5 Oklahoma Sooners most to blame for upset loss to Kansas

1. Brent Venables

Brent Venables took responsibility for the loss after the game. And he's right. His team played sloppy with mistakes on offensive, defense and special teams, putting them in position to lose. The buck stops with him in the most basic sense.

Even beyond that, Venables' game management needs to be called into question. He admitted he screwed up by not calling a timeout before the backbreaking fourth-and-six play that set up Kansas' game-winning touchdown. His defense wasn't ready to make the stop and they got burned for 37 yards.

That wasn't the only time the defense wasn't prepared. They blew the coverage on another fourth-down conversion earlier in the quarter. They gave up 443 yards to an offense run by a backup quarterback. They allowed 5.5 yards per carry.

The Sooners committed three turnovers and 11 penalties for 101 yards. Those are the recipe for an upset.

And this shouldn't have been a surprise for Venables or his staff. Oklahoma flirted with disaster last week against UCF in a letdown spot. Maybe this was a lookahead trap game with Oklahoma State coming up, but you've still got to be ready to play everyone in front of you.