Manday Musings: the Weekend that was in Pinkie Sports 11/9 edition

Another Pinkie sports weekend in the books and a lot to cover. The Cards defense was great in Morgantown, but the offense apparently stayed in Louisville. The football Cats rolled over Eastern Kentucky in as boring a game as I can remember watching, but they won the game, which is the point of playing as I understand it (and as coach Herm Edwards understands it). Until basketball season get going for real, I’m only going to talk about the football teams. I’m not Guy, I can’t write that much, I refuse. Let’s get into it.

The Cards came into Morgantown with most everyone expecting them to get torched. After all, let’s consider the context: Louisville has not beaten a Big East team since October 2008, Morgantown is a very tough place to play, West Virginia is better, plus they just lost to South Florida the previous week so they would be fired up and ready to play. All those things looked like a sure Louisville defeat in ugly fashion.

Instead, the Cards showed up, manned up, and took it to West Virginia. The Cards outplayed the Mountaineers on their home field, but unfortunately could not convert touchdowns, a disturbing pattern for this squad, and eventually fell 17-9.

I thought the Louisville defense played excellent. Defensive coordinator Brent Guy has really schemed well the past few weeks and his players seemed to have responded. Obviously, getting healthier on the defensive side of the ball played a role, but the Cards have gotten a much more consistent pass rush the past couple games.

I have also been pleased to see the defense do more blitzing. Louisville cannot win playing a vanilla 4-3 due to their struggles establishing a pass rush, but recently the Cards defense has brought more pressure in the form of blitzes and it has showed.

I talked to a former player who pointed out the fact players get much more intense when they see their coach opening things up. He said when a coach shows faith in his players by being more aggressive in the playcalling, whether it be offensively or defensively, the players will respond nine times out of ten. I think we saw the product of that very thing with the way the defense stepped up. Kudos to defensive coordinator Brent Guy. 

Louisville played surprisingly good defense on Saturday

Speaking of that very subject, the Louisville offense needs to follow the defense’s lead and open things up. I realize injuries are a factor, as is the defensive alignment, and I do not want to discount those, but it seemed to me the offensive approach against West Virginia was the worst of the year.

I have all the respect in the world for Will Stein and would like it to be known he is a better quarterback than I ever was, or will be, but he played a poor game. He was not alone though, the offensive line continued to struggle, and the receivers were not exactly wide open very often.

Darius Ashley, Louisville's only offense on Saturday

Besides Darius Ashley proving to be a freakin’ stud, as coach Kragthorpe would say, the offense was non-existent. That being said, the Cards scored a touchdown that not only would have pulled them within 17-14 early in the 4th quarter, but also given Doug Beaumont his first career touchdown. Unfortunately, it was erased by a holding call on Jeff Adams.

I’ve watched that play several times since and there was no holding, at all. The Big East officials, yet again, proved their incompetence by throwing a flag on a play that would not have even qualified as the “type of holding you can call on every play”. There was no hold, the refs are stupid, I hate them, all of them. Moving on.

The football Cats played Eastern Kentucky in a game I’m quite sure they did not know was scheduled. It definitely looked to me like Kentucky could have cared less about playing the Colonels, and I don’t blame them. Honestly, I was actually encouraged by Kentucky’s performance on Saturday.

They slept-walked through the first half for a 17-6 lead. Then, the Cats came out of the break and promptly quelled any hopes for an EKU upset. The Cats ended up winning 37-12, which again, is what they were supposed to do. It’s just my opinion, but I think Kentucky does not need to worry about style points. Just win the games you are supposed to win and move on.

Turtle power!!!!

I thought Morgan Newton played well and that is an encouraging sign, but I don’t put too much stock into that performance considering the competition he was facing. However, the confidence gained from a strong performance always helps a freshman, particularly in the SEC.

The Cats are done with their non-conference slate and now face three SEC squads to finish. First up, Vanderbilt in Nashville. It’s just my opinion, but I think this game is the biggest one of the season for the Cats. Beating Vandy pretty much assures Kentucky of another bowl game and at the very least, does not halt the momentum built by the past three seasons. It also gives them a chance to pretty much play with house money going into the final two games against Georgia and Tennessee.

However, losing to Vandy would set up Kentucky with a daunting task: winning one of two games against Vandy and Tennessee on the road. Obviously, the easier road to a fourth strait bowl game is beat Vandy and face a win-win situation to end the year. If Kentucky beats Vanderbilt, and lose the final two games, so what, they were probably supposed to. But, if the Cats win in Nashville, then take one of the final two games, that’s serious momentum going into the bowl game.

Carl H's favorite thing to say after a win

Quick hits time:

-The Bengals are good. The Who Deys are 6-2 and just swept the Ravens for the season. Next week’s game at Pittsburgh is huge as the winner probably wraps up the AFC North. Also, if we consult the Bengals schedule we see they have four guaranteed wins left with Oakland, Detroit, Kansas City, and Cleveland. The Who Deys will win at least 10 games this year.

-Last week I talked about the many horrible teams in the NFL. Welp, we may want to add the Chicago Bears to that list. Those guys got waxed by the Cardinals 41-21 in Chi-town and Tommie Harris got ejected four plays into the game for blatantly swinging at Arizona’s Deuce Lutui. Well done.

-I forgot to mention this two weeks ago, but I witnessed one of the more hilarious things I have ever seen. At Louisville’s first exhibition game against Georgetown, the trio of the Afternoon Underdogs (Adam Neft, and Tony Vanetti) and Lachlan McClain, Louisville’s main sports talk radio personalities, were seated together on press row. That was pretty funny by itself, but after the Louisville dance team, the Ladybirds, performed (uh…yump) Adam Neft blatantly leaned back to stare at them as they walked off the floor. I actually like all of those guys and don’t repeat that story as a means to portray Neft in a bad light, it was just funny to me.