Kansas rolls Rutgers, has a winning record

Instead of regressing from last week's big road win over Central Michigan, the Kansas Jayhawks built on their performance against Rutgers.

Unlike the CMU game, in which it took a full half for much of anything to happen, this one was wild right out of the gate. Kansas forced a three and out, and a 27 yard run by Pooka Williams set up a Gabe Rui field goal to get things going. The next Rutgers drive resulted in a pick six by Bryce Torneden. Later in the first, it looked like KU would be going up 13-0, but Rui's field goal attempt was blocked and returned for a touchdown.

Kansas, perhaps surprisingly, answered quickly. Just over four minutes later, Miles Kendrick picked up his first D1 touchdown pass, hooking up with Jeremiah Booker to make it 17-7 through one quarter.

KU would rack up its second pick six early in the second, this time with Mike Lee taking it to the house. Khalil Herbert, quiet through the first two games, ended the first half scoring with a 59 yard rush to the endzone. The Jayhawks went into the locker room up 31-14.

Kansas didn't let up in the second half en route to a 55-14 victory. It was the most points scored by the Jayhawks since they housed Rhode Island, one of the worst teams from the FCS level, 55-6 two years ago.

There were still things to be concerned about. Rutgers blocked two field goals, Peyton Bender missed open receivers on back to back plays, and was seemingly benched in favor of Miles Kendrick, who didn't look great throwing the ball either. KU also forced six turnovers again, continuing an unsustainable run of TO margin luck.

All that said, this didn't have the same flavor as last week's blowout, where the turnovers really drove the team's success. Even when they weren't giving the ball away, Rutgers still couldn't get anything going against KU's defense, which looks like it may be legitimately respectable. Kansas' running game was also nearly unstoppable against a decent Rutgers defense. KU gained a whopping 544 yards (7.6 per play) to Rutgers' 274 (4.3 per play).

The Big 12 schedule starts next week with a trip to Baylor. It's likely the team's best chance at winning a conference road game, something that no longer seems laughable after this team's performance the last two weeks.