Let's Look At The Positives!

Ok, so after a stellar first half, the Cats let the streak-breaking W slip away.  Sure, it hurts now, but tomorrow we start preparing for (hopefully) a New Year's Eve game in Atlanta at the Chick-Fil-A Bowl.  Who isn't excited about that?  Admittedly, I'm not the best at recapping football games, and Matt will be by later to share his post-game thoughts, but here are the things that stood out to me- The game itself was a tale of two halves.  UK played extremely well in the first half, kicked off by a 56-yd Pick 6 by Sam Maxwell.  But, in the semi-words of Charlie Cole, "Hardesty became Hardesty" and went on to run all over the Cats, racking up 180 rushing yards and 3 scores, including the game winner in overtime.  On UK's side, the Legend of Cobb grew yet again, as out of the Wildcat our man ran for 101 yards and a score.  Some (read: most everyone) will question why the ball was taken out of his hands late in the 4th quarter and overtime.  I guess some things need to remain a mystery.  Morgan Newtown will probably catch some heat after going 10-23 for 68 yards and no scores.  Not only that, but he really seemed rattled late in the game and couldn't put together the game winning drive.  Is it all his fault?  Probably not, but he'll hear the majority of the criticism.  But remember, folks, this kid is a true freshman playing on a stage that he's never played on before.  Give him time.  Obviously, we struggle with stopping the ground attack and Tennessee really exploited that tonight.  Our secondary also gave up some big plays, most notably a 30-yard pass play with UT on 3rd and 18.  Plays like that make the loss even harder to stomach.  But tomorrow is another day.  We still have another game to prepare for. And besides, there's always next year.