On the opening play of Louisville’s defeat to arch rival UK, a Cardinal special teamer committed an unsportsmanlike act. He reacted to a Wildcat’s woofing with a swing at the fellow’s head.
The Cardinal player’s name does not matter. He was far from the only one who who was amped up to the point where it affected focus and winning judgement.
That Kentucky did not score that possession really does not matter either.
The miscue did foretell what would be the significant play of the 31-38 defeat.
A lack of intention by the kickoff teams to prioritize the task at hand.
Louisville, up an obviously wobbly 10-7, received the opening kickoff after intermission.
The Cards had two returners back. Neither, as best I recall, signaled for a fair catch as the ball landed in the end zone. Instead of immediately going to down it, there by protecting the possession, it bounced around the end zone, until one finally beat a Wildcat to the ball.
Focus. Or, lack thereof.
That disturbing mindset finally came to roost on the play I referenced at the top. After Louisville’s just gorgeous lead increasing 15 play TD drive consuming 9:10 off the clock to open the 3d, the kickoff protection unit handed Uncle Mo a blue shirt.
A 100 yard kickoff return.
U of L continued to fight. The Cards increased the lead to ten again. Then surrendered a FG. Then a touchdown, which knotted the battle at 24. Then less than two minutes later after a fumble, another TD.
Cats 31, Cards 24 with eight and a half to go.
On U of L’s ensuing possession, the most uninspired call of Jeff Brohm’s regime back at his alma mater — on fourth and one at the Wildcat 38, a slow developing rush to the strong side of UK’s D — didn’t work. Kentucky held.
Ashton Gillotte, as he has done time and again all season, gave the Cards one more shot. He bullrushed Devin Leary, who forced a wounded duck picked by Jarvis Brownlee.
Louisville scored to tie the affair at 31-31.
But, in retrospect, too quickly.
But, hey, that’s not a mistake, just as it turns out, bad luck. The time part, not the scoring part.
It didn’t take long for up to the task Kentucky to move down the field for the winning score.
So much for all the ridiculous contemplation before kickoff of how U of L could make it to the Final Four.
The 10-2 Cardinals have now fallen to arch rival five times in a row.
This one hurt even more than the others.
— c d kaplan
What hurt the most were the turnovers and the pass defense. I don’t understand how their receivers could be SO wide open at times. We shut down the run game pretty much but was it at the cost of not defending the pass? You give up a kickoff touchdown return untouched. When you score 31 against a just fair team you should win. Shame on us.
Well, “give it to me one more time…”
Somehow UK usually demonstrates a bit more:
Enthusiasm, swager, will, desire, need, pride, determination, entitlement, problem-solving, quarterback superiority save Bridgewater and Jackson, care with the ball, and scoring than UL. We really don’t need to keep playing a team which has comondered our team psyche. It’s insanity to repeat the same scenario year after year.
If you read C.L. Brown’s C-J column the other day, UK and UofL may not play each other in football for a while if C.L.’s prediction was correct. UK has to pick up two more games next year and may not honor the already-scheduled game and could simply pay the penalties for breaking the contract.
I don’t want to be that guy, but……first of all we did beat ourselves for all of the reasons you have pointed out. Still, you want to win that game, especially if you think you have the better team. Now to the but…..the SEC officials threw not a single flag all game on a team known for penalty problems all season. The single biggest play that turned the game was the kick return after what could have been a soul crushing 9 minute drive. On Barion Brown’s right a UK player tackled our guy, on his left two more teammates tag-teamed one of our guys. No wonder there was a hole to drive a truck through. The tape does not lie.