Pokes roll Kansas in Lawrence, 48-14

Well it wasn’t exactly an awe-inspiring performance but, since Kansas may or may not be able to beat a few of the intramural flag football teams I’ve played on, it didn’t need to be. Nothing really felt right about this game from the moment the plane got delayed 4 hours in Stillwater. We were wearing new uniforms, playing at a terrible time, still glowing from the Texas win…it was just…weird.

After possibly the most sluggish first quarter all year the defense lived up to its recent road-warriors nomenclature. Kansas didn’t score the last 47 minutes of the games. I will say the offense makes the defense look better than it is because they bury teams on turnovers. Credit the D for causing the turnovers but this team puts people away on post-turnover drives.

The offense was solid though, devoid of turnovers, and never punted. They don’t get rattled. Every time you think “ohh crap, here we go again, this is the OSU I’ve been waiting for”, somebody makes a massive play or delivers a dagger. I think Weeden is kind of the catalyst for that. I know Gundy kind of gives him a hard time for not caring and just banging his 3-wood all day but that attitude carries over. We’re relaxed, we’re exciting, it’s fun to watch. Of course we also have our offensive coordinator bonging Red Bulls on the sideline so I don’t know how “relaxed” we can be, but still, big props to Weeden on that.

You could kind of tell everybody was thinking about Bedlam next weekend and I think if we had been playing anybody other than KU that would have stung. A big thank you to whoever drew up our schedule this year. Tough teams at home, hangover games against bad teams on the road…good work.

A few other notes:

• Why did we only go deep once? The best WR in the nation against over-matched corners in (basically) a neutral-field game and we only go once over the top?
• The swing passes to Randle…nobody understands how easy he makes that look. Whenever Weeden throws that pass to Hunter or Bryant Ward they get all awkward with their footwork and seemingly struggle to turn up field. Randle looks so smooth doing it.
• How many 1-handed catches is Josh Cooper going to make this year?
• I went back and forth on the unis. I REALLY like the black O-S-U on the helmets outlined in orange and I think I liked the unis, there just wasn’t enough orange to make them pop. I’m still waiting for an orange top/black bottom combo or vice versa. Maybe next weekend.
• It’s going to be difficult for Quinn Sharp to win the Ray Guy if he never steps foot on the field.
• Weeden and Holgersen interactions kill me. Holgorsen is probably saying words to him I’ve never even heard before and Weeden’s just like “yeah, cool, OK man, whatever, I’ll get ’em next time.”
• When Blackmon was laying on the goal line I started looking for a pack of cigarettes, and I’ve never actually held a cigarette in my life.
• The Fox Sports announcing crew is unequivocally bad. Watching Jim Knox interview Mike Gundy at halftime was like watching a circus clown make a balloon animal for an autistic kid.
• Why was Mecham (and like 28 guys in the stands) waving his arms to quiet the crowd on the 4th and goal? Were there even enough people there to make noises at a decibal that would have bothered him or his teammates? It bugs me when quarterbacks do that. It seems like they just saw their digital self do it on a Playstation and they think that’s what they’re supposed to do.
• Weeden looked just a hair off. He threw a ball 6 inches behind Harrison that would have been a TD and had a few behind Blackmon also. I know we’re picking nits here since he’s leading the nation in yards, but here’s to hoping he’s ON next weekend.
• How come when we get in the red zone it’s like we forget all our plays? I know the field is shorter but wouldn’t a fade to the corner work like 98.9% of the time?
• Speaking of fades, the balls Weeden has been throwing of late — I haven’t seen a college ball flicker like that since Chris Leak was running Urban’s show down in Gainesville.
• Bailey’s confidence worries me. I wish he hadn’t had such a long streak going into the Baylor game when he missed, I feel like it affected him because of how long he’d gone without missing.
• Last negative thing I promise: why do we run 3rd and in. or 4th and in. out of the shotgun? That’s maddening. Why not just run Weeden up the middle on a sneak? When, over the last 5 years, do you remember an OSU QB sneak not going for at least 2 yards?

Next week. Well, I’ll write about it at length in the next few days, but it’s going to be unbelievable.