It wasn't a terrible game. It wasn't a poor showing byo ur Jayhawks. In fact, I would imagine that we played better than most expected, particularly in the first three quarters.
But if I had a nickel for every missed tackle by a guy in white, I could pay off the federal debt. We tried arm-tackling. We tried lunging. None of it worked. And that, combined with the bafflingly poor officiating and the idiots calling the game*, was enough to make the game frustrating as hell. I screamed from start to finish. Screamed about the refs, screamed about Ron Franklin, screamed about the offense and screamed about the defense. It was one of those games that, while watching, is incredibly frustrating and gets your blood pumping a million-miles-an-hour.
In retrospect, however, it wasn't nearly as bad. We fought blow-for-blow with what is arguably the nation's best team for three-and-a-half quarters. We consistently threatened to score against their defense, and scored more often than not. And while we gave up more yards than I can count, we managed to make enough stops to keep it close.
Overall, I think we can look back and say that this was a positive performance. Not the best we could have hoped for, and certainly proof that we aren't quite at the level of the Oklahomas and Texases of the world, but an overall solid performance. Our defense isn't good enough and doesn't possess enough athletes, yet, to seriously threaten these incredibly dangerous offenses, which forces our offense to have to keep up. And while our offense is amazing, we make too many mistakes to keep up with the elite offenses in this conference.
More thoughts on the game tomorrow. For now, just accept that we are still a game up on Missouri in the Big 12 North, thanks to the beatdown they took at the hands of Texas, and, therefore, effectively two games up on where we need to be entering Arrowhead for a chance to win the Big 12 North.