In every war, in every battle, or in every athletic event (hey, Joker started the whole military theme), you have that moment that you know that victory is yours and the outcome is never in doubt. That moment came just 2:16 into the second quarter of Kentucky’s game against Louisville when out of the WildCobb formation, Randall Cobb took the snap, raced 51 yards into the endzone and Kentucky jumped to a 20-3 lead. At that point, Joker seemed to be content to put the big guns away, and Kentucky relied on their bend-but-never-break defense and Kentucky held on for a 23-16 win.
The theme going into the game was to win the ground war. It had been repeated ad naseum that the winning team in the rivalry the past fourteen years had the most yardage on the ground, and well, we got the point. UK took it’s opening strike through the air, however as Mike Hartline connected with La’Rod King for a 38 yard completion on the first play from scrimmage of the year. The next play, Derrick Locke burst free on a 32 yard run and not even a Ryan Tydlacka missed XP point could wipe the optimism from the early 6-0 lead.
On their third series of the game, Joker went to the ground game in earnest as Derrick Locke had runs of 7, 17, and 3 yards to get the drive started. Donald Russell also had a nice 12 yard run to complement Locke and then we started to see the emergence of a new Mike Hartline. Hartline was under pressure when he looked at Locke, saw he was covered, and made a nice pass to Matt Roark who took it to the Louisville one yard line. Derrick Locke took the ball in from the outside a couple of plays later and UK was up 13-0 in the first quarter.
Louisville then took advantage of a major Kentucky problem today: kick return coverage. Victor Anderson returned the ensuing kickoff 67 yards but UK’s defense stiffened and the Cards had to settle for a FG. And the next series is when Kentucky took control and simply put, unleashed Randall Cobb. Hartline hit Randall on two completions, one an incredible one handed catch for 8 yards that John Calipari even tweeted about later. Then in the Wildcobb, Randall did what he does best. Score touchdowns. And Kentucky was up 20-3 and seemingly on a romp of historic proportions.
Louisville went on a 16 play drive which chewed up most of the clock in the second half, but that netted just three points and Kentucky went in at half with a comfortable 20-6 lead. Make Hartline led an impressive drive in the second half in which he hit Chris Matthews on a nice 33 yard pick up, but the yards on the ground seemed to be tougher to come across and UK had to settle for a FG and a 17 point lead at 23-6.
The next Cardinal play woke up the drunk/disheartened Louisville crowd as Bilal Powell zipped 80 yards for a TD and it was 23-13 and seemingly a game again. But not really. Kentucky seemed content to keep the ball on the ground as Derrick Locke racked up yardage in bits. Kentucky then relied to on that defense to force a couple of turnovers to seal the deal.
Mychal Bailey had an interception at his own 23 yard line to stall one drive. Ridge Wilson recovered a Bilal Powell fumble that was forced by Taylor Wyndham to stall another drive. Meanwhile, UK was content to keep the ball on the ground and run that conservative offense that is frustrating to so many fans. Louisville chewed up a ton of time with a 17 play drive which netted just three points again and Kentucky was able to run out the last 3:00 of the game to seal the deal.
All in all, it was a huge win for the Cats. I know some Kentucky fans may be less than thrilled with the conservative game plan the last two and a half quarters and the fact that the Cardinals made the final score respectable. All I know is that Kentucky ran at Louisville full force for about 18 minutes and had a 20-3 lead and threatened to make it an ugly afternoon before Joker took his foot off the gas.
Was it exciting to watch? No. But the Cardinals were defeated early and why show your whole playbook in week one of a twelve week campaign. I am not going to nitpick a win, and certainly not the fourth straight win over a bitter rival on their home field.
For Kentucky, lots of good today. Mike Hartline was very composed when Kentucky was running its aggressive offense. He had several nice plays and seemed to know what to do with the ball on third down, even if that meant chucking it away to avoid a sack. Hartline was effective with 17-26 passing for 217 yards. He was on pace for a nice 300 yard game before Joker cooled the jets in the second half. Mike made several good plays and yes, he controlled the game effectively. The fact is that when you have the playmakers Kenucky has, Mike does not have to do anything spectacular to look good. All he has to do is get the ball to them.
Derrick Locke seems even faster than last season. The whole UK running game was very effective, picking up 230 yards on the day. Locke had 104 yards and 2 TD’s and Randall Cobb averaged 20 yards a carry on four runs. Donald Russell was a very pleasant surprise with 36 yards on 6 carries. I said this last year, but Donald Russell is going to be a good one.
The receiving corps was solid, even though Randall Cobb had just 2 receptions for 19 yards. The other receivers picked up the slack. Matt Roark was a big surprise today as he has three catches, and King and Matthews had 58 and 56 yards respectively. It was a good day when seven targets all have multiple catches. That’s called spreading the ball around and if UK can keep 5-7 receivers active, they will be tough to stop.
The only downside of the day really was the fact that the defense allowed 190 yards on the ground. However, looking for silver linings, take away the 80 yard Powell run, it was really not a bad day and the Cardinal passing game was ineffective with just 127 yards. Kentucky allowed more yards than they wanted, but when you consider that the only touchdown they allowed was on a 80 yard play, you have to feel pretty good. Louisville could not score when they got anywhere close to the Wildcat endzone and had to settle for three FG’s on drives where they chewed a lot of clock and really needed seven.
As season openers go, I am happy. I sure Joker is as well. Sure, there are things to work on, but you take a win when you can get it and this game was over early.
For complete game stats, go here.
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