STILLWATER, Okla. — Kansas coach Lance Leipold openly challenged his team during his press conference this week, saying he wanted to find out this weekend whether the Jayhawks’ competitive effort against Oklahoma last week was a “blip” or the start of a positive trend.
Leipold definitively got his answer on a picturesque Saturday night at Boone Pickens Stadium — and not the one he wanted.
KU’s offense was overwhelmed from the start against No. 15 Oklahoma State, mustering zero first downs in nine first-half possessions in a 55-3 loss.
To put it simply, there was no momentum carryover from last week’s 35-23 home loss to the top-five Sooners. KU lacked execution from nearly every position on Saturday while letting too many bad plays early snowball into a disaster performance.
Here are a few other things we learned about KU (1-7) on Saturday.
Just brutal
Saying KU’s offense was abysmal in the first half might be giving too much credit.
The Jayhawks failed in nearly every facet. They dropped passes. They had awful blocking. They missed on blitz pickups. They had overthrows and a rattled quarterback.
Add it all up and it was one of the most miserable halftime stat lines you’ll ever see in a Big 12 game. KU, in nine first-half possessions, had zero first downs while mustering just 49 yards of offense. The Jayhawks also had two interceptions and just 10 passing yards.
Oklahoma State had 21 first downs in the first half to KU’s zero, which the FS1 broadcast cited as the largest first-half differential between two FBS teams in a game this season.
Bean spilled
There has been no in-between lately for Kansas quarterback Jason Bean: He’s either been great or awful.
Saturday was the latter. Bean looked rattled from the beginning after some early pressure and never regained his composure. In one half — he was replaced by Miles Kendrick at the intermission — Bean completed 3 of 10 passes for 10 yards with two interceptions. He also failed to finish runs with physicality, which left KU just short of the first down on a few first-half runs.
It leaves Leipold with a bit of a dilemma (again). Bean was poor against Texas Tech two weeks ago, posting the second-worst QBR score in Big 12 play this season. Last week against Oklahoma, though, Bean easily had his best game, while putting up KU’s best QBR number since the 2019 season.
So is Bean the long-term answer for KU at quarterback? Or does KU need to go shopping for a signal-caller in recruiting this offseason?
Bean, if nothing else, didn’t make that decision easier for KU’s coaches with his performance Saturday.
House of horrors
Oklahoma State’s Boone Pickens Stadium showed itself once again as a nightmare venue for KU football.
Almost 10 years to the day — Oct. 8, 2011 — coach Mike Gundy’s Cowboys rolled to a 56-7 halftime lead on their way to a 70-28 victory.
This one was not quite to that level but still pretty bad. Oklahoma State led 38-0 at the break, and that even came with some strong moments from KU’s defense, which included a fourth-down, red-zone stand on the Cowboys’ first drive. Oklahoma State put the game so out of reach that Gundy inserted his backup quarterback, Shane Illingworth, before the first half ended.
The Cowboys have now scored 55 or more in points four of their last six home meetings against the Jayhawks.
