We had a few missing pieces on both the OL & WR core, and that forced us to play noticeably slower. This allowed Kansas time to catch the breath and re-group every play, and their lack of defensive depth was never really tested. In fact, Kansas' 5 leaders in tackling made up for 45 of the team's 78 tackles. That's nearly 60% of their plays made on the ball. If our game plan was to exploit their depth chart, we didn't execute. It didn't help that Kansas racked up 26 first downs on offense, stretching out time between our possessions, and allowing their defense to rest on the sidelines.
Our slow(er) play was also an contributing factor to the lack of explosive offense. We had 50 pass plays averaging 6.4 yards per play, which was only the second time this season we didn't average over 8.5 yards a pass play. Down-the-field opportunities were limited all afternoon, and our offense around the line of scrimmage (stretch runs, screens, etc.) was bottled up.
Yes, we ran 94 plays on Saturday, but I'd contribute that primarily to our 3 turnovers forced, and our ineffectiveness on 1st and 2nd down. We had 20 3rd downs, which was the most 3rd downs this season, and only the second time we had more than 15 of them (Baylor, 18).
I'm not even touching on the obvious that we're missing some real talent; guys like LeRaven, Murphy, Sadler, and Cantrell who would have certainly made plays for us. I'm just talking about able bodies that can turn in our "two-deep" into a "three-deep". We've been lucky to have guys like High & Austin to step up at WR, but we need those same kind of break-out performances from backups at the OL. We've got to get our depth back before we play OU, so that this offense can get one of its best weapons back - the speed of play.
Our slow(er) play was also an contributing factor to the lack of explosive offense. We had 50 pass plays averaging 6.4 yards per play, which was only the second time this season we didn't average over 8.5 yards a pass play. Down-the-field opportunities were limited all afternoon, and our offense around the line of scrimmage (stretch runs, screens, etc.) was bottled up.
Yes, we ran 94 plays on Saturday, but I'd contribute that primarily to our 3 turnovers forced, and our ineffectiveness on 1st and 2nd down. We had 20 3rd downs, which was the most 3rd downs this season, and only the second time we had more than 15 of them (Baylor, 18).
I'm not even touching on the obvious that we're missing some real talent; guys like LeRaven, Murphy, Sadler, and Cantrell who would have certainly made plays for us. I'm just talking about able bodies that can turn in our "two-deep" into a "three-deep". We've been lucky to have guys like High & Austin to step up at WR, but we need those same kind of break-out performances from backups at the OL. We've got to get our depth back before we play OU, so that this offense can get one of its best weapons back - the speed of play.
