Norman, Oklahoma ? Kansas University senior Keon Stowers, who finished Saturday’s game with three assisted tackles during Saturday’s 44-7 loss to No. 23 Oklahoma, said after the game that he did not think the KU defense was beat up as badly as Samaje Perine’s record-breaking performance made it look.
“I don’t think they dogged us the way it looked,” Stowers said of OU’s offense, which rumbled for 517 yards on 55 carries. “Obviously, if you go back and look at the film, you’ll see where things hit but, from the standpoint of the defensive line, I think they’re a really good offensive line.”
Asked where OU’s offensive line, which carried an average size of 6-foot-4, 332 pounds, ranked in all of the O-line’s he had seen in his career, Stowers continued to praise the Sooners.
“They’re probably the top one,” he said. “They’re an experienced group, they’re pretty big, physical. I think they’re a really good offensive line.”
Stowers was not the only Jayhawk to tip his cap to the Sooners front five, but KU coach Clint Bowen said his defense made them look awfully good.
“Obviously we had a calamity of errors in our run fits,” Bowen said. “They’re running four or five different plays…. It was the same play and just a different guy on our side of the ball not fitting his gap or doing his responsibility or just getting beat in his gap.”
Added junior safety Fish Smithson: “Their O-line did a great job blocking and getting up to the next level.”
Weather delay
The start of Saturday’s game was delayed by 90 minutes because of strong storms and lightning that passed through the area, but the Jayhawks were not using that as an excuse for failing to compete from start to finish.
“That didn’t do nothing to us,” Stowers said.
Added junior quarterback Michael Cummings, who finished 8-of-22 passing for 84 yards and an interception: “Any time you play in a rain storm the ball’s gonna be heavy and wet. But we both had the same conditions to play under.”
Bowen said he and his staff learned about the delay early Saturday morning and was not about to blame his team’s play on the change to the schedule.
“It was a normal pre-game routine,” Bowen said. “It wasn’t a factor at all.”
Bowen also refused to blame the weather.
“Obviously, it wasn’t a passing day,” he said. “As a team, you gotta be able to adjust. Football’s played outside, and when the conditions change, you need to be able to change accordingly.”
