Let's ALL Calm Down on the Coach K Firing Squad

[Empire Lindy]

Brandon, don't forget the games against Kentucky (2005), Miami (2004), Cincinnati (2006), the Gator Bowl, the GMAC Bowl, Temple (2003... we nearly lost to TEMPLE!!!), etc.

You're right, offenses sometimes get stopped or stop themselves. Brohm wasn't entirely accurate Saturday night and it (along with Mario's granite hands) cost us a couple of drives. I'd still say being the #1 team in total offense and #3 in scoring offense is hardly a problem for that side of the ball.

[CardAlum]

Originally Posted by Die Hard Cards

Forget the defense. What about the first sentence? Brohm is looking at a top3 draft pick atleast, Douglas WILL play on sundays, Allen is I think #2 in rushing in the country, TALENTED Oline, Urrutia is inconsistent but extremely talented. This team scored one offensive touchdown in the second half and that was with 2 minutes to go in the game. BAD coaching is to explain that. As talented as the offense is if you don't score 40 to 50 points then you are doing something wrong. I didn't expect much from the defense, they just aren't playing well for whatever reason. There is no reason we can't trade touchdowns with U of f***ing K!

We basically DID trade TD's with UK (other than that one INT from Brohm at the beginning of the game). Our huge problems were special teams. Mr Art-O-Matic missed a field goal (granted a long one) and there was a fumble at the opening kickoff which gave UK their first points. The fumble and the INT killed us. Other than that. It was a very even game with both teams having issues controlling the other team's great offenses.

[Red Alert]

Fumbles and interceptions are part of football. You play mistake free football every game and you are going to win alot more than you are going to lose. The defense is just terrible. A good D, hell even an average D wouldve covered for those mistakes. But you cant make mistake after mistake and expect to win a shootout.

[Empire Lindy]

I think the fact that it was 13-0 instead of 21-0 after the fumble, INT, and stalled drive are a testament to the defense myself. The blown coverage at the end of the game has put a dark cloud over a game where, honestly, the D only gave up 24 points.

[HarveyGlass]

Originally Posted by Empire Lindy

I think the fact that it was 13-0 instead of 21-0 after the fumble, INT, and stalled drive are a testament to the defense myself. The blown coverage at the end of the game has put a dark cloud over a game where, honestly, the D only gave up 24 points.

I agree. I thought the defense played very well against UK. Yes, it was the defense who cost us the game on that one play, but it was a great game for the D against one of the best offenses in the country.
I think discipline cost us the game. The discipline involved in taking care of the football(fumbles), the discipline involved in stupid penalties(goal line td), and the discipline of being in the right place on the field(final td). Mental errors that should be corrected by now, one-fourth of the way into the season.

I also want to point out that just on this past Saturday alone...
Arkansas' defense gave up 41 to Alabama.
Tennessee gave up 59 to Florida.
Wisconsin gave up 31 to The Citadel.
Nebraska gave up 49 to USC.
Texas gave up 32 to Central Florida.
UCLA gave up 44 to Utah.
And on and on.

Don't let the media convince you that UofL's defense is some hideous abomination. It's not as bad as they think.

In my own personal opinion, it seems like the "spread" offense is heavily tilting the game to the offense. Just three or four years ago, you only saw it with a half-dozen schools. Now every conference has three or four "spread" teams, and defenses everywhere are getting rolled.

[Red Alert]

Maybe they played "better" against UK but I think the D is still terrible. LSU blew out MTSU 44-0. You know, the same MTSU who hung 40 something points on us. THAT is a top 10 defense. You think UK is going to score 24 on LSU? I sure as hell dont.

Yeah, you're right. Louisville doesnt deserved to mentioned in the same sentence with LSU.

[Die Hard Cards]

You all make good points. But, the fact remains that we scored one offensive touchdown in the second half against a WEAK defensive team.

[wkuCardinal]

But that's happened multiple times with Petrino and JLS, especially early on.. so what's the difference between Krag and those guys?

[Die Hard Cards]

I think the talent level is much higher. You may be right. I just think that it already happened on his third game could be evident of things to come. Who knows. Maybe I'm just being unrealistic.

[Empire Lindy]

It happened in Petrino's third game, too. It was called Temple. OK, technically it was Petrino's 4th game, but you get the picture. I don't think Temple was as good as Kentucky and we still needed Elvis Dumervil to force a fumble to seal the game late. As a matter of fact, reading my recap from that game reminds me that we were whistled for 15 penalties for 109 yards that day. Kinda makes the discipline issues this year seem tame so far. Our secondary was torched by some dude named Mike McGann (is he in the NFL?) and our offense sputtered the entire second half. In fact, we didn't score a single point in the second half of that one.

The talent on the field and on the roster may have improved from 2003... but the growing pains and awkwardness of transitioning to a new staff haven't.