The defensive line can’t put steady heat on the passer. The offensive line has trouble blowing open rushing lanes and protecting the passer. The running game often crawls. The secondary gets torched regularly. The remaining schedule is as tough as any in the nation.

The sky is falling. The sky is falling.

And the passing game is firing strikes through that falling sky, making all the doom and gloom whispers surrounding the Kansas University football team premature.

You know the whispers: “If South Florida and Iowa State can do that to our defense, what are Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas Tech and Texas going to do to us?”

Score a lot of points, just as all those defenses will have a difficult time keeping Todd Reesing and his gifted pack of receivers from scoring touchdowns.

It’s true that the four Big 12 teams ranked ahead of No. 16 Kansas have the advantage in line play, but on at least one side of the ball, Reesing tends to negate that with his remarkable pocket presence and ability to throw accurately on the run, long and short.

No Big 12 offense can match KU’s third-down success rate as high as KU’s 56.4 percent.

More statistics indicative of how difficult it will be even for four of the nation’s top seven teams to slow down Reesing: He ranks third in the country in total offense, completions (28.8) and passing yards (344.8) per game.

That Kansas has done what it’s done offensively when three players at key blocking positions (tackles Anthony Collins and Cesar Rodriguez and tight end Derek Fine) who combined for 97 starts have been replaced by three players (tackles Jeff Spikes and Jeremiah Hatch and tight end Tim Biere) who combined for zero snaps coming into the season is a testament to Reesing, offensive coordinator Ed Warinner and a receiving group led by the amazing Kerry Meier (second in the nation with 8.8 receptions per game and 11th with 102.8 yards per game).

“That’s a lot of experience we lost,” Warinner said. “Not only were they experienced players, they were very good players as evidenced that two of them were on active rosters in the NFL. No question you can’t replace that overnight. You can plug in bodies with the same amount of talent, but the experience level, and the game savvy and the ability to adjust in games and emotionally how to get yourself ready every week is something that you learn as you go.”

Overall, Warinner has to like what his offense is doing, even though it ranks last in the Big 12 with 118.6 rushing yards per game.

“I’m pretty pleased about the fact that our time of possession is good, we’re able to control the clock,” he said. “Converting third down is the key to that, staying on the field. We’ve been pretty efficient on first down, our passing game is completing over 70 percent and we’ve had a lot of success there. All that’s going to spread things out, keep people off balance. I’m happy that we’re finding ways to win, finding ways to move the ball, and that we’re still having a lot of success. We’re working through the growing pains of being young on offense and we’re getting better every week, I think.”

And they’re doing it all under a falling sky.