JUSTIN ROWLAND:
Kentucky left a lot of special teams points on the board against Florida but managed to survive that in the Swamp. The Ole Miss offense strained UK a bit more and the Cats could not survive its special teams miscues. This looked like two legit top-15 teams to me. Kentucky isn’t going to fall far in the rankings. Chris Rodriguez is a huge upgrade and changes the offense in a positive way. It was really fascinating to see the difference in tempo and it became the kind of game Stoops’ teams execute very well late. There were so many missed opportunities and “what if” moments, it’s going to haunt folks for a while, especially the many fans who made the trip on UK’s behalf and represented the BBN well in Oxford. Kentucky can’t get emotionally down and lay an egg next week.
DAVID SISK:
I’ve never seen as many bullets dodged in one game. It comes down to that. Two missed extra points, and a missed field goal. A dropped touchdown on a screen pass to Kavosiey Smoke in the first quarter. Barion Brown gets tripped up by his own man with nothing but green grass in front of him on a kickoff return. Two fourth-quarter fumbles in the red zone. A game winning touchdown wiped off because the offense wasn’t set. I’m sure there are several plays I missed, but you get the picture. This is a gut wrenching loss that will be a burr in the saddle of Mark Stoops.
JEFF DRUMMOND:
Something weird just happens to Kentucky when it travels west of Nashville, Tenn. Today’s loss makes 15 straight road defeats against SEC West teams, and many of them have the familiar theme of the Wildcats taking a shotgun to their own feet. Remarkably, they lost only 22-19 to a ranked team despite maybe 10-17 “what if” points left on the field due to bad mistakes, bad breaks, or bad calls. That’s a tough pill to swallow. The defense turned in an exceptional bend-but-don’t-break effort, holding the Rebels to 19 points below their season average and giving up only three in the second half. Barion Brown was exceptional in the kick return game and with some splash plays on offense. But if feels a little strange talking about those positives immediately after such a gut-punch loss. Every year, when we make our staff predictions, I point out that UK always finds a way to lose a game it certainly should have won and usually wins one it should not. If they can find a way to negate this with a win at Tennesee or or a big upset of Georgia at Kroger Field, this will be a distant memory. But if they don’t, we’ll be talking about this one for a long time.
Jeff Drummond, CatsIllustrated.com
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