BonnerSprings.com

The Kansas Kaos lost 23-16 to the KC Shockers Saturday night at Bonner Springs High School.

"It was very disappointing," Kaos coach Ed Williams said. "It was a tough loss. You have those, and you just have to bounce back."

The Kaos' vaunted rushing attack wasn't given a chance to get rolling as the Kaos spent the entire second half playing from behind.

"They really did a good job of doing some things defensively, giving us a 3-4 look," Williams said. "They filled the gaps, which affected our running game. We weren't able to establish the run game like we typically do. That's why we went to four and five wide (receiver) sets."

Quarterback Jason Sutherland, making his first start after Williams benched former starter Nick Wilkowski, got plenty of action in his debut. Sutherland completed 17 of 26 passes for 209 yards and a touchdown. He was also sacked four times and ran for 35 yards on 21 attempts.

The team was forced to leave their general plan of attack, a strong rushing game, and spread the field with a shotgun formation and four or five receivers.

"We put Jason in the shotgun, trying to create a lot of mismatches," Williams said. "We did, and we were successful at that. We have some diversity on offense. We found something that fit against their defense, and ran that. But we couldn't establish the run, and that hurt us, especially down the stretch."

Running back Allen Williams did not figure prominently. The former Detroit Lion rushed for 31 yards on his first three attempts but finished with only 38 yards on nine attempts.

"Allen, he sets the tone a lot of times," Williams said. "He gives us an idea of what we can do, and we can predicate the pass game off of that. But they did a good job of attacking us in areas where we were weak. It was tough to establish Allen and the run game."

The Kaos led 7-0 after the first quarter on a Sutherland run. The Shockers battled back and led 10-9 at the intermission.

The Shockers piled on in the third quarter, scoring a pair of touchdowns to push the lead to 23-7. The Kaos were forced to the air and couldn't make up the deficit, scoring one touchdown in the fourth.

The Kaos (2-2) will visit the KC Jazz next week. The Kaos easily routed the Jazz last week at BSHS, 48-17.

"We ran the ball quite a bit against them last time, and we will look to establish the run and set the tone in the run game," Williams said. "We're by far not out of this. If we win three games, we are right back in the hunt."

The coach said he happy with his new quarterback's performance.

"I was really excited for Jason coming into the game," Williams said. "Offensively, we haven't always done as well in the passing game. Jason was very good. He took care of the ball quite well. There was one fumble exchange, but other than that I was really happy with Jason's performance.

"He is a competitor. The first thing, he called me on Sunday morning and asked me, 'What can I do to get better?' As a coach you like that, because he isn't satisfied with a loss. For his first game, I thought he did an excellent job and I think he will be a fierce competitor."