Thoughts on the Cats win tonight

[UKErik]

Wow. Kentucky had a monster lead (33-10) and was seemingly on their way to the route most of us anticipated. Unfortunately, it was almost all Louisiana-Lafayette afterwards. A few thoughts;

*I wonder what would have happened had ULL not picked up that 15 yard face mask flag on UK's final possession. ULL was dominating and UK was facing a 3rd down. Glad the Cats caught that break!

*UK showed early in the game that it will be difficult to press their WR's. Just a ton of speed from those guys. Honestly, other than the Boom Williams run to start the game, I'm not sure what else happened to offer encouragement for next week.

*The play of Patrick Towles was stunningly poor. We all know he's an erratic passer. Tonight, he was woefully missing receivers. Underthrows. Overthrows. Throwing behind guys. It's rare that erratic passers suddenly discover the ability to throw accurately consistently. Towles did throw some nice balls, but he can't be "the guy" for the next two years if this inconsistency continues.

*I thought the defensive line was mostly awful. It wasn't often that ULL faced 3rd and long. Not often at all. Give Lewis credit for a HUGE TFL when the game was tied at 33. Otherwise, the defense had few highlights. ULL put up nearly 500 yards tonight.

*The stadium looked remarkable. Good to see BBN pack the place!!! I'm guessing the attendance was in the 63K range.

*Two things about Eliot's scheme that I've complained about for two years, but gave him benefit of the doubt because of UK's talent level. Opponents seem to get the edge too easily against the Cats. Outside, UK plays soft.

*One massive positive today, the turnover margin. Without it, UK probably goes down.

*Hopefully, the suspensions of a couple of defensive starters were the reason this defense struggled so much (LOL). We can at least hope.

On to Columbia.

GBB!!!

 

[UKErik]

One more thought. If UK doesn't clean up their read option defense, South Carolina will win with ease next week.


GBB!!!

 

[JustthefaxMa'am]

Not good thoughts. Disappointed. I'll be watching again next week though.

 

[CloverforkCat]

1st game, probably let up mentally, need to work on SEVERAL things this week before USC next week. Towles started great, but really struggle last 2 and a half qtrs. Need to run more IMO, defense got tired, and got gashed, but did step up in the end.

 

[UKWildcats#8]

One more thought. If UK doesn't clean up their read option defense, South Carolina will win with ease next week.


GBB!!!

I agree Erik. If Spurrier wants to win he should just run the Wildcat with Cooper the whole game. I am seriously doubting we can stop it consistently enough, but he is a stubborn SOB so maybe he will leave Mitch at QB most of the game.

 

[FreeSafety36]

2 things stood out to me.

1. Patrick Towles. He's simply too inconsistent to get the rest of the offense up to their ability. I said last year, Neal Brown didn't forget how to be OC, he was extremely limited by his QB. We beat SC last year when we went away from PT. The final drive tonight was penalties and yards on the ground. I hope the coaches make the move before games are lost that could otherwise be wins.

2. Defensive line got zero pressure. The only pressure we got at all came from blitzes. If that continues, we're going to have to score 50 to win...and we can't do that unless point number 1 is addressed.

 

[permdaddy]

Stoops might make it as a head coach but he has to realize he can't coach or be involved with the defense. He needs to go out and get a defensive coordinator. If Stoops and Marrow can keep recruiting like they are we might get a quality SEC product. I feel like we have the right guy on offense going forward.

 

[ukalumni00]

At this point, I will just take the win and forget this game was played. Now the QB debate begins and the dcoordinator officially on the hot seat with the fans. Terrible circumstances for this team to be in after only one game.

KY Football, the gift that keeps on giving.

 

[FishersBlue]

One more thought. If UK doesn't clean up their read option defense, South Carolina will win with ease next week.


GBB!!!

Erik,

Good analysis. I'm just not sure Towles is going to improve. I think he is what he is at this point, a decent QB who is too inconsistent to lead this team to 6 or 7 wins. Maybe next year as the talent continues to improve around him, but not quite yet. I'm not saying Barker is the answer. I just don't trust Towles as UK's starting QB.

WR and RB play looked really solid to me. The offensive play calling seemed a bit vanilla given the ULL press defense most of the night, but UK made enough big plays.

OL protected Towles all night and opened up some running lanes.

Defensively...I don't know. Read option teams may put up 50. I don't recall much pressure on the QB, some poor tackling here or there. Just doesn't seem quite yet to be an SEC-level defense.

 

[hmt5000]

is it just me or did we look like we had dead legs this game? boom got caught on that one long run and timmons and jojo got caught by lb'ers on a couple plays... just looked like we came out hard and ran out of gas quickly... idk, maybe they are that fast of a team but it just looked to me like we were dead legged.

 

[Perrin75]

I personally didn't think Towles looked good at any point in this game. I don't recall a single pass where he put the ball in a position where the receiver could catch the ball in stride. They constantly had to adjust to make a play. Towles plays even halfway decent and we win in a walk. I am stunned at how little he has improved from last season.

 

[TotesMcGotes]

2006 Kentucky vs UL-Monroe. Final score UK42 ULM40
we won 8 games that year (including the bowl). sometimes you have to take a win and be happy with it.

 

[Aces Fan]

There were a couple things that were a huge disappointment, the first is Towles. He was not good and I would have serious thoughts about playing Barker.

The second thing was the defense. Our corners give way to much space to WR that have no chance of running by them. Our LBs are so slow to fill a hole, they look like they have idea where to be.

 

[RUPPsRevenge1]

Great thing to be able to look at areas to improve will still strutting the big W around campus all week. Rick Flair style. A win is a win guys.

 

[UKErik]

No doubt. A win is a win. You don't get additional W's for beauty. Just pointing out some things from tonight's game.

GBB!!!

 

[Caveman Catfan]

I thought Towles started weak, then caught a good wave in the middle of the first quarter that lasted to the beginning of the 2nd. Otherwise, he was erratic. His WR was blasting the competition, but he could not connect. UK had over 200 yards in the first quarter, I think. Ends with 435.

UK had 18 first downs to 28 for ULL.
UK had 60 plays to ULL's 88.
They out rushed us by 69 yards.
TOs were the difference.
Wow

 

[Dallas-Wild]

Erik is spot on. I'm so pi$$ed right now I will not type more. Have to settle down.

 

[UKCatnNC]

I kept thinking, "Maybe they are keeping the offense under wraps.". It sure didn't seem to have much imagination. There wasn't much of a running game. And was there a pass thrown to a tight end? Hopefully this is just the "first game" and we were looking ahead. A win is a win! Go Cats!!

 

[UKCatnNC]

And thank you UKErik. I am looking forward to your game breakdowns. Go Cats!!

 

[Blueaz]

Great thing to be able to look at areas to improve will still strutting the big W around campus all week. Rick Flair style. A win is a win guys.

I respectively disagree...there should be not strutting or Rick Flair Woooooing. Celebrate tonight and get to work after church on Sunday.
If Stoops and the team want to keep butts in those new seats in the stands, we have to beat teams like ULL more easily.
It doesn't have be a blow out, but it should be much easier than hoping the other team fumbles and gets bad penalties.

 

[MrHotDice]

At this point, I will just take the win and forget this game was played. Now the QB debate begins and the dcoordinator officially on the hot seat with the fans. Terrible circumstances for this team to be in after only one game.

KY Football, the gift that keeps on giving.

Every d coordinator is on the hot seat at UK because they keep playing the same type players on defense. With no team speed or quickness nothing will change. Good teams react toward the ball, but UKs first reaction is to raise up or stand still.

 

[CHAMPCAT11]

Towles was terrible. It was the first game of the season and funny things can happen but if this is all we can get from PT we need to move on. He was awful and didn't even seem to be motivated. Hopefully this was just the jitters of the new stadium and the first game of the year with a young team.

 

[anon_013cn8yrfncx2]

At least we now have the psychological edge next week and we still got the win. It remains to be seen about Towles.
Someone posted how he never hits the receivers in stride. Timmons was the closest but still over the wrong shoulder.

I believe we will play better next week. Whether that translates into a win or not is anybody's guess! GBB

 

[KYBallCoach]

Good points UK Erik! Great job by the fans in attendance. Way to represent BBN and hang with the team until the end!!!

 

[TBCat]

The take away from this game is that the jury is back on Towles. He is not a SEC QB and can not start next week against USC. He was beyond awful tonight, yet again. It seems Towles has his worst game ever 8 out of 10 games. I was at the game tonight and Towles was far worse than it seems. Even the completions were plays by his receivers not throws by Towles. And you can't blame the line. Towles had forever back there on most plays

The LB play was also indescribably bad tonight. The only good news is that Jabari Johnson looked like a man. Unfortunately he was the only effective LB during running plays. Forrest had great stats but continues to make the majority of his plays 8 to 10 yards down field. Forrest is spectacular for a play and then spend the next 3 plays totally out of position. Jones and Ware looked talented but also looked very much like freshmen. We seriously look like we only have 1 LB on the field during running plays. Forrest, Ware look very involved on passing downs but we won't see many of those if we can't stop the run.

Seriously guys this is a lucky win. ULL dominated us tonight. If Towles plays against USC we'll lost 55 to 10 next week.

 

[RUPPsRevenge1]

Good points UK Erik! Great job by the fans in attendance. Way to represent BBN and hang with the team until the end!!!

Half left before the game was over. They showed the stands and the seats were empty. I'm happy with the game. Not so happy with folks leaving early. Looked bad on TV. Commentators laughed at it.

 

[jeffygray]

At least we now have the psychological edge next week and we still got the win. It remains to be seen about Towles.
Someone posted how he never hits the receivers in stride. Timmons was the closest but still over the wrong shoulder.

I believe we will play better next week. Whether that translates into a win or not is anybody's guess! GBB

As soon as the ball is snapped you know where Pat is going to throw, I am sure he is a great U.K. guy and all but he lets everybody in the stands, and on the defencive side know where the play is going, always, have and I guess always, will. If thats what we got, then thats what we got but get ready for a long season. We have got to get a Q.B. in here that can play with a natural ability at Q.B. and not something that has been forced to learn to play. I don`t know what to say?

 

[bigbaddawg99]

Very discouraged right now. I know it's the first game and all, but there were no adjustments to ULLs defense after they made their adjustments. Hoping we were keeping it vanilla for next week.

Defensive pressure nonexistent without a blitz, not gonna cut it. Hopefully when We get all our players are back, we'll be better.

 

[TBCat]

Erik,

Good analysis. I'm just not sure Towles is going to improve. I think he is what he is at this point, a decent QB who is too inconsistent to lead this team to 6 or 7 wins. Maybe next year as the talent continues to improve around him, but not quite yet. I'm not saying Barker is the answer. I just don't trust Towles as UK's starting QB.

WR and RB play looked really solid to me. The offensive play calling seemed a bit vanilla given the ULL press defense most of the night, but UK made enough big plays.

OL protected Towles all night and opened up some running lanes.

Defensively...I don't know. Read option teams may put up 50. I don't recall much pressure on the QB, some poor tackling here or there. Just doesn't seem quite yet to be an SEC-level defense.

Don't agree about the play calling. I liked the game that Dawson called. The plays were there and we just missed them. We took more shots down field tonight than anytime I can remember. We lose this game bad tonight if we got conservative.

 

[UKWildcats#8]

The take away from this game is that the jury is back on Towles. He is not a SEC QB and can not start next week against USC. He was beyond awful tonight, yet again. It seems Towles has his worst game ever 8 out of 10 games. I was at the game tonight and Towles was far worse than it seems. Even the completions were plays by his receivers not throws by Towles. And you can't blame the line. Towles had forever back there on most plays

The LB play was also indescribably bad tonight. The only good news is that Jabari Johnson looked like a man. Unfortunately he was the only effective LB during running plays. Forrest had great stats but continues to make the majority of his plays 8 to 10 yards down field. Forrest is spectacular for a play and then spend the next 3 plays totally out of position. Jones and Ware looked talented but also looked very much like freshmen. We seriously look like we only have 1 LB on the field during running plays. Forrest, Ware look very involved on passing downs but we won't see many of those if we can't stop the run.

Seriously guys this is a lucky win. ULL dominated us tonight. If Towles plays against USC we'll lost 55 to 10 next week.

Well, he is going to start so better prepare yourself. As bad as the D is, it probably won't matter who starts at QB next week if things are as bad as you say. If you think Barker is going to start his first game on the road at SC, and end 6 years of road ineptness by UK in the SEC I think you would be in for a surprise.

 

[Smashcat]

The take away from this game is that the jury is back on Towles. He is not a SEC QB and can not start next week against USC. He was beyond awful tonight, yet again. It seems Towles has his worst game ever 8 out of 10 games. I was at the game tonight and Towles was far worse than it seems. Even the completions were plays by his receivers not throws by Towles. And you can't blame the line. Towles had forever back there on most plays

The LB play was also indescribably bad tonight. The only good news is that Jabari Johnson looked like a man. Unfortunately he was the only effective LB during running plays. Forrest had great stats but continues to make the majority of his plays 8 to 10 yards down field. Forrest is spectacular for a play and then spend the next 3 plays totally out of position. Jones and Ware looked talented but also looked very much like freshmen. We seriously look like we only have 1 LB on the field during running plays. Forrest, Ware look very involved on passing downs but we won't see many of those if we can't stop the run.

Seriously guys this is a lucky win. ULL dominated us tonight. If Towles plays against USC we'll lost 55 to 10 next week.

Hope not. Cause Spurrier will do it if we let them.

 

[screwduke]

is it just me or did we look like we had dead legs this game? boom got caught on that one long run and timmons and jojo got caught by lb'ers on a couple plays... just looked like we came out hard and ran out of gas quickly... idk, maybe they are that fast of a team but it just looked to me like we were dead legged.

We had no energy in the second half. That much is for sure.

 

[ukalumni00]

Don't agree about the play calling. I liked the game that Dawson called. The plays were there and we just missed them. We took more shots down field tonight than anytime I can remember. We lose this game bad tonight if we got conservative.

My only gripe with Dawson was he needed to allow the offense to be more physical by running the ball. Wear down ULL, give the defense some rest, and most importantly keep the ball out of Towles hands. I think he got way too pass happy after the repeated deep completions and lost control of the game. That all said, Towles missed so many throws that were there that if completed Dawson would look like the next coming of Mumme after his first game at UK.

Players and coaches have a lot to learn from this game.

 

[brianpoe]

Don't agree about the play calling. I liked the game that Dawson called. The plays were there and we just missed them. We took more shots down field tonight than anytime I can remember. We lose this game bad tonight if we got conservative.

TB those outside go patterns will not work against SEC defenses, they stopped working in the 2nd half. We need to utilize the middle of the field, we had one slant for a touchdown.

Towles was too inconsistent to really get a true grasp of the play calling but the middle of the field was not targeted at all.

 

[K_TIME]

1. I always just giggle at how much QB/playing calling threads UK fans make up when we just scored 40 points and gave up 33 to ULL....33 points to a 'meh' sunbelt team. 90% of threads should be focusing on why:
- DJ Elliott is closer to Mike Major II than he is Steve Brown (who was average DC at best at UK)
- Why does our NT line up a full yard off head of Center
- What in hades is Brumbaugh teaching our interior DL to stand up at snap and try to chicken fight with OL vs. attacking their shoulders and penetrating to backfield.
- Is Huegengtin/Meant/Elam/CJ Johnson, etc.. any different than Collins Ukwu/Mister Cobble who were below par UK DL of Joker era? Only Lewis made a semblance of plays tonight
- Josh Forrest is really only a 3rd down/pass coverage LBer...he isn't an everydown LBer. Stoops comments on how much improved Forrestt/Flannigan are will amount of typical pre-season coach talk. I'll let Flannigan play before we judge his game this year. To see Hendrix flame out and Frios not take a spot is concerning
- UK is going to sorely miss Bud Dupree. Jabari Johnson isn't a SEC player. Really slow and can't change directions at all. Ware/Josh Allen are way to green to depend upon as much as we will this year.

UK will finish in the 80/90's at best on defensive side of ball in scoring defense...and Stoops will have to go on a limb to defend him staying at UK. We're recruiting to a 3/4 defense...so we'll be limited in who we can hire as it would be a disaster to try to shift back to 4-3 at this point. But you can see the defensive problems are huge under Stoops and will undermine any progress in the program going forward.

 

[timocee]

Towles is the best practice QB in the history of UK football.

 

[Perrin75]

Barring some mid-week injury, Barker will not start next week. Also, teams normally improve significantly from Game 1 to Game 2. There is certainly a chance we see an improved Towles next week, but like Erik I am afraid that we already know that he is a big arm, good athlete, no accuracy QB. And at some point the Coaching staff will make a decision regarding whether they can live with that or whether they roll the dice with someone else. Something makes me think it will happen quick, so I also wouldn't be shocked that the QB who starts next week may not be the same QB who finishes the game.

 

[RUPPsRevenge1]

We won. We dominated a great team in the first half. We let it slide a bit, but then pounded it like a prom date to win the game. There was no stopping that last drive. And followed by an interception. That is winning football. I'm glad to see the team with a little pressure on them and come out and perform when they could have wilted.

 

[StubbornPenny]

Towles hits his men, and we score 60. He's got to improve that. Just a few feet this way and that way makes all the difference. Just has to get better,

I thought the play calling was okay, got a little pass happy in the middle. Stick with the run, Dawson. Horton had 4.7 per carry and ran through a defender. Get him carries.

I don't know about the defense. I just don't know. Westry looks like the best corner since Lindley though, so that's cool.

I'm gonna call a bit of a Mulligan on a too muggy September day. Basically, this reminds me of why I hate the UK-Louisville game as the first game. I like a get the jitters out game. I'll call these the jitters and hope this gets them ready for USCJr

 

[swflCAT]

The Oline was no good for run support at all. If you take away the 3 big run plays the other 23 only averaged 1.35 yards. We won because we got lucky and some timely penalties.