Vicky Graff Photo
If you would have offered Kentucky fans the chance to play an incredibly tight game against the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs with the Wildcats leading going into the fourth quarter, every fan would’ve probably taken that opportunity.
Despite a fourth quarter touchdown drive from Georgia leading to a 13-12 loss, Kentucky looked fantastic on Saturday night. They played inspired and showed real toughness for their fans at both Kroger Field and across the state either watching on television or listening via the radio dial.
The Wildcats were ferocious on defense, flying to the football and bullying Georgia’s offensive line that is full of future NFL players. Quarterback Carson Beck, who many draft experts also believe to be a top NFL prospect, was pretty rattled for most of the game.
On special teams, Kentucky was magnificent. Kicker Alex Raynor accounted for all of his team’s points, making all four of his field goal attempts from 55 (career long & school record), 32, 40 & 51 yards. The Wildcats had terrific blocking up front and Raynor made every opportunity count to keep his team in the game.
Despite being down a couple of running backs due to injuries, Kentucky’s rushing attack was lethal on Saturday. In fact, Demie Sumo-Karngbaye cut through Georgia’s front seven like a hot knife through butter. He also had a career night carrying the football, rushing for 98 yards on 22 carries and added 12 yards on two catches through the air.
Kentucky had of these things go their way and even out-gained Georgia in total yards, had 11 extra minutes of possession and was 9-16 on third down. Yet it was their struggles at quarterback and late offensive play-calling that let the team down.
Quarterback Brock Vandagriff never looked comfortable. He completed just over 50% of his passes (14-27) for 114 yards. There were balls that either sailed over his receivers heads or were placed outside of a rational catch radius. He was also strip-sacked, which led to the game’s only turnover and three points for Georgia.
Whether it was offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan or head coach Mark Stoops calling the shots late in Saturday night’s game, the decisions were the same-old conservative Kentucky.
The Wildcats had the ball at midfield with 2nd down & eight and three minutes left on the clock. Their rushing attack had carved up Georgia for nearly an hour of gameplay. Yet instead of trying to run the football on second and third down or even attempt play-action, they twice dropped Vandagriff back to pass for two incompletions and punted the football away.
Not only did they fail to draw up plays to give the offense third down and manageable or at least short yardage on fourth down to try and go for the conversion, but they punted the ball away to the No. 1 team in the country with three minutes remaining.
By this point, the game was all but over.
Miraculously, Kentucky’s defense was able to force a punt by Georgia but it came with nine seconds remaining and a long ways to go. The Wildcats were out of Hail Marry range and that was all she wrote.
This is not meant to start a beat-up-on-Brock agenda or even a go at Hamdan. For Vandagriff it was just his third career start and came against a defensive line that has the most rotational depth in the country. For Hamdan, it was the first time this season where the game was close.
If anything, Stoops has to recognize his team was a 24-point underdog coming into the game and they had a real chance at pulling off the greatest victory Kentucky fans had seen in 30 years (yes, even bigger than LSU). Regardless of how much your offense has struggled through the first three quarters, what do you have to lose? Punting the ball away that late in the game all but wraps up your fate of losing anyways.
Year after year Kentucky has been the more conservative team in the game they’re playing. And it’s very likely that’s what had the Wildcats in contention to beat Georgia in the first place. But situationally, it’s inexcusable to punt the ball away that late in the game and a real disservice to both Kentucky’s defense as well as special teams for the effort they put forth on Saturday night.
11 Responses
This is exactly wha I told my good friend during the game. The play calling was going to stop UK drives before getting into the end zone and two of those opportunities to press on for a TD would cost UK the game because UGA would eventually get at least 1 TD before the end of the game.
The punt on 4th & 8 at the UGA 40 with 3+ minutes left on the clock was a pathetic typical Stoops blown call. It was a gift to UGA to run out the clock.
The wasted time before the half when UK was driving down the field was so disgusting, because UK had the momentum to get a TD and instead had to kick a FG because of a lack of clock management!!! Was it the OC or HC or both who completely blew that chance to get 7 points instead of 3.
With the pathetic porous UK secondary, how could anyone expect to win with only FGs.
Give the coaches zero credit. The players arrived to play and it had zero to do with the loser coaches who could not ge the team mentally prepared vs SC.
This L will not be a season defining one but the one with USC will continue to be. This loss is on Stoops mostly and his conservative "playing not to lose" strategy. His conservative bent over the last 10 yrs has cost us some W’s but none more signature Stoops than decision to punt on 4th and 8. The OC/QB combo also contributed heavily to the loss. At this point in the season neither appear to be SEC quality.
Brock never looked comfortable because he was running for his life for the second game in a row.
The punt on third and 8 was a terrible call.
4th and 8
Stoops has always played not to lose instead of playing to win. Conservative play calling might work against Ohio, but not Ole Miss. Holding a team to 13 points should be a win every time, but you have to score at least one touchdown.
What a weird set of circumstances. Three games now a matter of record, yet we know virtually nothing about this team. Game 1 was shortened and cannot give a reliable reading of the team’s performance level through a full 60 minutes. Games 2 and 3 are diametrically opposites, and the overall performance levels are so radically different that neither should provide a reliable basis for any conclusion.
For example, assume UK started 2-0 and lost as it did last night 12-13 to #1 UGA, I think the natural reaction would be to demand a top 10 ranking on Monday. However, UK now sits 1-2 rather than 2-1, and the USC loss was not just a loss, but a very embarrassing loss because USC is not a very good football team and any UK team worthy of the aforementioned top 10 ranking should never lose to this USC team.
The USC loss will be the end of the road for Stoops as UK’s coach.
You’re so right. 3 games & no idea about this team.
There is an idea about the lack of thinking done by the staff.
Good points Professor
We haven’t scored a touchdown in 2 games. This guy makes rich scanarun look like a genius. If you have quick receivers then run 5 yard routes instead of 15 yard routes. Barion Brown weighs 180 pounds at 6 foot 1 that’s very skinny. He gets bumped off the line and his route is thrown off every single time. By the time he has ran his route Brock had already dropped back and taken off running by the time Barion even turns around. 75% of his drop backs he doesn’t even have time to set his feet. Gerald Mincey is terrible. He gets beat every single time. The defense runs around him like he’s stuck in glue. Our offensive lineman look to slow for the SEC. You rarely gain speed with experience it can’t be taught and we have alot of very slow offensive lineman. Remember they said Deone Walker absolutely dominated practice and I believe it. We have a championship caliber defense and sun belt offense. We have average running backs. They can never break free for a good 30+ yard run. They are steady but nobody has the juice. Chip is very good but I thought when he got injured Stoops said he might be back against South Carolina and now we are coming up on our fourth game and I doubt he plays again. Maybe they wasted that nil money on 8 games or so. Why don’t we ever use our tight ends. Tight ends are usually easy yards because they are expected to block and slip out for a pass. They are almost like a cheat code that we don’t use. I’m starting to the devin Leary and Brock are the same person lol. They both have a couple of good throws some throws your like wtf and a ton batted down at the line and deflected.
No TDs a huge issue T.J. Never expected that from any SEC team
I agree about the use of TEs being a missed opportunity – it’s been the same for the entire Stoops era.
UGA for the biggest gift handed to them in probably 7 or more years when Stoops GAVE the ball to UGA instead of at least trying to get a 1st down on 4th & 8.
Better play calling and UK would not have stalled in that series at the 40 yard line.
I would be less frustrated even if he tried a 68 yard FG. At least it would have a 1% chance of getting points instead of 0%