Tom Keegan Guarantees Kansas Victory

by ccmachine on Oct 21, 2009 2:31 PM CDT in Football

Who is Tom Keegan? He's a writer for LJW (The same paper that trashed Wayman Tisdale after he died) and he opines that the KU offense will lead the Jayhawks to victory over the Sooners, 28-24.

I've got a few thoughts here for you, Tom. First of all you're right about the Kansas offense. They are phenomenal and have been one of my favorites to watch this season. You are also right about the Oklahoma offense which has been frustrating to watch this season to say the least. However, the KU offense isn't going up against the OU offense and vice versa.

The Kansas offense has to go against, and beat, the OU defense and your 28 point prediction would be the most scored against the Sooners this season. It's really easy to look at the offenses and say, "Well Kansas sure has an advantage here!" without even a second thought tossed towards the two defenses that will be taking the field.

If the old saying that offense sells tickets and defense wins games is true then the Jayhawks could be in trouble. The Kansas defense allowed a Colorado squad who ranks dead last in the conference in points scored to put up 34 points. That's 9 points more than the Buffs season average! In fact, Southern Miss, Iowa State and Colorado have all scored more points in the last three games then what you've predicted OU to do on Saturday. It appears that Mr. Keegan likens the OU offense to be more in the same category of Northern Colorado, UTEP and Duke than the two Big 12 North bottom feeders. He also thinks that somehow a defense that's given up an average of 33 points in each of their last three games is going to hold Oklahoma to a touchdown below their season average.

I will say that I don't expect the OU defense to hold the Jayhawks to the 10 points their opponents are averaging this season but I would bet that's its below the 39 points per game that the Jayhawks are used to scoring. Looking at the fist six games on the Kansas schedule the strongest defense they've faced this year is Iowa State which is currently ranked 44^th. I think that they're going to get to look at some things on Saturday that they've not yet seen this season.

I'm not going to go the opposite direction of Mr. Keegan and predict an OU victory, although I think that the chances are very good that will happen. Instead I'm going to go on and say that nothing is a given. Landry Jones has not been sharing reps in practice this week with Sam Bradford and it should be noted that Kansas defense resembles nothing of the Texas defense that Jones struggled against last week that Keegan pointed out. I don't think that anything is a given in this matchup. Kansas does have an offensive advantage, as well as the home field advantage but when it comes to preventing points from being put on the board its very lopsided towards the Sooners.

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Hey

Kansas fan here.

Let me start off by saying Tom Keegan is kind of an idiot. Half the time he doesn’t know what the hell he is writing about. I thought this was a pretty rediculous column for him to write and the majority of KU fans are hopeful of a win Saturday but definitely not overly confident.

As for the game, I’d say your analysis is pretty close to right on. OU’s defense is the best we’ll have faced and probably the best we’ll see all season. Our defense has struggled for the past couple of games but the score was a little deceiving last week because the D actually did play a lot better.

The Kansas defense allowed a Colorado squad who ranks dead last in the conference in points scored to put up 34 points

True, but 14 of those points came off turnovers that resulted in the Buffs starting inside our 10 yard line. Most are realizing that the KU defense really only gave up 20 points and our great offense was actually a big contributor to the loss.

This right here tells us that there is not much of a chance for a KU victory if we turn the ball over more than once to your outstanding D (a tough challenge). Reesing will have to play a lot smarter than he has at times this season and throw the ball away instead of taking snaps where he could fumble or throwing the ball up for grabs for defenders to snatch up.

Here is the key to the game: Can KU get out to a fast start on offense? When this offense gets rolling, it is very hard to stop. The problem has been that defenses this year have thrown very different looks at the offense and it’s taken them a quarter or 2 to get going. If they can score some points in the 1st quarter and get some confidence then I think they could pull out the upset (yes I still consider it an upset because you’re OU and we’re KU).

The fan in me wants to predict a KU victory but it’s going to be really tough. The non-fan in me says OU 27 KU 24.

Good luck the rest of the way.

by I need more Esteban on Oct 21, 2009 3:47 PM CDT reply actions

Good Points

Thanks for adding to the conversation

by ccmachine on Oct 21, 2009 3:53 PM CDT up reply actions

yep....

not that it means our defense is any good but Esteban does bring up a good point. 14 of CU’s points were on drives of 1 and 3 yards. That ultimately sank the ship without a doubt. In the last Quarter and a half when KU was coming back the defense turned CU over twice, stopped them twice and did allow one TD.

I don’t think they’ll be as lucky against the OU offense but the KU offense was the culprit in Boulder. 55 yards from scrimmage through the first 28 minutes was another problem. I could go on, but it only makes it sting more : )

Some people are like Slinkies...not really good for anything but they make you smile when pushed down the stairs.

by Owen on Oct 21, 2009 4:55 PM CDT up reply actions