Watching football is like watching pornography. There's plenty of action, and I can't take my eyes off it, but when it's over, I wonder why the hell I spent an afternoon doing it. ~Luke Salisbury
If you substitute evening for afternoon in the above quote, that about summed up my feelings after watching Kansas get throttled yet again. At this point all of the cosmetic changes, moving OO to linebacker, Opurum to rush end, etc. appear to be little more than rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic. Whether it is a decided lack of talent, poor coaching, or all of the above, the 2010 KU football season has been disastrous. To see just how disastrous this game was, we examine the keys to the game:
1. Get off to a fast start
Considering we started off with a 3 and out and then A&M took it and ran it down our throat for a touchdown, I would say this was a big fail. It was only 14-3 after the quarter though, so that's something!
2. Win the battle up front
Jake Laptad got a sack, which was the first by a D lineman all year. If this thing gets graded on a curve, I think that's an automatic A. Kansas also averaged just under 4.5 yards per carry. Still, they allowed A&M to rush for 4.9 yards per carry and the quarterbacks were sacked three times.
3. Eliminate the drive killers
In going through it drive by drive, I have come up with the following:
3rd drive: Webb interception
5th drive: Webb interception
and that's really it. The sacks didn't take the Jayhawks out of field goal range to lose points, and the 5 penalties the team had didn't come at horrible times. I suppose this could be marked down as a minor positive.
4. Win the special teams game
Kansas was 1-1 on field goals, as was A&M. (Sadly, they had a 5 PAT edge on us). Their kickoffs were, on average, roughly 9 yards longer than ours both on total distance and net distance. DJ Beshears did have a nice day returning kicks however with a 19.8 yard average and 99 total return yards. Alonso Rojas also averaged almost 42 yards per punt. I guess we won the special teams game, but it didn't help much.
5. Forget about the past
I don't know about you, but I sure got the "uh oh, here we go again" feeling. I guess the blue pants didn't inspire a wonderful effort.