While its defensive line has struggled to apply pressure and its secondary has been almost completely overhauled and its pass defense has learned just how valuable Aqib Talib and James McClinton were, the Kansas University football team always could fall back on its proven ability to stop the run.

Through their first nine games of the 2008 season, the Jayhawks gave up just 111 yards a game (third-fewest in the Big 12), held five opponents to less than 100 yards on the ground and rarely gave up a big play to an opposing running back.

During Saturday’s 45-35 loss to Nebraska, however, Kansas’ run defense was far from stout, giving up 167 rushing yards and an average of 4.8 yards per carry against a Huskers team playing largely without its top rusher.

“The things that we said we had to do today, we did not do,” Kansas coach Mark Mangino said. “We said all week that we had to stop their run; we did not do that effectively, at least not in key situations.”

Earning most of the team’s carries due to an injury to preseason All-Big 12 running back Marlon Lucky, Nebraska reserve Roy Helu Jr. finished with 115 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries, including a 52-yard burst early in the fourth quarter that marked the longest touchdown run Kansas has surrendered this season and provided a significant shift in momentum.

“Coming into the game, all week we were focused on stopping the run, stopping the run, stopping the run,” said KU cornerback Justin Thornton of Helu’s fourth-quarter score that gave the Huskers a 31-21 lead. “And in the end, late, when we need a stop and they bust something like that, it definitely hurts.”

The inability to stop the run was an uncharacteristic hiccup for a team in dire need of a victory to remain a factor in the race for the Big 12 North title, and Sunday Mangino was more than a little unsettled with what he’d seen the day before.

“I didn’t think we did a good job in our front seven of playing our gaps,” he said. “We got cut off too many times. And then we tackled very poorly. There were several occasions where we actually blitzed into the gap that they were running in and we missed a tackle.”

The Jayhawks lost for the third time in their past four games and put themselves in an almost insurmountable hole in terms of winning the North.

Unless Kansas can somehow find a way to beat fourth-ranked Texas on Saturday at Memorial Stadium, then No. 12 Missouri on Nov. 29 (with Nebraska losing somewhere along the way), the Jayhawks will fall short of the Big 12 championship game Dec. 6.

“Once we get on this bus ride and have a second to think about this and how much this really sucks, we’ll go home and tomorrow we’ll get after it,” Thornton said Saturday. “We’ll be ready for Texas. We lost tonight, but Texas better not come in and sleep on us, because we’re coming ready to play.”

Kansas quarterback Todd Reesing, who was limping noticeably during the fourth quarter of Saturday’s loss, sustained no serious injury, Mangino said Sunday.

“Todd’s fine,” said Mangino, who doesn’t disclose the specifics of player injuries. “He’ll be fine.”

Additionally, starting cornerback Daymond Patterson, who left Saturday’s game due to an undisclosed injury, is expected to be ready for the team’s game against Texas.

“We have a number of guys who are banged up,” Mangino said. “A number of them are playing. They’re not letting it stop them, and I think as a coach, you appreciate those guys that’ll really tough it out. I think, like a lot of teams, we’re banged up in some areas, but we’ve got a number of kids that just continue to compete.”