Before the season, a Kansas football victory over Kansas State seemed like a foregone conclusion.

Now I’m not so sure.

In the last three weeks, the Jayhawks have plummeted. They were shockingly defeated by a bad Colorado team, and although it’s not exactly shocking that they lost to Oklahoma and Texas Tech, the way they lost those games was certainly surprising. Whereas quarterback Todd Reesing had earned a reputation of taking good care of the ball — he threw only seven interceptions all season in 2007 — he has become a turnover machine with seven of them in just the last three games, and that has been the biggest shortfall in KU’s pitfall.

Meanwhile, K-State has awakened from their slumber and has everyone thinking that the giant might be back. The Wildcats looked like they’d be a joke this year after barely winning by four over Massachusetts (who lost to Delaware by 16), losing to Louisiana (who lost to Florida Atlantic by 22), and getting pummeled by 52 against Texas Tech. Left for dead, KSU mystified everyone by beating Texas A&M by 48 for a one-week, 100-point turnaround, and then they proved it wasn’t a complete fluke by beating Colorado and only losing by 12 at Oklahoma.

So, with this week’s Sunflower Showdown being played in Manhattan, it’s actually the sentiment of many Big 12 followers that the Wildcats are more likely to win.

To which I say — slow down.

Just three weeks ago, the assertion that K-State will handle KU this year would’ve been ridiculous. So what has changed since then? Is K-State that much better, or is KU that much worse? Maybe a little of both, but to that much of a degree? I don’t think so.

First of all, the thing that’s been killing the Jayhawks during their skid is costly turnovers, which has been uncharacteristic of them in the last three years. I’m finding it hard to imagine that they’re going to continue to play like that for the rest of the season. Mark Mangino runs a pretty tight ship, and mistakes like they’ve been committing are generally addressed.

If KU plays for the rest of the season like they did the last three weeks, then they’ll lose the rest of their games, but I don’t think that’ll happen.

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