UK falls in heartbreaker to Tennessee

In case you missed it during ESPNU’s broadcast of last night’s Tennessee-UK game, UT has now beaten Kentucky 25 years in a row. Odds are, though, you didn’t miss it, because they mentioned it about 40 times in three and a half hours.

I’m guessing the TV crew realized on Saturday morning “Oh crap, we’ve been so busy stuffing our faces this week to do any research or find any interesting information to fill down time during the game.” The resolution was “Let’s make some stuff up and anytime we can’t think of anything else, let’s mention that UK hasn’t beaten Tennessee since the mid-80′s.

Anyway, I’m a little later than usual on my recap and post-game thoughts, so I’m not going to bog you down with a drive by drive analysis or anything.

Saturday night’s loss was another tough one for the ‘Cats in this rivalry. UK, after senior safety Ashton Cobb made a huge play to force a Luke Stocker fumble, was in position on the Tennessee 37 yard line to punch the ball in the end zone in the final 2:21.

Riding a wave of emotion after the gamechanging play, Randall Cobb ran the ‘Cats down to a 1st and 10 at the Tennessee 13. Cobb ran for another 3 yards on first down, then Morgan Newton came back in at quarterback. After a Derrick Locke 2 yard run, Joker Phillips called for a QB sprint to the right for Newton. It looked like he had the corner, but Locke couldn’t get enough of Eric Berry on a block to spring Newton for the first, and UK settled for a tying field goal.

Questions are already arising over the decision to put the ball in Newton’s hands rather than Cobb’s, Rich Brooks said of the Wildcat on last drive: “We got a couple of good plays out of it and then we were in a two-minute situation. Unfortunately we’re not expert enough to run the two-minute out of the Wildcat so we got back into our regular formation and tried to finish that drive and get it in there. Plus Randall (Cobb) was out several times, he took IVs at halftime for cramps and he’s pretty worn out.”

In overtime, UK got the ball first and could not make any kind of a play, forcing a 49 yard field goal attempt from Lones Seiber. Anyone who has watched UK football over the past 3 years was not optimistic about Seiber’s chances of hitting the long kick…he didn’t hit it.

UK then went on defense, and got a holding call on first down. The ‘Cats couldn’t capitalize, allowing a 14 yard second down pass, then a 20 yard Montario Hardesty touchdown to end it.

AP Photo/Ed Reinke

Even though UK was in position to win the game, let’s be honest here: they didn’t deserve to win that football game. Before Stocker’s fumble, UT’s 3 point lead felt more like 3 touchdowns, as UK was pretty thoroughly dominated in the second half.

The first half was played almost to a dead draw, with Big Play Sam Mawell’s touchdown return off a Jonathan Crompton interception being the difference in the 21-14 score. The second was another story.

There are a lot of factors in a football game. That goes without saying. However, if you asked me to boil the second half domination down to 2 factors, I would point to the battle for the line of scrimmage and quarterback play.

Montario Hardesty was the player of the game last night, rushing for 188 yards on 39 carries. He was a workhorse, getting his yards on gashing runs over the middle. His long for the game was the 20 yard game winner, so it’s not like his stats were buoyed by a couple long ones. As well as Hardesty played, he wouldn’t have done a thing if not for the UT offensive line.

DeQuin Evans made a few very nice plays early, but for the most part, the defensive line that played so well in last week’s Georgia win was taken out of the game by UT’s zone blocking scheme. Senior Corey Peters, in particular, was handcuffed all day long.

Offensively, UK had early success with Randall Cobb out of the Wildcat. Cobb ended with 101 yards on the ground, but almost none of that yardage was gained after halftime and before UK’s final drive. UK has been best this season when matching Randall Cobb’s productivity out of the Wildcat with a strong traditional running game with Derrick Locke.

Locke, though, could not ever get any room to run. He finished with just 22 yards on 11 carries. The 22 yards were a season low, and Locke carried the ball fewer than 11 times only in blowout wins over Miami and Louisiana Monroe.

When a defense gears up to stop the run like Tennessee did last night, your quarterback just has to step up and make a few plays to keep the opponent honest. Morgan Newton, facing pressure almost every time he threw the ball, just could not do that.

Newton, even when he did make the appropriate read and/or step up in the pocket to avoid pressure, just could not make throws downfield. He overthrew almost every throw beyond 5 yards. I’m not sure if he has been so drilled in not making a mistake that he can’t bring himself to put the tough throws where they need to go, but he just couldn’t get it done.

Jonathan Crompton wasn’t great by any means, but he was good enough to make a few plays, most of which went to wide receiver Gerald Jones and tight end and KY native Luke Stocker.

The game ball on offense goes to Randall Cobb, of course. In addition to his 101 yards on the ground, caught 4 balls for 24 yards, completed a pass to Chris Matthews for 31 yards, and added 61 yards in the return game.

AP Photo/Ed Reinke

On defense, Micah Johnson is the guy. He had 10 solo tackles and 6 assists, along with 2 tackles for loss. He was all over the place and did everything he could to win this game. He was also asked to play some tough assignments in the passing game, guarding Stocker and Hardesty one on one. He did pretty well for a 260 pounder, likely earning himself some money in the process.

On the positive side of things, UK is still at 7 wins. With the way that other SEC teams played yesterday, the smart money would say that UK will be making a return trip to Nashville for the Music City Bowl. Representatives from the Chick-Fil-A Bowl have been watching UK very closely over the past few games, so I wouldn’t rule out that possibility.

UK wil definitely benefit from the month off ahead of the bowl game. Look the Rich Brooks to rest his squad and install some new offensive wrinkles to surprise whomever UK plays next. Also, Mike Hartline has not yet been ruled out of the bowl game, so his status will be an important thing to watch.