The View From the 32 Yard Line

[The-Hack]

(1) The Positives:

We won.

O-line had few mishaps, few false starts, and had great snaps. Obvious domination of Toledo’s D-line with well over 200 rushing yards. Few real pressures on Calzada.

Alex Afari . . . probably the SEC defender of the week. I honestly thought he’d set a tackle record by the end of the first quarter.

And the Defense had Toledo bottled up until their last scoring drive. Overall, the defensive effort was outstanding, as the offense sustained too few lengthy drives.

Short/intermediate passing was good. TE’s were almost all our yardage in the air. Rodriguez’s fumble likely cost us a scoring drive.

Running game: It was “only” Toledo, but we must have averaged 8 or more yards a carry even with the one sack in the end zone. And it wasn’t just the 79 yarder . . . we seemed to just lean and
pick 4, 5, or 6 yards.

Punting: impressive height on those short punts, even forcing a fair catch on the six yard line. The ball sounded loud coming off the punters’ foot even high in the stadium.


(2) The Negatives:

In the middle of the third, or maybe earlier, I kept repeating “run the damn ball.”

I’ve never seen as many deep shots come up just inches away. The first drive overturned completion, two near catches in the back of the end zone, and Calzada’s lob to a TE inside the ten that was barely broken up. And I’m sure there were others that came close, and several that were not close at all.

First game timing issues . . . the wind . . . Calzada too pumped. . . receivers not getting separation . . . it’s likely a combination of all of these factors. We will have to see some passing over-the-top to pull off enough upsets to return to awinning season, hopefully starting next week.

The minus one turnover ratio cost us a double-digit win, and against better opponents, will cost us the win, itself. We have quite a few major talents on the defensive side of the ball, and they will have to create more turnovers to hang with most of our schedule.

But as Cawood used to say, “you can’t
win ‘em all if you don’t win the first one.”

A win is a win. Toledo went 2-0 against P4 competition last year, smashing Mississippi State and edging Pitt in a minor bowl with overtime play. They are 0-1, and we are 1-0. Something Bama and Texas cannot say!!

[Jaxcat]

(1) The Positives:

We won.

O-line had few mishaps, few false starts, and had great snaps. Obvious domination of Toledo’s D-line with well over 200 rushing yards. Few real pressures on Calzada.

Alex Afari . . . probably the SEC defender of the week. I honestly thought he’d set a tackle record by the end of the first quarter.

And the Defense had Toledo bottled up until their last scoring drive. Overall, the defensive effort was outstanding, as the offense sustained too few lengthy drives.

Short/intermediate passing was good. TE’s were almost all our yardage in the air. Rodriguez’s fumble likely cost us a scoring drive.

Running game: It was “only” Toledo, but we must have averaged 8 or more yards a carry even with the one sack in the end zone. And it wasn’t just the 79 yarder . . . we seemed to just lean and
pick 4, 5, or 6 yards.

Punting: impressive height on those short punts, even forcing a fair catch on the six yard line. The ball sounded loud coming off the punters’ foot even high in the stadium.


(2) The Negatives:

In the middle of the third, or maybe earlier, I kept repeating “run the damn ball.”

I’ve never seen as many deep shots come up just inches away. The first drive overturned completion, two near catches in the back of the end zone, and Calzada’s lob to a TE inside the ten that was barely broken up. And I’m sure there were others that came close, and several that were not close at all.

First game timing issues . . . the wind . . . Calzada too pumped. . . receivers not getting separation . . . it’s likely a combination of all of these factors. We will have to see some passing over-the-top to pull off enough upsets to return to awinning season, hopefully starting next week.

The minus one turnover ratio cost us a double-digit win, and against better opponents, will cost us the win, itself. We have quite a few major talents on the defensive side of the ball, and they will have to create more turnovers to hang with most of our schedule.

But as Cawood used to say, “you can’t
win ‘em all if you don’t win the first one.”

A win is a win. Toledo went 2-0 against P4 competition last year, smashing Mississippi State and edging Pitt in a minor bowl with overtime play. They are 0-1, and we are 1-0. Something Bama and Texas cannot say!!

Good observations.

-Afari played out of his head. By far, the best UK performance on either side of the ball.

-Disagree a little about bottling up Toledo - they scored 2 TDs in the 4th quarter and marched pretty much at will from my perspective. It seemed like we kept trying to apply pressure but we really played soft in the secondary and Toledo had receivers open. As usual, when we went up 15 in the 4th (twice), our defense surrendered a TD drive right afterward (twice). I'm convinced it's coaching as the defense, entering the 4th quarter, had only given up around 200 yards. Toledo racked up well over 100 yards in the 4th and I believe it's because we were complacent and happy to sit back and give up 10-play drives for TDs. It's absolute madness when you look back at the number of games we've lost due to that philosophy. And many, many more that were nail-biters down to the very last minute because we wouldn't try to put anyone away.

-TEs looked very good and were actually used quite a bit. Where did our WRs go (Maclin, Law, Gilmore, et al were pretty much no-shows)?

-220 total rushing yards on 43 carries = 5.1 ypc. Less the 79-yarder? 3.2 ypc. We gave up zero sacks. We did do better as the game wore on but Hamdan doesn't do our offense any favors as he's predictable at times and pulls dumb a$$ stuff out of his rear at other times.

-Kicking game was solid.



-Agree re: 'run the damn ball'. Where was Patterson who received so much praise from the staff in fall practice (I understand Wilcox may be in trouble and didn't play due to team rules violations - awesome!)?

-Deep shots need to be few and far between. We seemingly never complete one of those and it ends up stalling a bunch of drives. I'd MUCH rather see us throwing 15-yard slants and seams to see if the receiver can make a tackler miss or break a tackle to create a big play vs. heaving prayers down the field.

-WRs did NOT show up today. Didn't have any impact on the outcome.

-Hard to create TOs when your DBs only jumped one route all day - the one we intercepted.

-Calzada has to be much better at making the RIGHT throw. Quit going for the homerun so often. Doesn't have to become Checkdown Charlie but surely there is a middle ground between dump-offs and bombs. Also has to be better making the right RPO read - that safety was 60% on his awful read and 40% on Hamdan for calling that play in the first place. If Calzada hands off, Dowdell has 3+ yards instead of being sacked in the end zone. But the play itself was a dumb call - no reason for that play on your own goal line.

Unless there is significant improvement, I can't see more than 4 wins and maybe not that many this year.

[Jload]

After watching game today,I think the season will boil down to our Defense. The D was solid today and allowed Stoops to play the style he is very comfortable with. What happens if we get in track meet and need to score a bunch of points is less clear. The O line does look more physical( we will know more next Saturday). Calzada, considering he had virtually no pass rush was below average IMO. Receiving corps play was disappointing, BUT we finally actually USED our tight ends as receivers today,it looks like we have some good ones.Overall we looked better at many positions than II expected

[Jaxcat]

My biggest concern about the defense is that we're undersized. Our inside LBs (Afari and Ravener) both are <230 lbs. Against SEC teams, I'm concerned we'll get pushed around playing 34 with those two LBs in the middle. Not enough beef to be run stoppers, imo. And I doubt White will go to 43 much as he loves the 34. If I'm an OC, I'm running right at the heart of our D and make them stop me. I don't believe we'll be able to do so.

[Trueblujr]

Good write ups and observations. Hard to describe where I stand at this point. A lot will be told this weekend as to where we really are.
My observations from the 45 yard line in the upper deck:

Offense:
Passing game obviously struggled. But was glad to see our TE's get some usage. Kattus can become a nice weapon for us, especially if we get other facets of the offense going. Rodriguez too, if he can protect the ball. But definitely need to get Macklin, Gilmore, Law and the rest more involved.

Run game was very good, but have to realize that over a third of our yards came on one 79 yard run. But that one run showed what we're capable of. I hate that Wilcox can't keep his head on straight, because he has a world of potential and could have made us a three-headed monster. Not knowing all the details of what he's actually being accused of, I'll hold out hope there's a chance he can return at some point, but if he hurt or assaulted a female, he has no business here. Hopefully Patterson can get some reps this week. I always liked the thought of attacking primarily with one guy in the first half then sicking a fresh guy on them in the second half. Either way, the OL seemed to play better (sans that safety) outside of that we didn't give up any sacks and Calzada had positive rushing yards. That's a good sign.

Defense: Played well, but I still see them giving up way too many yards on third downs. And I think the two scoring drives late by Toledo was typical Stoops going into Prevent mode when up a couple of scores. Hate that. Glad to see us getting more QB pressure and sacks. Hopefully the Defense can keep us in some games this year.

Special Teams:
Anybody worried about the Kicker or Punter going into the season had their concerns alleviated. Kauwe has a leg and got his career off to a great start. His 45 yard FG sailed into the stands and would have been good from beyond 50. He's going to be a good one for us for a while hopefully. Laros' Punts were also a thing of beauty. He even made a tackle on one of his kickoffs. Coverage could have been a little better on that.