Oklahoma Romps Over Kansas With Big Plays : Big Eight: Sooners gain 439 yards against conference’s top-rated defense in 41-3 victory.

Oklahoma entered Saturday’s game against Kansas coming off consecutive defeats to Texas and Colorado--losses that sent the Sooners tumbling 15 spots in the national poll.

Oklahoma’s biggest problem in recent weeks was its inability to score from inside the 30-yard line.

The Sooners, ranked No. 21, avoided that problem during their 41-3 victory over Kansas, compiling 439 yards against the top-rated defense in the Big Eight.

Oklahoma used four big plays to take a 34-3 halftime lead.

Otis Taylor’s 58-yard punt return for a touchdown midway through the first quarter started a string of five consecutive first-half touchdowns that quickly settled the outcome.

“I believe the punt return was a big turning point,” Kansas Coach Glen Mason said. “I was worried about that before today’s game. From what I saw of them, they had the potential for big plays.”

About four minutes after Taylor’s touchdown, wingback Ted Long ran 56 yards on a reverse, eluding a defender in the backfield and sprinting up the left sideline for a score.

Mike Gaddis, who led Oklahoma with 88 yards in 14 carries, scored on runs of four and 34 yards but didn’t play after being shaken up on his first carry of the second half.

The final touchdown of the half came on a 68-yard pass from Cale Gundy to Albert Hall.

Oklahoma improved its record to 5-2 and 2-1 in the Big Eight. Kansas is 4-3 and 1-2 after gaining only 166 yards and punting a season-high 11 times.

Kansas running back Tony Sands gained 89 yards in 21 carries to become the school’s career rushing leader.

Smith has 3,130 yards, passing Laverne Smith, who rushed for 3,074 from 1973-76.

But that was about the only impressive performance by a Jayhawk.

“I don’t think it’s too much to think we could have played a lot better,” Mason said. “Coaches, staff and all the players are disappointed. I thought we would play well today.”

Gundy completed eight of 12 passes for 175 yards with no interceptions. In the previous two games, he completed only 13 of 39 passes for 158 yards with three interceptions.

“I don’t know if this was my best game, but I feel like I did a good job today,” Gundy said. “I made a lot of calls at the line of scrimmage. Kansas gave us a lot of different things, and I feel like we did a good job of picking them up.”

Kansas had no luck passing and only a little more running.

Chip Hilleary started at quarterback and completed five of 10 passes for 39 yards. Reserve Nate Florell completed one of six for six yards.

“Obviously we’re much happier today than we’ve been the last two weeks,” Oklahoma Coach Gary Gibbs said.

“I thought the preparation during the course of the week allowed us to go out and play the way we did.”