Swamped Again

     Take heart, Cat fans.  Kentucky is just like the majority of teams in the SEC this year.  They've got some really good players, but not enough to go on the road and beat one the league's elite teams, especially when that road leads to the swamp.
     UK's defense was suspect heading into this season, and it still is.  Florida hadn't scored an offensive touchdown in the first quarter of any of their first three games, and their quarterback, John Brantley, had struggled in the early stages of those games.  He completed 9 of his first 12 passes against UK, one of them for a touchdown as the Gators jumped out to a quick 14 - 0 lead.
     Even when UK got great field position after a Florida miscue, the Cats meekly went 3 and out.  Then an understandably frustrated Mike Hartline tried to force a pass that wasn't there, and the result was yet another Gator touchdown.
     The Cats only TD of the first half was the result of some Derek Jeter like "trickeration" when Chris Matthews pretended to run off the field and instead hung around near the sidelines long enough to catch a pass in the end zone on a fake field goal.  Urban Meyer seemed downright embarrassed that he and his assistant coaches didn't notice what was going on soon enough to get a defender out there on Matthews.  Personally, I think UK should have opened up its bag of tricks a little earlier.  What have you got to lose when you're clearly outmanned.
     At any rate, trailing 21 to 7, Kentucky's only hope was to stop the Gators on their first possession of the second half and then mount a scoring drive of their own.  Instead Florida marched right down the field to increase their lead to 20 points.  Anyone who thought the Cats were going to come roaring back to win at that point had been drinking way too much of the blue Kool-Aid.
     The ease with which Florida scored in the second half exposed the fact that UK's linebackers collectively lack the speed to compete against the SEC's best.
Ronnie Sneed is a gutsy kid who gets all he can out of the talent he possesses, but against Florida, he was a step and a half late getting everywhere he needed to be.  I can't help but wonder if he was late for the pre-game meal.
     The best chance Kentucky had to make a game of it in Gainesville was to put a lot of pressure on Brantley and force him into making bad throws.  That didn't happen.  He had time to throw all night, and it was obvious that the Gators could have beaten UK without Brantley the way Trey Burton operated out of the Wildcat formation.  Every time Florida got deep into Kentucky territory and lined up in the Wildcat in the second half, everybody in the stadium knew what they were going to do, and yet UK still couldn't keep Burton out of the end zone.
     The only way the Cats were going to score enough points to wipe that smug smile off the face of Urban Meyer was for Randall Cobb and Derek Locke both to have big games, and of course, that didn't happen either.  Other SEC opponents know now that if they can somehow neutralize both of those guys,
Kentucky probably can't win.
     Still there were some positive signs in this shellacking.  Chris Matthews has clearly evolved into a game changing receiver.  The Cats completed almost as many passes as the Gators and had almost as many first downs, and it wouldn't have been fair to expect UK to get through a fourth straight game without a turnover.
     So now here we are at the proverbial fork in the road.  Veer off one way and lose at Ole Miss next week and this season could get away from the Cats.  Take the high road and pull of an impressive win in Oxford and suddenly we remember all the things we like about this UK team and its coaching staff.