KU's defense made some significant improvements last week. The coaches simplified the play-calling, and the players responded to it. We'll see if that improvement carries over into this weekend.
"significant strides" is a stretch. OU sleep walked and still put up 600 yards and 47 pts. If not for the fumble in the endzone it would have been over 50.
I realize OU has a nice offense but KU played back in the secondary to keep the big play from happening knowing full well that OU's running game is average.
The problem you will have this week is the offense is a different style. You can't play back because you will not stop our running game with the front 7 and you simply MUST force us into 3rd & long situations. We convert 3rd downs as well as OU and that is why we can play keep away. While OU is far more likely to get a gain of 30 yards on 1st or 2nd down we're going to get 3 or 4 yards on first down and set up series after series of 3rd & short and that is all we want to do.
Now, Tech could stack the box and limit us somewhat because they have a good pass defense. But KU doesn't have that either and there will be some WIDE open receivers running behind you.
The problem your offense faces is that we can simply shut down running games with our front 7 and, many times, don't even need the 7th in the box. KU's offense isn't NEARLY as effective when the running game is severely limited. Miami has a VERY good and experienced OL w/ a STUD RB and the only thing they got was popping a 60 yarder...other than that they did nothing. Both Baylor and Mizzou have run the ball VERY well this year...Mizzou had 70 yards rushing with a few minutes to play and Baylor managed 83 yards on 30 carries. I would take any of those OLines over KU's.
You've got an uphill battle here, Oregon Hawk. I know you're all smitten about coming within 400 yards and 30 pts of a sleep walking OU but there are things we do better than OU (running the ball and controlling the clock offensively and stronger up the middle defensively: NT, MLB, and Safety). It's a different kind of animal and your options are being eliminated as I type this.
