Upon further review, it was still bad.

Kansas University football coach Mark Mangino, who ripped his team after Saturday’s 39-16 home loss to Bowling Green, didn’t feel much better about the setback after watching game film Sunday.

Mangino did credit the Jayhawks’ defense for limiting the Falcons to a field goal in the fourth quarter. Bowling Green had another opportunity to score late, but linebacker Glenn Robinson recovered a fumble near the goal line.

By then the damage already had been done.

Bowling Green (3-0) opened the game with a no-back offense, and the Jayhawks (1-3) were able to pressure quarterback Josh Harris and limited the Falcons to 15 yards in the first quarter. Bowling Green adjusted its offense and finished with 503 yards, including 350 on the ground.

KU has allowed at least 275 rushing yards in all three of its losses.

“The Big 12 is about rushing,” linebacker Greg Cole said. “We’ve got to be a better rushing defense than we are right now. We were missing too many tackles by far. We have to hold on to the ball carrier.”

The defense struggled, but there was plenty of blame to go around.

On Saturday night, Mangino criticized his return men, questioned his offensive line’s pass protection, called his secondary “soft”, his receivers “inadequate” and said his team needed to become mentally tough.

The first-year coach sounded optimistic Sunday.

“The more you do something over and over and over, the better you get at it,” he said, “and the better you get at it the more confident you get about those assignments. Like I said last night, I’m disappointed with some areas of the game but not discouraged. Our kids understand that they just have to continue this process to get better.”

KU will try to bounce back in a 6 p.m. game Saturday at Tulsa against a Hurricane squad that is 0-4 and has lost 14 straight games dating back to the second game of last season.

“We have to get out on the practice field Monday and compete against ourselves,” Mangino said. “We have to work at making ourselves better. If we can do that, then we have an opportunity to go down to Tulsa and play well.

“We know Tulsa’s struggling. We can’t stand up in front of our players and tell them Tulsa’s a great football team, but we’re not either. But we know we’re on the right track. It’s going to take some time, but we have to get better. We have to make some big leaps in all three phases of the game from this past Saturday to next Saturday, and I believe our kids can do that.”

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Brace yourself: Take a good look at KU’s offensive linemen and you’ll notice that most of the Jayhawks’ big men are wearing knee braces.

“Through the ’80s there was a big push for prophylactic braces, and everybody wore them,” said Dr. Ken Wertzberger, an orthopedic surgeon who was a starting offensive guard on KU’s 1968 Orange Bowl team. “Then in the ’90s there were a bunch of studies that said they made no difference so they stopped using them. But now they’re wearing them again. It’s mostly offensive linemen because the skill players don’t like them.”

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Floodman update: Sophomore Banks Floodman, who injured his knee in the season opener at Iowa State, was on crutches Saturday while watching the game from the sideline. Mangino confirmed Sunday that the starting linebacker had surgery last week and should recover in time for spring drills.

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Upcoming opponents: Two of Tulsa’s four losses were against Big 12 members Oklahoma and Baylor. The Bears defeated Tulsa, 37-25, Saturday at Waco, Texas.

KU, 0-1 in the Big 12, resumes conference play against Baylor (2-2 overall, 0-0 Big 12) with a 1 p.m. game Oct. 5 at Waco, Texas. The Bears have the weekend off and, thus, two weeks to prepare for Kansas.