly backs up that point.  The only bad news is that last week's "better matchup" still resulted in a 38 point loss. 

Now Kansas still holds an offensive edge in most categories over Texas.  That's the good news.  It's a nice testement to the offensive improvement that we've been talking about like a broken record all season and it provides some optimism from a defensive perspective...key word, "some".  On the other hand Texas has been a pretty dynamic defensive team that has proven steady throughout much of the season and they will test the Kansas offense.

It's strange because this would be a year that one might have some confidence in Kansas holding up against the big bad Longhorns, maybe even snagging a win in Austin.  Texas has been struggling by their standards since the departure of Colt McCoy two seasons ago and other teams around the league have taken advantage of the opportunity.  But for Kansas it's just so hard to see a situation where they can reverse the fortunes of the past five weeks so substantially that the Jayhawks would be able to march into Austin and come out a winner. 

I guess the point in all of this is that while Texas isn't necessarily the Texas of two years ago, Kansas is the Kansas of today and that's not a pretty picture in a lot of ways. On the bright side we do get to collect a payoff for playing in this one on the Longhorn Network and there could be some valuable uses for that money sometime in the near future.  And who knows, with the game televised on the seemingly cursed Longhorn Network, perhaps these Jayhawks can shock the world.