It's time to party, Kentucky fans! The Big Blue Nation has pulled a notable upset on the road versus a Georgia team that absolutely shot themselves in the foot not once, but so often that they were operating on one leg and a peg from the knee down.
Georgia utterly dominated Kentucky in every respect except for the one that mattered -- the final score. Georgia played a beautiful first half, and came back in the second half and did nothing but turn the ball over. This was not a good game by the Dawgs after that first half, and they really lost their composure in the second. I want to thank them for the effort, and my understanding is that they treat visiting teams with the greatest respect and classic Southern hospitality. But today, the Red Clay Hounds were their own worst enemy.
The first half of this football game was one of the most frustrating I have ever had the misfortune to witness. The play calling was weirdly inept, the defense as desperately needing an intravenous infusion of Viagra to cure its impotence. Georgia was running, passing, and dominating Kentucky utterly.
The domination was particularly complete on the lines. UK's O-line could not keep Georgia out of the backfield. The UK D-line got pushed around like they had four 150 lb. guys instead of 300+, and Joe Cox had enough time to brew a cup of coffee before looking for his receiver. At halftime, I was beginning to fear that UK was going to be uncompetitive for only the second time this season.
But when UK came out and forced a fumble for an immediate score on the opening kickoff of the second half, I knew we were back in the ball game. I figured that a close loss was likely, but how wrong I was. UK came out and reversed the line domination completely on defense, and mostly on offense. Georgia got frustrated and began throwing the football to UK players, with disastrous results. In the final ignominy, the Dawgs turned the ball over on the Kentucky one-yard line.
More after the jump.
Part of me feels for Georgia fans. Georgia is a true, old-South SEC football school. They play other sports in Athens, but football is the only sport that matters. This win steals the hearts from hundreds of thousands of Georgia fans thinking that perhaps this team had turned the corner after defeating ancient rival Auburn last week.
My recollection is that that Georgia stole the heart from us last year in basketball on senior day in Rupp Arena, a sport that we Wildcat fans take pretty seriously. Now they know what that feels like, having your favorite team in your favorite sport lose on the day you celebrate the seniors in your home stadium. I know from personal experience that it feels really bad.
Vengeance aside, this win validates this Kentucky team, at least on paper. I would dispute that it was the kind of win you can hang your hat on because so much of it was facilitated by Georgia mistakes. But UK was able to capitalize on those mistakes, so that is a big positive.
It is also a big positive that UK came out so strong after the half, when they could have just folded their tents and got ready for Tennessee next week. Instead, they came out and, with help from the Dawgs, found a way to steal the game and go to 7-4, 3-4 in the SEC.
As I write this, I am trying to watch the basketball game I missed earlier on replay, and finishing up the last tiny bit of a bottle of Four Roses I have had for quite some time. So I'll get to my observations now:
- Randall Cobb is indispensible to this team. Even injured, he affected the game.
- Trevard Lindley had the worst game I can remember for him. Cox threw some really good balls, as well as bad ones, and a lot of the good ones were in Lindley's direction.
- Wow, the turnovers. Great job by UK for being opportunistic.
- La'Rod King only had one catch, but what a catch it was!
- Locke is scary when he gets any space between him and the defense. Scary.
- It's been a long time since I've seen two teams reverse roles like that after the half.
- Our special teams were very good today. I think it's time we cut Ortmayer some slack.
- Joker Phillips called an okay second half. The first half was really bad.
- Arm tackling. Lots of it in the first half, not so much in the second.
- Tydlacka always seems to throw in a clunker, but that kick from the end zone might have been the difference in the game.
- I'm sorry Uga died. I hate it when dogs die.
- Who were these game announcers? I have rarely been more annoyed by two people announcing a football game.
- Morgan Newton is still a freshman, but he made better decisions in the second half.
- Randall Cobb and Derrick Locke may be two of the most underrated football players in America. But if they keep this up, it won't stay that way.
- One guy I forgot in my original post was Sam Maxwell. What a game by Sam! Game ball. He was everywhere, and the INT in the second half was the difference. What a great season he is having.
Okay, I'm done. Had a good day at the track, the basketball 'Cats finally played well, we beat Georgia between the hedges, and I have a few sips left of a lovely drop of bourbon.
This was a good day.