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Georgia 42, Kentucky 38: Post mortem

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Congratulations to the Georgia Bulldogs.  This victory was nobly won.

For Kentucky, it was an unfortunate end to a great football game.  Amazingly, the Cats had a chance to win this contest, but Randall Cobb chose crunch time to make one of the few mistakes he made today.  A tough loss for Kentucky despite fighting (and getting a little lucky) to be in great position to win at the end of the game.

What went right:

  • The offense moved the football well.  Randall Cobb and Joker Phillips have designed an offense that maximizes the benefits of Cobb's athleticism, and Georgia really had trouble with it.
  • The defensive line played pretty well, getting good pressure on Stafford most of the time and stuffing Moreno quite often after the first quarter.  Stafford had a huge day, but that was mostly due to the fact that Trevard Lindley went down with injury, which allowed the dangerous A.J. Green to assert himself.
  • The special teams were truly special today, and quite possibly the biggest reason we were in the game to the last second.
  • The running game for Kentucky was about the best I have seen all year.  The backs ran hard, and got yards against a quality SEC defense.
  • The young wide receivers are starting to get it.  I saw some excellent blocking in the secondary today, and we are seeing our young guys step up and make plays instead of taking plays off.
  • Randall Cobb -- Randall was amazing, even including that unfortunate screen pass attempt that ended the game.  He is only a freshman, but without him, we had no chance at all in this game.
  • Kentucky took away the football and won the turnover battle again.  Our turnover margin has been excellent the last three years, and it continues to give the Wildcats opportunities to win games that they otherwise might not have a chance to pull out.

What went wrong:

  • Kentucky's defense, as a unit, utterly failed.  There is just nothing else to say about that.  Granted, they were facing one of the best offenses in the SEC, and it is tough to stop a team with as many weapons as the Dawgs have, as I noted in both my pre-game analysis and the open thread.  But it is what it is, and giving up so many huge plays for touchdowns is not what SEC defenses do.
  • Arm tackling still seems to be a big problem with the 'Cats lately, and trying to arm tackle Knowshon Moreno can have only one result -- touchdowns and big plays.
  • UK surrendered more big plays after the catch today than we have seen this year except against Florida.  I suppose that is somewhat to be expected, since outside of Florida, the Bulldogs have the most explosive athletes in the SEC.  But UK did a very poor job of getting the Georgia athletes on the ground after the catch.
  • Play calling -- Joker Phillips generally did well, but there were a couple of inexplicable exceptions.  One was a bizarre pass play on 3rd and 1 early that gave Georgia a 3 and out that lead to a touchdown, that screen on the last UK play of the game, and that ill-conceived reverse call that put UK in a big hole in the second half.
  • Injuries -- I pray that Trevard Lindley's injury is minor, as he may be the only defensive player we cannot afford to lose.  I feel for Georgia as well in that regard, as I saw a couple more Bulldogs limp off the field, and they are even more banged up than Kentucky is.

Make no mistake, we blew a chance at a huge upset, but it wasn't all bad.  If the UK offense can continue to move the ball like they did today the rest of the season, we have a real chance to win that seventh and even eighth game.  Congrats to the Bulldogs, and tough luck for the Wildcats. 

At least it was a hard-fought game, and I think that with experience, our young offense will be able to win games like this in the future.  There is a lot to be proud of, but this loss still hurts.

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I do not believe in moral victories....

yet surprisingly I don’t feel so bad about this loss because UK showed heart and never gave up. They battled and battled and the better team won. I liked what I saw out of the offense today. UK ran all over UGA and had them on their heels. If you could have told me before the game that UK would be driving with a chance to win the game I would have taken it even if I thought you were crazy…lol. If they play like this offensively the next 2 weeks they will win out becuase neither Vandy or UT has an offense like UGA.

by SevenRings on Nov 8, 2008 4:28 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

Being proud of ...

… a hard fought game is not the same thing as acquiescing to a moral victory. It was a game we should have won, but the only reason why was that our team refused to stop playing hard.

The defense should feel bad about this loss. It is on them.

A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan

by Truzenzuzex on Nov 8, 2008 5:37 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Moral victories

are no longer possible for UK. The program, thankfully, has reached a level where any game is a possible win. I’m ecstatic that the program has reached the point where we don’t look for “moral victories”; however, it sure makes losing close games a lot more painful. This game is a great game for the offense to grow from and I can’t wait to see what is coming in the coming weeks. As to the defense, well….. lots of film to watch in the coming week.

by hoboat33 on Nov 8, 2008 8:27 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

I feel terrible...

and I’m past being satisfied with moral victories at this point. It’d be great if, for once, both sides of the ball would show up on the same day. A complete disaster on defense against a team that doesn’t run the type of offense that should give us that much trouble.

by BBallSophist on Nov 8, 2008 4:45 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

Yes it was a disaster.

But what part of an offense that features 4 NFL skill players strikes you as an offense that shouldn’t give us much trouble. I agree the UGA scheme is not terribly inventive and of course isn’t a spread scheme for which we have never consistently succeeded. But just how good each of those four players are make’s Georgia easily the second most dangerous offense in the SEC.

by lacrosse_cat on Nov 9, 2008 2:36 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Heartbreaker

I saw something whose last sighting was in the newspapers before the year began: the UK running game!! Great job and kudos to our running unit.

We totally fell apart when we lost Lindley. He’s really a superstar for us out there. Hopefully he will return to health.

What a heartbreaking loss – we did so well and fought so hard against a vastly superior team.

by EEWildcat on Nov 8, 2008 5:34 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

Rich Brooks

He has far surpassed all my expectations. I never expected UK football to be so competitive (except the Florida game) versus top caliber SEC opponents.

There is no tougher football conference but UK is competing in SEC play.

by FortyYearCatFan on Nov 8, 2008 8:44 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

Mine Too

I admit I was a doubter at first, after some lackluster (star-wise) recruiting. But the coaching staff is excellent, and we’re been very competitive now for three years straight. The best part is that he is really building something; we just keep getting deeper and better every year, overall, at every position. I thought we’d have a huge dropoff this year with all of the offense graduating, but we’ve been able to win games and we’re bowl eligible. If we can beat Tennesse this year and break the streak, I’ll be ecstatic!

by EEWildcat on Nov 8, 2008 9:50 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

defense

the defense didn’t “utterly fail”, we had a great first half and a great first part of the second half defensively. We only started to give up huge amounts of yardage when lindley got injured. So to say that the defense failed is not accurate at all

by hummer11092 on Nov 9, 2008 12:47 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

Oh ...

… so I suppose those 14 points in the first quarter were just a figment of our collective imagination, then?

Any defense that gives up 520 total yards and 42 points has failed, as a unit. UK gave up 21 points in the first half and 21 in the second half, 223 total yards in the first half and 297 in the second.

I’m sorry, but that looks like complete failure to me.

A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan

by Truzenzuzex on Nov 9, 2008 9:21 AM EST up reply actions   0 recs

One more ...

… comment in support of my “utterly failed” remark regarding the defense:

UK surrendered 9.1 yards per play. That is an otherworldly number, 17% more YPP than we allowed at Florida (7.6).

From a team defensive standpoint, this game represents, in the vernacular of the sports blogosphere, an “epic failure.”

A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan

by Truzenzuzex on Nov 9, 2008 9:40 AM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Damn fine effort!!!

I am filled with mixed emotions after this game, as many others I’ve noticed. It sucks to lose a game that had a bit of everything in it. Good calls, bad calls, spectacular cathces, heady decision making, awesome blocking, and even costly mistakes.

Hopfully them boys will remember just how close to winning they were at next practice. I’ve seen improvement all season from this team. Barring any other season ending injuries and/or fates I’m not willing to tempt, I expect this team to win out this season and quite possibly get a bid to the Chick Fil A Moo Cow Bowl.

Cobb is definitly the answer at QB. It was good to see his teammates come over after the game and pat him on the shoulder. Unity. They trust him to lead. Good sign. I expect him to go off on Vandy next week in the 2nd quarter and again in 2nd half. He really needs game action to see the field. It seems like if Cobb is really struggling (Miss St) Coach will put Hartline in on a few series so Randall can scout the defense in game. He’s even mentioned he does that when he’s at receiver.

If Lindley is done for….our defense better hope that Vandy doesn’t get hot like a forest fire and Tennessee doesn’t use our game as a final hurrah to send Fulbert off into faded orange glory. If those scenarios play out, and the TN one is quite possible, Lindley’s replacement better get his mind right in practice because (was it Jones?) he will get picked on for sure by Slim Pickens of Vandy.

Concerning Tennessee, their upset? by Wyoming today confirmed their bowl ineligibility. Is their any possibility that these guys just say WTF and take more plays off than ususal so they don’t have to get dinged up heading into the offseason? You know, go down a little easier (heh heh heh heh), maybe cough the ball up on a “vicious” strip, get off the line a little slower? I know that as a competitor your goal is to put all your effort into your contest so that you may be declared the victor and to you go the spoils but what if you have no spoils to play for? Sure they can shoot for 5-7, woo hoo. Tennesse has to play at Vandy the week before hosting us. Next week is a bye. Should we put the smackdown on Vandy and Vandy return the favor against the Vols who’s to say that Thanksgiving break can’t get here quick enough for the Vol and their fans. Women’s basketball has started and I believe I can hear, “Allo. My name is Bruce and I’m a shark.” screaming all the way over here in Little Rock. So why not get through this month as quickly as possible, say their goodbyes and move on. The admin has done so. I bet they’ve got their little black book earmarked to a specific page. Just waiting until the season is over, send a txt msg. Wait until the first of the year and officially go after their new coach. All I’m saying is, it would be nice for the Vols to roll over so our boys can reduce the possibility of injury to any more of our players. Sad, I know. Got nothing better to do than imagine a team like the Vols throwing in the towel. Wyoming is a tough team too.

It was a hellava game today. I’m looking forward to next week. I don’t feel so gloom and doom about our chances at Vandy. Yes, their defense is top notch but if we can recreate our efforts from today (most of them) we can beat Vandy in Nashville or Lexington.

GO BIG BLUE!!!

by bluecrip on Nov 9, 2008 4:19 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

No way we lose to Vandy.

No way.

A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan

by Truzenzuzex on Nov 9, 2008 9:22 AM EST up reply actions   0 recs

UK can always find a way!

In basketball we find ways to win… unfortunately, that’s not always the case in football.

(For the record… I don’t think we lose to Vandy either.)

Of course its difficult, its a shortcut... if it was easy it'd just be "the way."

by chirop1 on Nov 10, 2008 7:45 AM EST up reply actions   0 recs

yea..

yea but ur taking our defensive effort out of context. this was an offensive shootout both ways, with both defenses playing poorly initially, until the second half when uks defense was the one playing horrible and georgia holding us back eveytime

by hummer11092 on Nov 9, 2008 3:12 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

IMHO

The most frustrating thing in this game for me is that there were AT LEAST four (unbelievable) opportunitites – especially at the end of the game – for Kentucky to win. It was like the “football gods” kept setting Kentucky up to win and they just could not complete. As far as ’moral victories" go, I will take the Alabama game 100 times over what I saw on Saturday. It was not a blow-out, but I thought overall it was a terrible game and left a really bad taste in my mouth. Oh, all the blown opportunities in this one…..

by kentuckygirl0724 on Nov 10, 2008 8:36 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

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