The top plays from Kentucky’s win over South Carolina

The Kentucky Wildcats improved to 5-0 Saturday night in a dominant 24-10 win over South Carolina. The Cats used a balanced rushing attack and an attacking defense to inflict their will upon the Gamecocks for most of the contest.

In honor of UK’s fifth victory of the season, let’s examine five plays that helped the Wildcats achieve victory, shall we?

The first play I would identify as key would be UK linebacker Jordan Jones hit, forced fumble, and recovery on USC running back Rico Dowdle.

Jones knifed through the Gamecock line and blasted Dowdle deep in their own territory, and that forced an early turnover that the Wildcats eventually scored upon. The play also fed the Cats’ intensity all night, as they would force three more USC turnovers in the win.

Speaking of turnovers, the No. 2 play of the night was senior UK safety Mike Edwards’ interception of USC’s Jake Bentley in the Gamecock end zone.

With South Carolina driving and seeming to have momentum, Edwards broke on a Bentley pass and forced an interception that not only broke South Carolina’s back, but it also ended Bentley’s night, as the quarterback did not return to the game due to an ankle injury.

As far as injuries go, Bentley was harrassed all night long by Wildcat senior linebacker Josh Allen. Allen had three sacks in his dominant performance, so the No. 3 play of the night is actually all three Allen sacks.

For the night, Allen had eight stops and four tackles for losses to go along with his sacks.

As you watch each of them, just enjoy the speed and power that Allen plays with while creating havoc in the Gamecock backfield. There’s no question that he will be doing this on Sunday’s at a NFL stadium near you.

The fourth play I would offer is running back AJ Rose blasting through Gamecocks defenders to the end zone. As much attention as Benny Snell gets, this was about as impressive of a run as we’ve seen from a Kentucky running back this year:

And what would a UK highlight reel be without a contribution by the Cats’ Heisman candidate, Benny Snell?

The fifth play of the night is Snell’s four-yard TD run in the second quarter. The play seemed to be blown up by the South Carolina defender, but as soon as the tackle attempt was made, Snell put him on spin cycle and left the Gamecock in his wake.

Nice. Very nice.

So, there you have the top plays by Kentucky in a victory that extends their winning streak over USC to five games. In the process, not only does UK move to 5-0 on the season, they also go to 3-0 in SEC play for only the fourth time in history (1977, 1950, and 1949.)

Next up for the Cats is a date in College Station with the Texas A&M Aggies as the Wildcats look to extend their streak to six.

What were your favorite plays? Let us know in the comments section.