Kansas Jayhawks at Oklahoma Sooners - Three Takeaways: Can't ignore the red flags anymore.

The Kansas Jayhawks fell again this past weekend, but we learned a few more things that should give fans hope for a bowl game still.

It was the second loss in a row for the Kansas Jayhawks, as the Oklahoma Sooners flexed their advantage in athleticism and ran over the Jayhawks, literally and figuratively.

But a loss doesn't only point out the negative things with this team. Instead, we have an opportunity to reflect on what has worked this year and why it didn't work here. And there are plenty of good lessons to learn. With that in mind, here are a few takeaways from Saturday's loss:

There is a reason Jalon Daniels was the starter.

Last week on the podcast, we wondered aloud if Jalon Daniels was automatically guaranteed his job back when he gets back. Despite there being a reported quarterback competition coming out of camp, Brendan and I agreed that Daniels brings more to this offense when he is healthy, even if Jason Bean is one of the better backups that you can find in the conference.

And Saturday's game against Oklahoma really showed why. Bean has every bit the arm strength that Daniels does, but he lacks a certain touch on his passes that sometimes leads to issues. On his two interceptions, he threw bullet passes to the receivers when it would have been more appropriate to loft one over the defender. And in both cases, the defender made an athletic play to snag a ball that should have been just a bit higher.

𝗝𝗨𝗠𝗣𝗠𝗔𝗡. CJ Coldon with 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥 😮‍💨#OUDNA | 📺 ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/LgRpy3nS36

— Oklahoma Football (@OU_Football) October 15, 2022

This is not to imply that Bean is not a capable player, or that the Jayhawks should rush Daniels back. Instead, Saturday was a clear indication that this offense is powered by the good decision making and situational throws that Daniels is able to make, and a good offense will be even greater once he does return.

Depth is useless if you can't bring in subs

All year, I've been talking about the depth of this defense. Defensive Coordinator Brian Borland mentioned it during camp. Lance Leipold has talked about it multiple times, including right after the Duke game when he acknowledged that this team doesn't have the top end talent to go blow for blow with the top talent of the rest of the league for a full 60 minutes.

And Oklahoma took full advantage of this fact. Their starters are bigger, faster and stronger, which is a fact that can't be ignored. And the Sooners ran a hurry-up offense for the majority of this game. This prevented Kansas from subbing in players on the defense, and the results were a very tired team that missed tackles and assignments as they just struggled to stay on their feet.

Unfortunately, it's a fairly straightforward tactic that teams can take to attack the Jayhawks on defense. But fortunately, there aren't many teams in the Big 12 that are equipped to take advantage of that fact like the Sooners were. Oklahoma State theoretically has the players for it, but they don't play the hurry-up very often. Baylor likely doesn't have the horses needed to do it for more than a quarter, and neither do Texas Tech or Kansas State. That leaves Texas, a team that might be able to do it, but they haven't shown a desire to at this point.

Injuries are starting to be a real problem.

The Kansas Jayhawks suffered another significant setback on the injury front when Jacobee Bryant left the game in the first half with an ankle injury. While the nature of the injury isn't exactly known at this point, the expectation is that he will be out for a significant amount of time, if not the rest of the season.

This is a huge blow for a defensive secondary that has been looking for quality depth this season. While they started with enough players to fill out the two-deep, the loss of Bryant deprives the Jayhawks of one of their best weapons in the secondary. And that means that teams can try to go downfield more often.

Additionally, multiple players have been banged up to an extent that wasn't really shared publicly before. We found out during the game that Lonnie Phelps has been battling an undisclosed injury that was limiting his effectiveness.

Lonnie didn't start and has only came in a couple of times so thats the reason you haven't said his name he is hurt. But we are ok just fix a couple of things I believe in us #KUvsOU

— Lonnie Phelps Sr. (@Imgoodphelps) October 15, 2022

It's true that every team deals with injuries. But Kansas has seen some pretty big injuries to very important players. They get Baylor on the road this week and then a much-needed bye to rest up and try to get healthy.

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