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Really a very disappointing performance from Kentucky last night.
It's a shame they picked last night to take a dump with the spotlight shining right on them, because they are really a lot better than this. Just so many mistakes. Woodson fumbles for a SC TD. Woodson throws an INT in the red zone that would cause even Casey Dick to chuckle (after shattering the NCAA record for non-INT-throwing). Woodson brain-fart lateral attempt goes for SC TD. Normally sure-handed Rafael Little muffs a punt and then mishandles a hand-off where he was about to walk in to the endzone. Unbelievable amount of mistakes - it's a tribute to the defense and the amount of talent on Kentucky's team that they were even in the game.
But let's not act like UK is vastly inferior to SC or were physically dominated or anything like that. UK controlled the line of scrimmage throughout, doubled SC in rush yards, outgained them something like 150 to -17 in the 3rd quarter (and simultaneously got outscored - such is football) and outgained them for the game 380-350. When your offense gift-wraps 2 TD's for the other team, and the other team is good, and you're on the road, you can't win. Period.
South Carolina is an amazing study in how important coaching is in football vs. other sports. Their offensive personnel is the worst in the SEC East. The only thing they have resembling a playmaker is Kenny McKinley. They have a green QB. And yet Spurrier gets the absolute most out of them, puts Smelley in favorable situations to make easy throws, knows when to keep it vanilla and when to turn it up...it was beautiful to watch, even for a UK fan.
UK's biggest weakness is their 2nd CB, Paul Warford, who, despite being physical and a good tackler, is simply too slow to cover anybody. Early on, UK figured out it had to abandon it's usual side-of-the-field alignment to have it's #1 CB (and one of the best in the SEC) Trevard Lindley shadow McKinley. For the rest of the game, Spurrier does everything possible to get McKinley matched up on someone else, moving and motioning him all over the place, eventually getting him matched up on safety Marcus McClinton for an easy 3rd-down conversion on SC's final drive, the play that really broke Kentucky's back. In the meantime, Spurrier picked on Warford with his other WR's whenever the situation called for it, eventually getting Warford pulled for EJ Adams, although it was too late at that point.
SC couldn't run the ball, couldn't do anything with McKinley when Lindley was on him, but they hit the one area Kentucky was vulnerable (and also got receivers obscenely wide-open on a couple drags for easy throws), and the Kentucky offense did the rest for them.
Kentucky's offense struggles a lot with crowd noise on the road because Woodson audibles at the line of scrimmage on 70-80% of Kentucky's plays - this goes back to last season where the Cats were held to 7 in the Swamp and shut out at LSU. They play a lot better at home, and I'm really hoping they redeem themselves against LSU and Florida in Lexington the next 2 weeks.
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