Thoughts on the Cats win tonight

[WildcatofNati]

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.

I'm relieved we won, but we hardly beat a great team. We beat a well-coached, dangerous team that still might not even win the Sun Belt.

 

[brianpoe]

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.

We did well in the first half and then ULL adjusted. But a great team? Sun Belt, if this your idea of a great team you are going to fall all over yourself at some of our other opponents.

 

[hmt5000]

and to be fair, i have seen 1 qb who looked good all the way through the game this weekend and im pretty sure he wasn't playing the '86 bears defense. just some god awful qb play all the way around this weekend. there isn't a true heisman type qb or #1 pick type qb in the country this year.... just amazing.

 

[irishcat1965]

Having gone to the game, the stadium was great. Three things really bothered me. The lack of lateral speed and inability to defense the edge is disturbing. Second , the offensive line's struggled to open holes except for a couple of big plays. Third, Towles is wildly inconsistent missing wide open receivers on several occasions including two sure TDs.

 

[Blueworld_3.0]

Too much reliance on the passing game. You have to be able to control the clock, protect the lead and wear the opposition down with your running game, in the SEC. Keeping your offense on the field with the running game also gives your defense a break and time to rest & regroup. I would like to have seen the ball in JoJo Kemp's hands a bit more.

Towles has to step up his game. Not good enough right now.

Defense looked slow for some reason. I thought we were supposed to have a ton of speed on the defensive side of the ball?

Stadium looked great on TV but, couldn't hear the crowd after the 1st Qtr. Might have been ESPN's "atmosphere" mic placement though.

Glad we won. Need to perform much, much better next Sat. vs. the ole ball coach.

 

[Blueaz]

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.

I love the Enthusiasm in your post. But you lose cred when you called ULL a GREAT team

 

[Lost In FL]

teaching our interior DL to stand up at snap and try to chicken fight

Wiping off my screen ...

 

[aikenite4uk]

I agree with K_Time....the defense has me much more worried than the offense, which was admittedly shaky in the second half. We basically witnessed a Sun Belt team that lined up and ran it down our throats in the second half. That doesn't bode well when SEC teams come to call. They owned the edge in the second half. Pass rush was basically nonexistent.

I wouldn't say Towles was "terrible"....the guy did have 250 yards and three TD's. Wildly inconsistent for sure though.....he has to play better or Barker will get his chance. It was also disconcerting that we couldn't line up and knock them off the ball in the running game. ULL was a very solid opening opponent...4 bowl games and they had athletes that passed the eye test. They could beat several Power 5 conference teams....IU, ILL, Penn State, Wake, Vandy, KU, Iowa State.

 

[BigBlueDiehard]

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.

Correction, the students left early. The empty seats they kept showing were in the student section in the end zone around the recruiting room. It looked like everybody else stayed through the end of the game.

 

[UKNumeroUno]

The student end zone did clear out at halftime. I understand you'll lose some of the students, but how much was embarrassing. I feel like the rest of the stadium stayed, until we went up 33-10, then you could see a substantial exodus around the stadium. By the last play, it was a bit sad how empty it was, especially in the student area (again) and the keeneland seat area (whatever those are called).

 

[rolaid]

We took the pass because they were stacking box and pressing receivers. A decent SEC QB throws for 400 in first half

Our online was awful in run game...backs had to bounce immediately. Very concerning

Our Dline is Sun Belt level @ best...they run on a treadmill the whole game

The lack of speed on defense was so obvious it just popped

Anybody else think the Erik Korem crap is just hype?

We better hope Flannigan Hatcher & Johnson make huge differences when they get back.

 

[BlueTick2]

I'm not to disappointed, I have learned over the years not to raise my expectations.

I reserve raising expectations until I see it on the field.

 

[UKWinsAgainYep]

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.

Towles is the most nervous jittery QB i've seen at UK.

 

[tdcat]

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.

Honestly believe LBs made DL look a lot worse than they are. Fact is the Lewis tackle for loss with the game tied at 33 was the play of the game. Lewis could well go in NFL draft. Meant showed some flashes. The DL so missed Johnson. Its best pass rusher.

Based off what Flannigan did in the final three games last year, all I can say is we need him. Run defense will improve greatly inside. Ware was crashing down hard and was burned several times on read option including long TD run by their QB. Rookie mistake. Have to hope Hatcher would do better. We get Johnson, Flannigan and Hatcher back and DL will look much better.

 

[Hoskins21]

We won. Hopefully that's not the last time I get to say that this season.

 

[footballfanatic77]

I need to go back and rewatch the game, but I didn't see very many problems on UK's offense other than O-line. The problems were on defense and they were vast.

 

[jimmy cowboy]

I was at the game and it had a weird vibe the whole second half! Lot's of fans did leave mainly the student's....I hope people stick around a little longer for the Florida game as we will be entertaining lot's of recruits!