Aqib Talib had to be feeling mighty guilty as he watched his secondary mates spend Saturday night getting fried.
Suspended the first two games of the season for breaking a team rule, Talib stood in uniform on the sideline as helpless as the rest of the 45,221 adults and babies who nervously watched Kansas University hang on for a 21-19 football victory over Louisiana-Monroe at Memorial Stadium. (Some of the babies were even moved to tears by KU’s subpar performance.)
Whereas the caliber of competition in the opening week made it difficult to get a read on the young Jayhawks, Saturday revealed more.
After watching clever quarterback Kinsmon Lancaster abuse the KU secondary for 377 yards passing and two touchdowns, the book is easier to read, and here’s what it says: The Jayhawks (2-0) must improve a great deal if they are going to play in a bowl game for the third time in four seasons.
Talib, a preseason All-Big 12 Conference selection, isn’t as likely to get torched as Raymond Brown and Blake Bueltel, but it’s not as if one player can completely transform a defense.
In the first half, Lancaster repeatedly dropped back to pass, checked his e-mail, phoned home, called his tutors to brush up on upcoming tests, downloaded a few new tunes onto the iPod, filed his nails, yawned, and then scanned the field to decide which wide-open receiver to throw to, and passed for 202 yards.
As the game wore on, the pressure increased, but the defensive backs didn’t take advantage. Afterward, defensive end Paul Como didn’t let the young secondary take all the heat.
“It’s the defensive line and the linebackers, too,” he said. “Everybody’s got to get pressure on the quarterback. It’s like coach (Bill) Young always says, it doesn’t matter if five guys are open if we get the sack.”
Como pointed out Lancaster did a nice job of making KU respect screen passes and quarterback draws, which took away from the heat the defense was able to bring.
Rodney Allen’s fourth-quarter sack was the only one of the night for the Jayhawks, a disturbing statistic considering the elusive Lancaster threw 41 passes, completing 24. He did not throw an interception.
Charlton Keith, who was in attendance, did not see any obvious replacements for his role as relentless quarterback harasser.
In moving their Memorial Stadium winning streak to eight games, the Jayhawks impressed in only one area: stopping the run. Louisiana-Monroe rushed for 51 yards.
Jon Cornish was responsible for 103 of the 161 rushing yards, but it was a disappointing rushing night because the line, with the exception of the final clock-killing possession, wasn’t able to blow the Warhawks off the ball consistently.
Center David Ochoa said he thought the line did a solid job of protecting quarterback Kerry Meier, but needed to go to school on the game film to figure out how to improve the run blocking.
Defensively, the adjustments won’t be as easy because there isn’t as much experienced talent.
“We’ve still got some work to do,” defensive tackle James McClinton said. “Defensive line, linebackers, defensive backs, still got some work to do.”
