Kansas Football: Positives from blowout loss to Oklahoma Sooners

It wasn’t all bad for Kansas football on Saturday, as the Jayhawks were blown out at home. To be fair, they were playing against a clearly better Oklahoma Sooners squad, who were ranked fifth in the country when the game took place.

The Kansas Jayhawks were 30+ point underdogs heading into this game against Oklahoma and lost by 25 instead. I know it’s crazy to call that a win, but for how comically bad this program has been over the last decade, fans will call that a weird sort of victory.

Aside from not getting entirely blown out, there were some other positives for Kansas football in this one. Let’s take a look at those pros from the loss to the Sooners.

CARTER STANLEY LOOKED GOOD!

Carter Stanley has been a rollercoaster at the quarterback position, but he played incredibly well against one of the best teams in the country. He had just ten incompletions on the day, going 18 of 28 for 230 yards and three touchdown passes.

Yes, Oklahoma is a Big 12 defense and therefore not all that great, but let’s give credit where credit is due. Stanley played well and had the KU defense even somewhat showed up, this game could have potentially been much closer.

POOKA WILLIAMS OF OLD

With all of the talk of Khalil Herbert transferring out of the program, Pooka Williams made fans forget about him on Saturday. Williams looked like his freshman year self, rushing for 137 yards off of 23 carries. While he didn’t find the end zone, it was hard to gripe about Williams’ performance on Saturday.

WELCOME TO THE SHOW, STEPHON ROBINSON!

Carter Stanley had a good game so naturally, that means one of his receivers was having a good game as well. That receiver was Stephon Robinson Jr., who hauled in five catches for 131 yards and two touchdowns. His longest reception on the day was for 39 yards.

NO OU RECEIVER HAD A BIG GAME

Let’s take the victories where we can find them. The Kansas defense has been putrid this year, but they didn’t allow a big game to any of the Oklahoma receivers, with the leading pass catcher having just 38 yards on Saturday. Oklahoma didn’t need a big game from their receivers though, as they have a dominant run game.

KANSAS PICKED HURTS OFF

Jalen Hurts is a potential Heisman Trophy winner this year and he’s been on fire to start the 2019 campaign. Prior to this game, he had just one interception, but the Kansas Jayhawks had Hurts’ second interception of the year. Again, taking the victories wherever we can find them.

IT WASN’T ALL BAD

Yes, a 25-point blowout loss (and at home, to boot) is embarrassing, but for Kansas football, there were definitely some positives that came out of this loss. The offense played well, so had KU had anything that even remotely resembled a defense, they might have been able to make a game out of this.

Even with this being a blowout loss, there was a lot of good to take away from this victory. Les Miles is slowly, but surely going to right the ship.

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