After Kansas University had an easy time gaining a Fort Worth Bowl victory against Houston, momentum in the program peaked. Even so, looking ahead to 2006, it wasn’t difficult to see the defense, at least against the pass, could have problems.

Nobody thought it would be this bad, though. What happened? Everything. Everywhere.

Starting up front, Eric Butler, the best pure pass rusher, didn’t gain an extra year of eligibility. At linebacker, the speediest players, Brandon Duncan and Eric Washington, are out with long-term injuries, and rugged tacklers Joe Mortensen and Mike Rivera struggle dropping into pass coverage.

In the secondary, the first bad news was that Charles Gordon was not coming back for his senior season. Darrell Stuckey, a red-shirt freshman, just recently returned from injury and is way behind schedule.

KU remains a strong defense against the run, but teams know it doesn’t make a lot of sense to try to establish the run against a team that routinely gives up big plays against the pass.

This week’s Big 12 picks:

Baylor 28, Kansas 24: The Jayhawks’ best shot of pulling off the mini-upset is if they fall behind early. They play better from behind because they let it fly and don’t play with the uptightness they play with when they have the lead.

Texas 42, Nebraska 21: Except for the loss to Ohio State, Texas has won every one of its games by margins of 17 points or greater. The Longhorns’ 42.7 points per game rank them second in the nation to Clemson. Taking advantage of tall targets Limas Sweed and Billy Pittman, red-shirt freshman quarterback Colt McCoy has thrown 18 touchdown passes and been intercepted three times. Nebraska’s defense, except against Kansas, has been strong in every one of its victories. Cornhuskers quarterback Zac Taylor also has been better than he showed against Kansas. He has 14 touchdown passes and two interceptions.

Missouri 38, Kansas State 10: Missouri shouldn’t have too much trouble pushing its home winning streak to eight games because it has the homefield advantage, and the K-State offense, as a rule, has been so quiet coach Ron Prince reportedly has challenged them loudly. Prince’s interesting rookie season has created a split in some areas of the locker room, with many of the Bill Snyder recruits feeling as if the coach favors his own recruits, such as promising freshman quarterback Josh Freeman.

Oklahoma 28, Colorado 24: Adrian Peterson’s broken collarbone leaves the Sooners without their first-down machine and puts more pressure on quarterback Paul Thompson, who has relied heavily on receiver Malcolm Kelly (460 receiving yards and six touchdowns). Coming off of a 30-6 blowout victory over Texas Tech, Colorado has shown signs of catching onto first-year coach Dan Hawkins’ system, but quarterback Bobby Jackson has been an inaccurate passer.

Iowa State 38, Texas Tech 31: Two of the most disappointing teams in the Big 12 clash in what should be a high-scoring game because both teams’ defenses have been easy to bully.

Texas A&M 31, Oklahoma State 27: The Cowboys more explosive, as they showed by scoring 42 second-half points against KU last weekend in Lawrence, but A&M has more solid line play, a better defense and a human battering ram of a running back Jorvorskie Lane. All of that should be good enough for the Aggies to score the road victory. Don’t look for A&M quarterback Stephen McGee to do something to lose the game. He’s thrown one interception.