Sunday, October 24, 2010

Houston, we have a problem.

     Kentucky was flying high after upsetting South Carolina but thudded back down to earth against Georgia and now must abort its plan to win the SEC Eastern Division crown. 
     Georgia linebacker Justin Houston created all kinds of problems for the Cats.  He forced one fumble, recovered another, and spent much of the evening in Mike Hartline's lap.  When he wasn't sacking the UK quarterback, he was at least breathing down his neck and making it difficult for Hartline to throw in rythym.
     Under the circumstances, it was downright remarkable that Kentucky's gutsy senior signal caller managed to complete 27 passes for more than 350 yards.  What wasn't remarkable was that UK dug itself another giant sized hole with poor tackling and turnovers close to their own goal line.  The former made Washaun Ealey look like the second coming of Bo Jackson, and the latter made things way too easy for Georgia to pile up points without having to go far to do it.
     As well as Hartline and his receiving corps have played this season, UK should be much better than a 4 & 4 team, but the defense never seems to play a full 4 quarters, and the Cats' kick coverage hasn't been nearly as good as their kickers.
     I don't have any answers for the inconsistency on defense, but offensively I do have a simple plan that should allow Kentucky to outscore every opponent remaining on the schedule.  Just pretended that it's 3rd and long every time they snap the ball, and the longer the better.  For some unknown reason, UK is almost unstoppable on 3rd and 14.  They tend to go backwards a lot on 1st and 2nd down, but when it's 3rd and an acre, this team is dynamite.
     The problem is that no matter what happens from here on out, it looks like the Cats are destined to go to another "lesser" bowl game while looking back at what might have been.
    

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