Adarius Bowman was like a cat burglar on Saturday – sneaking into little pockets in Kansas University’s defense, catching the football, running until the end zone made him stop and essentially stealing Saturday’s game from the shell-shocked Jayhawks.
Bowman’s historic day – 13 catches for a Big 12 Conference-record 300 yards and four touchdowns – often came because of breakdowns in KU’s zone coverage.
In fact, Kansas coach Mark Mangino said Sunday that every big play Bowman made came with the Jayhawks in the zone.
“We were in a position to make some plays, and other times we weren’t,” Mangino said. “Yardage after the catch was a key thing. If you get an opportunity where you can’t contest the ball, you’ve got to make the tackle.”
And Kansas, quite simply, didn’t do that in the second half of Saturday’s 42-32 loss to the Cowboys. Bowman had four touchdown catches totaling 198 yards in the second half. An eye-opening 141 of those yards were gained after the catch.
So what went wrong to give Bowman his big day? Well, of the four big-play touchdowns, which accounted for almost two-thirds of his total yardage:
¢ Bowman scored the first when he caught a pass in a zone pocket, between James Holt, Darrell Stuckey and Mike Rivera. Bowman caught it in stride and ran past Holt, whose pursuit of the ball had him facing the wrong way. Stuckey was the only one with a chance to catch him, but he was too far behind. Bowman was credited with a 54-yard score.
¢ The second came when Anthony Webb appeared to slip and fall while moving over to pick Bowman up. Because Webb was out of position, linebacker Joe Mortensen followed Bowman to the end zone, but was a step behind. Webb was still off-balanced when Bowman caught it and couldn’t put a good lick on him before he crossed the goal line for the 25-yard score.
¢ The third was helped when quarterback Bobby Reid pump-faked a screen pass to Anthony Parks, then threw a bullet to Bowman on the right side. Three defenders, one of whom may have been out of position because of the fake, were well behind Bowman, who was able to avoid KU’s secondary and scoot 55 yards for the touchdown.
¢ His fourth, a 64-yard score, came about when Reid found Bowman in a pocket between Stuckey and Jerome Kemp. Bowman shed a tackle from Thornton, and Aqib Talib was blocked out of the play downfield.
The fact that Reid was able to find Bowman in stride contributed greatly to the wideout’s big day. But it was almost a perfect storm of little mistakes and missteps by KU, timely throwing by Reid and a receiver just having a game destined for the record books.
“He has the opportunity to make a lot of big plays because he has great balance and is a very competitive athlete,” OSU coach Mike Gundy said. “Since we have a player like him, he gives us a chance to look a lot different on offense.”
