Kansas Football: Like Falling Off A Bicycle

Watch out for spiky plants

So, uh, I did say last time that this might happen.

I did hope that the KU football team would take that near win (close loss, whatever) to Oklahoma and be able to apply it to this week's game at Oklahoma State. But I also knew that the Cowboys had just seen their undefeated season come to an end on a controversial fourth down play, and I knew they would not come into this game complacent whatsoever. My optimistic prediction, you may recall, was that Kansas would cover the 30.5 point spread in Stillwater.

The final score was, uh, 55-3 Oklahoma State. That 30.5 point spread? Oklahoma State scored their fourth touchdown of the first half with just about 6 minutes to go to make it 31-nothing. Then, after KU went for in on 4th down from their own 34 (because at that point, whatever), the Cowboys scored again to make it 38-nothing. But after KU's 6th punt of the half, they sure stopped the Pokes! Okay, so that's because it was the end of the half, but hey, small victories. Go, clock, go!

I don't want to say the Hawks were "overconfident" after last week against Oklahoma, but I do assume they acted like people tend to act when they do something successfully after trying and trying and trying to accomplish that very thing. They get too excited that they are doing that thing successfully that they immediately screw up doing that thing.

The obvious cliche is riding a bicycle. After failing countless times to ride a bicycle successfully- sometimes you fall into a spiky plant in the yard, if I am going to, uh, choose an example that definitely didn't happen to me- when you finally get everything going at once and it just works its an "oh man this is so easy and it's fantastic" exhilaration that usually results in three seconds later of coming completely unglued and getting your feet tangled in the pedals and falling in a heap, hopefully not in a spiky plant. Again. But you also know what's going to happen eventually. Eventually, you are going to get that riding a bicycle exhilaration back, and you will be riding a bicycle successfully.

Anyway, last week was KU football's moments of exhilaration of "yeah, this is how football is supposed to go!" And this week was falling off the bicycle, as they have done so many times before. 

Elvis has left the building

The question, like it has been so many times before, is what happens now? Now's another chance to get on the bike and ride it successfully again. This week is the Sunflower Showdown at Memorial Stadium. Is Kansas State beatable? Well, as much as I'd like to think that yes, Kansas State is always beatable, they have beaten the Hawks 12 straight times, the longest streak in the series. And they have a guy who for a few hours seemed to have tied an NCAA record with six sacks in one game (that'd be Felix Anudike-Uzomah) only to see two of them taken away because they apparently happened across the line of scrimmage and therefore can't be sacks. 

Well, stopping that guy is clearly a challenge for a good offensive line, never mind one that was struggling to let anybody do anything against Oklahoma State. Since the greatest stats that tell you how an offensive line did are the QB's stats, KU starting QB Jason Bean was 3 of 10 for 10 yards in the first half against the Cowboys. (FYI: NOT GOOD) No first downs until the 3rd quarter. (FYI: SOMEHOW WORSE)

So is there hope to beat the Wildcats? Well, certainly less than last week, but there is still some because this KU team has shown it can ride the bicycle! Yes, it fell into the spiky plant against Oklahoma State, but now gets another chance to get up and ride again. Get up enough speed and watch out for the spiky plants. Find that exhilarating feeling again and don't get your feet tangled in the pedals.

photos courtesy: reddit, KUAthletics,businessinsider

Yep, feels kinda like that