Kansas University had an eight-point lead with less than three minutes remaining Saturday at Waco, Texas.

Baylor, which had lost 29 consecutive Big 12 Conference football games, quickly erased that deficit against the Jayhawks’ young secondary and celebrated a 35-32, last-second victory at Floyd Casey Stadium.

“Toward the end of the game the mentality of our kids was, ‘We’ve got to soften up those zones even more and keep it in front of us.’ You can’t do that,” Kansas coach Mark Mangino said Sunday after reviewing game tape. “When you’re at the end of the game, you have to play like you did the other 31¼2 quarters. You have to continue to be aggressive.”

Trailing 32-24 with 2:51 remaining, quarterback Alex Karas rallied the Bears by completing seven of nine passes for 119 yards on two scoring drives.

KU (2-4 overall, 0-2 Big 12) entered the game ranked 114th in the nation in run defense, allowing an average of 260.4 yards a game. Opponents had averaged 178.8 yards passing.

Baylor (3-2, 1-0) exploited KU’s defense through the air, despite the fact that the Jayhawks’ front seven players played one of their best games of the season. Karas passed for a career-best 359 yards, though Kansas sacked him seven times.

“Our front seven was much more aggressive,” Mangino said. “They’re playing with confidence.”

KU’s pressure, in fact, hurried Karas into two interceptions  one by free safety Johnny McCoy and another by strong safety Jake Letourneau. Those takeaways helped Kansas rally from an early 14-0 deficit.

BU netted just 100 yards rushing on 38 attempts, but Karas completed 22 of 32 passes against KU’s inexperienced secondary.

“They’re learning on the job,” said Mangino, who starts first-year starters at three of four secondary positions.

Karas completed four of five passes for 78 yards on a scoring drive that tied the game at 32-all with 1:18 to play. Linebacker Glenn Robinson recorded his third sack of the game with 1:26 remaining, but Karas completed a 41-yard TD pass to Robert Quiroga on the next play.

Quiroga beat backup cornerback Ronnie Amadi on the play. The freshman played extensively in the second half in relief of junior starter Remuise Johnson.

“Remuise wasn’t necessarily doing anything wrong,” said Mangino, who added the Johnson was not injured. “That’s not why he wasn’t out there. We need more from Ronnie. He’s going to be a good player for us.”

After Kansas went three-and-out, Karas did it again. The sophomore completed three of four passes for 41 yards on the Bears’ final drive to set up Daniel Andino’s game-winning field goal.

Mangino said his defensive backs played too conservatively, and not just in the final quarter.

“They’re letting receivers catch balls and then tackling them,” he said. “We can’t get as much depth in our zones and backpedal so quickly. We’re creating holes in the zone. When you create those holes, receivers just sit in them and the quarterback just throws the ball to them and we can’t break on the ball because we’ve created too much depth and we can’t close on it.”

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Simmons to be tested: Mangino said the injury to freshman Mark Simmons was not believed to be serious, but the receiver will undergo tests today as a precaution. Simmons left the game after taking a hard hit in the fourth quarter. He stayed on the field for several minutes before getting up and did not return. Simmons, who appeared to be holding his side as he entered KU’s locker room, had four catches for 39 yards, including a TD.

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Up next: KU will play host to Colorado at 1 p.m. Saturday in its homecoming game.