Lawrence, KS (Best E Casino) - The Colorado Buffaloes will attempt to halt a two-game losing streak on Saturday, although the 16th-ranked Kansas Jayhawks are the favorite in this weekend's Big 12 matchup.
Colorado opened the season with three straight wins, including a thrilling overtime decision over West Virginia. Unfortunately, the Buffaloes have been beaten in succession by Florida State and Texas by wide margins. Last weekend's 38-14 beating at the hands of the Longhorns in Boulder suggested that Colorado isn't on the same level as the conference's elite teams.
Kansas is trying to prove that it is a member of that elite class, but the club has played shaky football recently. Kansas is attempting to start conference play with a 2-0 record for the second straight season and just the third time since the inception of the Big 12 back in 1996. The Jayhawks are fresh off a come-from-behind victory over Iowa State in the league opener, as the club rallied from a 20-0 halftime deficit to post a 35-33 win. Kansas owns the nations fourth-longest active home field winning streak at 12 straight, and they carry a 4-1 overall record into Saturday's clash.
While Colorado holds a 41-23-2 series lead over Kansas, the Jayhawks have won the last two meetings.
"We always feel like you have to be able to run the football a little bit to keep your offense going," said Colorado coach Dan Hawkins following the loss to Texas. "When we didn't run it like we wanted to, then it became a big adjustment game." So how ineffective was the ground attack against the Longhorns? Well, the Buffs only produced 49 rushing yards on 28 attempts. That put a great deal of pressure on quarterback Cody Hawkins to make plays with his arm, and he was unable to do so. Hawkins completed only 13-of-33 passes for 118 yards, and while he did throw one touchdown pass, the over performance wasn't great by any means.
Hawkins has now thrown for 926 yards this season with 10 touchdowns and four interceptions. Rodney Stewart is the club's best tailback, and he needs to play much better against Kansas than he did against Texas. Of course, the play of the offensive line will go a long way in determining Stewart's success, and the big boys up front were pushed around by the Longhorns.
"We knew they were very good and that we'd have to play very well to get some things going," said coach Hawkins when speaking of Texas. "You don't ever come in with a negative attitude necessarily, but we knew they were good." Texas racked up 25 first downs and 431 total yards against Colorado, which allowed five touchdowns to the Longhorn offense. Sure, the Buffaloes did register a pair of interceptions and four sacks, but there were a few big plays made by Texas.
Heading into the game against the Longhorns, Colorado was playing much better against the pass than the run. Texas was able to find success through both means of attack. The fact that the Buffaloes have yielded 77 combined points the last two games suggests that there are major defensive problems in need of a quick fix.
At intermission against Iowa State last weekend, Kansas had posted just 93 yards and only five first downs. The Jayhawks went three and out on each of their first three possessions and looked completely out of sync. Fortunately, football is a game of two halves, and Kansas scored touchdowns on five of its six drives after intermission. Standout quarterback Todd Reesing was 10-of-12 for 260 yards and three touchdowns in the second half to finish the game 18- of-26 for 319 yards. "The first half we struggled to get anything going," said Reesing. I made a bad throw and had interceptions. It was atrocious. We came out in the second half and it really clicked and showed what we can do when we're all on the same page." Kerry Meier hauled in seven balls for 125 yards and two scores, and he tied the school record with his third straight game with more than 100 yards receiving. Jake Sharp contributed 186 all-purpose yards for Kansas, which is now averaging 35.2 ppg and 465.6 total ypg.
Reesing is grossly undersized by most standards, but he is one of the top signal callers in the nation. He has completed 70.2 percent of his passes for 1,724 yards and 14 touchdowns against just three interceptions. Meier has 44 catches for 514 yards, while Dezmon Briscoe has five receiving scores. The ground attack has been average thus far, and Angus Quigley has been the most productive back.
Iowa State posted 365 yards and 33 points against Kansas last weekend, so there is obviously plenty of room for improvement on defense for the Jayhawks. They did post a pair of takeaways while also limiting the Cyclones to 4-of-15 on third down conversion attempts, but the overall performance was suspect at best. "There were some technical adjustments made by our defensive staff," said coach Mark Mangino when asked about the improvement of the defense from the first half to the second. "I thought we were a little cautious in the secondary with kids that didn't want to get beat over the top. They're getting better."
Opponents are scoring 18.8 ppg against Kansas, which is holding foes to 95.2 rushing ypg. The pass defense is yielding 227.6 ypg but does have more interceptions (seven) than touchdowns allowed (six). James Holt and Joe Mortensen are tied for the team lead with 32 tackles apiece. Holt has forced three fumbles, and Jake Laptad has 3.5 sacks to his credit.
