Lance Leipold felt Oklahoma got KU football ‘on our heels,’and Kansas couldn’t quite recover

NORMAN, Okla. — Kansas football had a moment where it felt like the Jayhawks had salvaged their chance at a win Saturday on the road against Oklahoma.

The Sooners were up 35-21 late in the second quarter and driving as the time dwindled down toward halftime. They were at Kansas’ 1-yard line, threatening to score as time ran out. The Jayhawks were able to make the stop at the goal line to keep the deficit from growing any more before the break.

Kansas could go to the locker room, despite all the issues present in the first half, with some momentum. They were receiving the ball to start the second half and had all the opportunity to drive down the field and take control of the game.

But Kansas wound up punting on that drive and watched Oklahoma go up 42-21 minutes later. Jayhawks head coach Lance Leipold felt the Sooners had his team “on our heels” for most of the day, and that had to be one of those moments. That score tied the largest deficit No. 20 Kansas faced Saturday in what ended up being a 52-42 loss that exemplified Leipold's team doesn’t have the biggest margin for error.

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“I’m not saying we’ve got to play perfect football by any stretch,” Leipold said. “I mean, that’s not realistic. But there’s some things that we’ve got to be a little bit better on that I’d like to see us [do] — but, like I told the team, some of these things I say now I need to wait to see, that we not make emotional statements to all of you either until we really look at it.”

Leipold doesn’t have a problem pointing out they scored 42 points and can feel pretty good about some things, and he shouldn’t. But the Jayhawks also allowed the Sooners to rack up 701 yards of total offense, run 100 plays and score those 52 points. Leipold knows Kansas can’t give all that up and expect to win a lot of football games in the Big 12.

Oklahoma (4-3, 1-3 in Big 12) eclipsed the century mark for plays run for the first time since 2014. It converted 36 first downs and averaged seven yards per play. Sooners redshirt junior quarterback Dillon Gabriel threw for 403 yards while completing 69% of his passes, as senior running back Eric Gray rushed for 176 yards and two touchdowns while averaging 8.8 yards per carry.

It’s hard to beat a team when stops are few and far between, even if the Jayhawks were able to force the three turnovers. . Leipold highlighted the interception by senior safety Kenny Logan Jr. and two fumble recoveries by redshirt senior defensive end Hayden Hatcher as positives Kansas can take away from the loss. Overall, the Jayhawks didn’t perform on the defensive side of the ball to the level they’d shown themselves capable of playing at earlier this season.

RELATED:Recap: No. 20 KU football falls to Oklahoma 52-42 in Norman

“I mean, I wouldn’t call it a regression,” Logan said. “I’d just call it that we’ve just got to fine-tune the little things and get back to the details and get back to the stuff that got us here. I don’t think we took steps back. I just think we’ve just got to clean up on the small mistakes.”

Small mistakes could very well be what Kansas offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki points to in the days ahead, when it comes to why the Jayhawks struggled on first and second downs. Kansas frequently found itself in 3rd-and-long situations. The Jayhawks finished 5-for-11 on third downs and the Sooners finished 16-for-21.

Staying on the field for more sustained drives would've allowed Kansas to run more plays, It would have allowed redshirt senior quarterback Jason Bean, who still threw for four touchdowns, to have more chances to lead Kansas on scoring drives. Instead, the opportunities were more limited and the two interceptions Bean threw loomed larger.

Senior tight end Mason Fairchild, who caught two of Bean’s touchdown passes, said Oklahoma tried to do defensively what Kansas does offensively — cause confusion pre-snap. That contributed to some of the Sooners’ success.

“I’m sure coach (Jeff) Lebby had a heck of a time today having some fun calling all the 100 plays, because there’s a lot of things that were clicking for them,” said Leipold, referring to Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. “Andy’s had those days. I wouldn’t say today was one of those for us.”

The Jayhawks could use one of those days next week when they go on the road to face Baylor. They could really use one a couple weeks later when they face Oklahoma State after their bye week. Kansas’ schedule isn’t getting any easier in the short term. Leipold envisions his team being in tight games throughout the rest of the season.

The Jayhawks don’t have their backs against the wall right now like Leipold thought the Sooners did Saturday. But depending on how the next couple games go, that could start to change. Right now, it’s just a couple of losses in a row, but it could soon turn into a slide.

Ensuring that doesn’t happen, in Fairchild’s mind, means not overlooking what’s next. Focus on Baylor without thinking ahead to the open week, and the chance to get some injured players back, that follows.

“If you ask (director of sports performance) coach (Matt Gildersleeve), we love adversity,” Fairchild said. “That’s something he always harps on. During winter workouts he always tried to put us in adverse positions. So, I think it’s — we’re a team that’s built for that. I mean, obviously … we’ve had some guys go down. But it’s next man up. That’s what’s so great about the competition we have on the team, is we have so many guys chomping at the bit ready to go. So, I think we’re going to respond well.”

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Lance Leipold felt Oklahoma got Kansas football ‘on our heels’