There are two ways to take this Alabama game. If you had told me that Kentucky would play the #2 team in the nation within three points, especially given the fact that said #2 team absolutely decimated Georgia at Athens and Clemson, I would be happy. If you were to tell me that Kentucky would hold that #2 team in the country to 106 yards through the air, 5-17 on the 3rd downs, and force 3 turnovers, I would be thrilled. So those are all things that Cat fans can take away from this game.
The bad came down to two plays... Glen Coffee's 218 yards on the ground (which includes a 78-yard scamper), and Mike Hartline's fumble. Hartline will take a beating for that play, which resulted in a Bama TD, so I won't harp on it too much, but it's unacceptable. I can't for the life of me figure out why it's happening, but I know it has got to stop. And I also know that Hartline had best enjoy his time as QB1, because come next fall, with the arrival of Ryan Mossakowski and Morgan Newton, it's over. As for Coffee's rushing stats, you knock out the 78-yarder and he put up 130. Good, but not fantastic. Two plays. 14 points for Bama. That's kind of large.
I said it on Saturday evening, and I'll say it again now... Alabama didn't win this game. Kentucky lost it. Yes, Alabama is a great team. Yes, it still goes down as a loss. Alabama fans will call me stupid and ridiculous. But you really take a look at the box score and you notice that Kentucky hung with Alabama. Yes, the rushing was stagnant. Yes, there were WAY too many drops by the Kentucky receiving corps. But after the love fest Bama was getting from the national media, the fact UK hung with them is a good thing and won't hurt the team too bad in the national purview.
All in all, I'm not happy that Kentucky lost, and certainly not happy with the way Kentucky lost, but it could have been markedly worse. Most pundits and experts (yours truly included) thought this was going to be a bloodbath. It wasn't, and I have no choice but to focus on that and get ready for South Carolina this weekend.
Rich Brooks' post game comments. He sounds just simply defeated. He, as most Kentucky fans, know they could have won this game but beat themselves:
Monday, October 06, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
yea your right im a bama fan and you are crazy we fumbled the ball on the 3 missed 2 feild goals and gave them a last sec. touchdown we let them hang around dont get me wrong they cause us to do all those bad things but you won't see that again after this week off we are going to be ready to roll the next half of the season!!!
Post a Comment