Rock Chalk Talk community I have to get some things off my chest...and I encourage you to do the same. Now this isn't meant to be a bashing of our team and certainly not a personal attack on any individual players, but lets talk a little about what went wrong.
First and foremost I think we may have underestimated Texas Tech, and as our friend Antiswarm from Double T Nation tried to tell us this is a different Tech team than the one in years past that has consistenly had the one bad game. The Texas Tech offense was unbelievable and there defense was more than servicable.
Kansas came out ready to get into a shootout and quickly realized we were out gunned. So where did things go wrong? Obviously we've discussed the need for a pass rush, but with that possibility unlikely what could we have done different? The Running game seemed to be firing early on but once your down 14 you can't help but move away from it, can you?
I don't know all the answers and this one was as dissapointing a Kansas football loss as I've ever witnessed. I'm not down on the team and I don't think this is a sign of a downward spiral. It is simply an unprepared, outmanned team that was beaten handily today. 8-4 is still on the table but isn't looking very likely at this point. I'm very interested to see how this team responds next week against Kansas State. That to me will be the most telling indicator of where this team is headed.
I guess my feeling is we need to rebound in a big way, gain some confidence in beating K-State and then go into Lincoln and get our first win since Adam and Eve. If we can do this we are 7-5 at worst, a bowl game is in the cards this year and we can keep the momentum going toward getting bigger, faster and stronger athletes in the system for future success. Here's the thing we went from 6-6 to 12-1 and Orange Bowl Champions. The schedule got a whole lot tougher and most expected a season somewhere in between. This is a process, you don't go from being a disastrous program to a perennial power overnight and if you had told me 5 years ago that we would be in the bowl picture consistently I would have been thrilled. The expectations were raised big time last year and while I'm not content to say we shouldn't expect it ever again, I will say it takes time to build a consistent winning program and in the Big12 just like the SEC, Big10, Pac10 there are going to be highs and lows. Let's enjoy the ride and keep things in perspective. In the words of the wise Lou Holtz, Things aren't as bad as they seem and they aren't as good as the seem, usually you lie somewhere in between. I'm sure someone else said that but I'll credit Holtz.
Enough rambling, just wanted to get some things out there while I was recovering. I'd be interested to hear from others out there. Thoughts, concerns, questions...