Here we go again

Offensive struggles continue

Kansas City, Mo. ? Well, it could be worse.

No, take that back – no need to get fluffy here.

The problems have been deemed correctable by members of Kansas University’s football program over and over, but at this point, is such insistence believable?

Saturday’s 19-3 loss to Oklahoma was the same old Big 12 Conference song – great defense, stuck-in-neutral offense, loss, loss, loss.

“Call me an optimist or call me a fool,” KU coach Mark Mangino said. “But I still think we have capable players on offense.”

Expect the name-calling to be mixed. Of the three facets of KU’s game, it was reasonable to believe that the offense was the least likely to score a touchdown Saturday. KU’s defense forced three turnovers, and Charles Gordon once again showed spectacular sparks returning punts, including a 34-yard juke-and-jive party.

As for the offense? It can be summed up in consecutive plays in the first quarter. Brian Luke’s first interception – returned for a touchdown – started the ride, and Luke’s second ended it.

Nine seconds elapsed on the clock.

In all, KU had 97 yards of total offense and just 11 yards after halftime.

Go ahead, read it again. Ninety-seven total. Eleven after halftime.

“It’s probably,” Mangino said, “the most disappointing offensive performance I’ve been around in a long, long time.”

Rewind a week, when Mangino, speaking of KU’s 12-3 loss at Kansas State, said, “: the disappointment lies in the fact that this was probably our least productive game on offense in the last three years.”

Both performances were worthy of such talk, especially considering the defensive efforts they wasted.

Until fatigue set in from 38 minutes stranded on the field, the defense made it a game once again, allowing no touchdowns in the first three quarters. KU failed to crack a football-field’s worth of total offense and still trailed by just a score with a quarter to play.

Frustration obviously has set in for KU’s defensive players.

Despite Mangino claiming a team divided wouldn’t happen, linebacker Nick Reid brought up the possibility of fist-fighting some offensive players, and when told of KU’s offensive ineptitude on the stat sheet, linebacker Kevin Kane simply replied, “That’s the facts right there.”

Another fact: KU was down 7-0 before the defense ever took the field, the result of Luke’s opening-drive interception being returned 65 yards for a touchdown by D.J. Wolfe.

Luke’s second pick put Oklahoma in field-goal range right away, and OU went only 15 yards on eight plays before booting a field goal.

KU’s Scott Webb kicked a 32-yard field goal near the end of the first quarter to make it 10-3, but a botched attempt in the second quarter, followed by a kick wide left, kept the Sooners comfortably ahead – by 7.

The Jayhawks’ best chance at a touchdown came in the third, when Brian Luke found Derek Fine for what appeared to be a 24-yard gain after a Gordon interception. But the replay official overruled the call when it was apparent that OU linebacker Rufus Alexander came down with the ball, not Fine.

That was it for KU’s scoring chances.

OU tacked on another touchdown and a field goal against the Jayhawks’ exhausted defense and boomer-Soonered on out of Arrowhead Stadium.

“I am not one to point fingers, but it really hurts, especially as the quarterback,” said Luke, who played the whole game and threw for 86 yards on 11-of-30 passing. “It is just going to push us that much harder to do well next game and find our rhythm. We need to find out what it is going to take and go with it.”

That’s all good, unless the problem isn’t with offensive schemes or who’s left on the sideline ready to make an impact. Mangino claims personnel isn’t the problem, and if he’s right, time’s running out to tap an unused reserve of touchdowns.

Otherwise, that well dried up in west Texas way back on Oct. 1, the last time KU reached the end zone.

“We need to do everything we can to improve this week,” guard Matt Thompson said, “because the season is running out very quickly.”