Thumbs up/Thumbs down

First of all, a tough win over your rival is like catching a fish. No matter how pitiful it is, you don't throw it back. Not against Pitino State. Lets not throw this one back. Yes, the Cats played very poorly in stretches. And yes, we were supposed to have won this game by more points. But a win is a win is a win. I'm calling this one The Great Escape. We still have a football season ahead of us. A loss today and we might have been playing out the string for the rest of the year.

In any event, it is time to play thumbs up, thumbs down.



Thumbs up

We'll start with Derrick Locke. Yes, dude had a costly third quarter fumble. But if you set that aside, he had the game of a lifetime. Three hundred and ten total yards, a touchdown running and in the return game, as well as some catches out of the backfield.



Thumbs down

Whoever is in charge of managing the clock for UK's offense. My god. Stuff has been made about the last fifteen seconds, which were just boneheaded moves by Hartline and the officials. But really, we never should have been in that position to begin with. Lets recount.

1:52 Cobb fields punt on UK 43, dropped on the spot. UK has one timeout left. Matthews makes a catch around the 50, prances around, fails to get out of bounds while gaining about two more yards. Clock runs.

1:27 Cats run draw to Locke in the middle of the field. Play is good for eight yard down to the 39. UK then pussyfoots around for a good 25 seconds.

:57 Hartline finally takes the snap and throws inside screen to McCaskill, meaning the play is not meant to end out of bounds and thus unless something miraculous happens, the clock is going to be running once Gene is tackled. Nothing miraculous occurs.

:51 McCaskill is downed at about the 35, and everyone lines up on the ball.

:31 Hartline calls the team's last timeout after wasting 20 seconds. I literally bury my head in my hands throughout. Coming out of the timeout Hartline completes great timing route to Matthews, who then decides to fall down in bounds rather than walking out.

:14 Hartline spikes. Timer then goes braindead and puts 15:15 on the clock and has to be corrected by the refs twice.

:14- - - - - - Cats wisely decide to throw a pass to someone with a guy all over him in the field of play. Of course with no timeouts left because they blew it after taking 20 seconds of the clock two plays before. Timer loses his job permanently by failing to start the clock. At the time, I was upset with the timer, but after watching the replay I'm confident that UK would have had no chance of getting a spike or a kick done in time anyway.



Thumbs up

Randall Cobb, who pulled a Whodini act on the second to last scoring drive and made a big boy all SEC grab for the clinch.



Thumbs down

My DVR, which is jacked up and won't let me fast forward through to the parts I want to see, meaning that I won't rewatch the game.


Thumbs up

To the Offensive line, which did not allow a sack and had their way in the running game all day long. I haven't seen anyone else mention this, but it might have been the key to the game. The o-line played well enough for the team to score 50.

Thumbs down

To the highly touted UK secondary, which was exploited both with and without Trevard Lindley by a quarterback starting only his second college game.

Thumbs up

To JC transfer DeQuinn Evans, who lived up to the preseason hype by recording two sacks and getting down the line and making a couple of run stops up the middle.

Thumbs down

To the rest of the UK pass rush, who gave Justin Burke a ton of time to throw in most instances.

Thumbs up

To the UK Defense, which came up big when it had to in the last five minutes of the game. Consider how many times since the 2007 season UK has won games that its opponents had a chance to win or tie in the last couple of minutes. In 2007, there was Louisville, LSU, Vandy and Florida State. Last year Middle Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi State and East Carolina all had at least one shot. Then this. During that time period, only Georgia actually converted on one of the drives and won the game. That is a pretty good track record, especially considering our history.

Thumb off to the side

I cannot decide where to go with Mike Hartline. Obviously, he won the game, led two fourth quarter scoring drives, and threw a great ball to Cobb on the decisive touchdown. He also completed almost 75% of his passes. On the other hand, he looked like old Mike several times in the game, with a couple of bad balls to open receivers, a fumble and horrendous pick, and the aforementioned eight minute drill to end the first half. He is still on the learning curve, one that better get a lot steeper in the next two weeks.

More tonight or tomorrow. I'm happy about the win.