No one was more shocked over Kansas loss to Colorado than me. I felt so bad for Mark Mangino that I ate a double cheeseburger, large fries and a milk shake for him. It wasn't that the Jayhawk defense was exposed by Colorado's 78th ranked scoring offense because Southern Miss and Iowa State had already done that in the previous two weeks. The most disturbing thing about KU's loss in Boulder on Saturday night was that once the Jayhawks took a 3-0 lead on their final drive of the first quarter their offense seemingly disappeared while the Buffs scored the game's next 24 points. While Colorado was scoring on four of their next five possessions to take a commanding 24-3 lead, Mangino's offense produced 9 yards, two punts, a fumble and an interception on the four drives following their field goal, even worse though the Buffs provided a blueprint for defeating Kansas.
Win The Turnover Battle
Colorado scored 14 points off of two Jayhawk turnovers while Kansas only turned two Buff turnovers into 6 points. This biggest criticism of Landry Jones is that he stares down receivers and tries to force the ball into places where he shouldn't. His interception Saturday against the Longhorns was crucial but it wasn't the only one on the day. Unfortunately the Sooners turned it over four other times. A repeat performance like that will doom the Sooners again this weekend.
Run The Football
I don't know for sure that we can call on Landry Jones to win this game. For a freshman he's been more than adequate but keep in mind that he's 0-2 against ranked teams this season and that doesn't take into consideration the BYU game. With or without DeMarco Murray Oklahoma needs to run the ball effectively against Kansas. The Jayhawks are 4th in the conference in rush defense but Colorado was able to find success by pounding the ball over and over. They ran the ball 43 times for a net gain of 147 yards giving them a 3.4 yard per rush average. The Buffaloes were starting an inexperienced quarterback against the Jayhawks and they were able to use their rushing attack to keep things balanced and keep the pressure off of their young signal caller. Oklahoma needs to follow the same pattern.
Isolate Dezmon Briscoe
Briscoe leads the Big 12 in receiving yards and averages 134.2 yards per game. At crunch time Todd Reesing is going to try and put the ball in his hands. Oklahoma did a great job at taking Jordan Shipley away from Colt McCoy last week and now they must step up to the challenge of doing the same with Briscoe. Doing so will force Reesing to check down to Kerry Meier who isn't a bad option either (Meier ranks 4th in the conference in receiving) but the point is to cause Reesing to take longer before making the throw or force him into making a bad pass.
Catch The Ball
If it were only as easy as it sounds. We have no idea what we're going to see as far as the receiver rotation goes but drops plagued the Sooners again last week and we've yet to see a go to guy emerge. The Kansas defense is going to blanket Ryan Broyles and force another receiver to try and beat them.
Pressure Todd Reesing
Before last week's game against Colorado Reesing had been sacked 7 times. The Buffaloes brought him down 5 times that night which was a major factor in the Jayhawks' offensive woes. Reesing is more of a running threat inside the red zone, he's rushed for 3 touchdowns but only 8.8 yards per game, so he won't pose the threat that Colt McCoy presented last week. Under pressure Reesing seems more likely to try and make a play with his arm instead of his feet. That plays more into Oklahoma's hands as the pressure they'll be bringing will be relentless.