I'm usually the most positive person there is when it comes to UofL football. But there is no way to sugarcoat the game versus Kentucky this past Sunday—if you even want to call it a game.
All I can really say is that if things don't turn around, and fast, the fans had better brace for a tremendously tough season. If we're as bad against Tennessee Tech as we were against Kentucky, we won't win, plain and simple.
First off, the offense looked horrible. I didn't expect them to show up playing like the New England Patriots, but I also didn't expect them to show up playing like a team of eight-year-olds who have never played the game before. I know that's harsh, but honestly, where was the offense? They couldn't get the ball moving.
Hunter Cantwell didn't look poised in the pocket at all, which is the one place he should look comfortable, considering we actually have a pretty good offensive line. Hunter just seemed to be putting way too much on the ball in two ways. He would either send a bullet on a short pass when he didn't need to...or he would give it way too much air, overshooting the receiver and often ending up in the hands of a Kentucky defensive back.
One of our big problems, and one that may haunt us the entire year, is the lack of experience among the receiving corps. We just lost two of the more talented wide receivers that UofL has ever seen in Douglas and Urrutia (despite Mario's lackluster season last year).
Beaumont and Chichester didn't look bad, but they just have no experience. They just need time, and they should be solid.
I don't even know what to say about the running game. We may as well not have even run the ball on Sunday. That's probably going to be our biggest problem on the offensive side of the ball this year. We simply have no established running game.
I don't think anyone was overly impressed with Anthony Allen last year, but he would be a big improvement over what we have now.
I guess every cloud has a silver lining—kudos to the defense for stepping up and really keeping us in the game. The 27-2 score does not reflect the game in its entirety, as we were only trailing by eight at one point in the fourth quarter.
The defense actually did great, holding Kentucky to roughly the same offensive stats that we had, the only real difference being the multiple turnovers committed by the Louisville offense.
We stayed in the game for three-and-a-half quarters thanks to the defense. It's the same story as last year: We just couldn't finish. If we would have finished each game last year, we very well could have been playing in January, the only huge loss being South Florida.
Let me just end by saying that it feels awfully wrong to look at Louisville's standings and see "Points For" as 2 and "Points Against" as 27—not to mention the 0-1 record. Let's just hope that we can shake off the offensive bugs and pound Tennessee Tech next week.
As sad as that sounds, it's not a given.
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