No. 24 Sooners roll past Jayhawks

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — To Landry Jones, the Oklahoma defense is similar to a cool breeze on a hot afternoon.

“Comforting,” said the Sooners quarterback. “It’s really comforting to have a great defense like that.”

While his defense intercepted Todd Reesing on Kansas’ first three possessions and held the nation’s second-ranked offense about 200 yards beneath its average, Jones threw two touchdown passes Saturday and No. 25 Oklahoma cruised past No. 24 Kansas, 35-13.

Chris Brown scored three touchdowns for the Sooners (4-3, 2-1 Big 12) and Dominique Franks set the defensive tone with an 85-yard touchdown return of the second interception of the Jayhawks’ career leading passer.

That made it 14-6 at the half, then the Sooners put the game out of reach with two long scoring drives in the third quarter.

“We went in at halftime and we were talking about how we were struggling a little bit,” said Jones, starting for injured Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford. “When we came out [in the second half], we knew we had to go out there and execute. We came out in the second half and we did our thing.”

The Sooners were never threatened by the Jayhawks (5-2, 1-2), who were hoping for a victory to validate their newfound status as Big 12 contenders.

Instead, it was an almost complete domination by the Sooners.

Kansas had only two field goals until Reesing scored on a short run with less than 5 minutes to play.

“Rough day at the office for us, that’s for sure,” said Reesing, who came in as the nation’s No. 5 passer. “Three interceptions — it’s kind of hard to bounce back from that no matter how well your defense plays, or what else is going on.”

Jones had little trouble with a Kansas defense that’s been undergoing a midseason overhaul, and the Jayhawks also hurt themselves with penalties as well as turnovers. They had been averaging 503 yards per game.

“I think what we saw today is about as good [a defense] as you can get,” Kansas wide receiver Kerry Meier said. “I didn’t think they were as fast as they were last year. But the speed they had on the field and the way they closed on the ball in certain plays, I think this is the top defense in the country right now.”

Kansas’ Dezmon Briscoe, the nation’s leading receiver with 134 yards per game, was held to 60 yards on seven catches — 209 fewer yards than he had in a record-breaking day against the Sooners last year.

“I thought [defensive coordinator] Brent Venables and our defensive guys had a great game plan,” said Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops (Mooney High). “We were very aggressive in how we played.”

Jones’ stats — 26 of 38 for 252 yards — were similar to Reesing’s 22 of 42 for 224. But he was not sacked and he threw only one interception that was not his fault. Reesing, who had averaged 356 yards in his last five conference games, was sacked three times and hurried constantly.