Instead of taking a knee and running out the clock, Kansas University’s football team elected to run a final play Saturday afternoon in the final seconds of a lopsided victory over Baylor.

Oops. Angus Quigley turned a simple dive play into a 22-yard burst for a touchdown, making some wonder if the Jayhawks ran up the score in a 58-10 shellacking of the Big 12 South Division school.

“No,” Baylor coach Guy Morriss replied, asked the “did KU try to run it up?” question. “They are just running their offense.”

A Baylor beat writer asked if KU coach Mark Mangino apologized for the late TD as the two shook hands at midfield after the contest.

“He said something about it,” Morriss replied. “I told him that was our fault. It’s our job to keep you out of the end zone. He was running the football. If he was throwing the fade three straight times in a row, it’d be one thing.”

KU’s last six plays were runs.

“I’ve never complained about that,” Morriss said after his team fell to 3-4 overall, 0-3 in the conference compared to KU’s 6-0, 2-0 mark. “What do you tell your kids? Try not to score after you program them to execute your offense? That’s on us to get them to stop. I have no problem with that at all.”

Starting quarterback Blake Szymanski, who was lifted for a spell in the third quarter after throwing three interceptions, said “probably,” when asked if KU ran it up.

“The guy made a good run,” Szymanski said. “You can’t really blame them for scoring touchdowns. I don’t have much say in that. The guy made a good run. We didn’t tackle him.”

David Gettis, who returned a third-quarter kickoff 97 yards for a score, said KU did not run it up.

“They were just playing football. If we were in the same situation, we would continue to try to run the ball, put our younger guys in,” Gettis said. “I don’t think that is a factor at all. This is football. They are not going to lay down for us. We are not going to lay down for them. Once they got the momentum, they kept it rolling.”

The Bears didn’t blame the one-hour, 45-minute delay in the start time (because of lightning) for their ineffectiveness. Nor did they blame a 30-minute delay that immediately followed Marcus Herford’s 88-yard kick return for a score that busted a 3-all tie.

“It was the same for both teams. That’s just something you have to learn to handle,” Morriss said. “(After the kick return) we went in and talked about what we’d seen, tried to get everybody calmed down and tell them the importance of executing, do what you are supposed to do so we can get back in this thing. We warmed up. I didn’t see a lot of change (when play continued).”

The Bears tried different looks at QB. Transfer Ryan Roberts took over in the third quarter, then it was back to Szymanski, with freshman Tyler Beatty finishing up.

“The last couple of weeks, he (Roberts) has probably been sharper in practice,” Morriss said. “We felt he deserved a shot, see what he can do, if nothing else let Blake stand on the sideline, maybe slow things down a bit, get his composure back. We put him back in. It didn’t get much better so then we go to the freshman and see what he can do. He wasn’t any better, either.”

Szymanski hit 18 of 33 passes for 119 yards and the three picks; Roberts was 3-for-5 for 28 yards and Beatty 1-of-5 for seven yards with an interception.

Morriss said the Bears probably would return to Szymanski for Saturday’s home game against Texas.