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Cats can't win in SEC playing like that

The good news is that Kentucky is 3-0, that the Cats rallied from a six-point deficit in the final quarter to beat a good Middle Tennessee State team, surviving a Hail Mary/Near-Bluegrass Miracle II pass on the final play, with the Blue Raiders stopped at the 1-yard line and the Wildcats winning 20-14.

That's the good news.

Before we get to the bad news, some words from offensive coordinator Joker Phillips.

"Here's what's discouraging to me," Phillips said. "You see guys in pre-game signing Kanye West songs. How can they freaking understand every word that he sings and they can't understand the freaking signals. That's what's frustrating."

That sort of gives you a taste of the bad news.

Yes, Kentucky beat a darn-good Blue Raiders team, the one that beat Maryland last week. The same Maryland that put a big hurt on No. 23 California Saturday at College Park.

But the problem is that after this coming off week, and the Sept. 27 date with Western Kentucky, conference play starts, and the teams get a whole lot better.

To beat those teams, the Cats are going to have to play a whole lot better than they did last night.

"We're not a very good football team right now," lamented head coach Rich Brooks.

"Messy," was the analysis handed down by quarterback Mike Hartline, who was actually quite good, completing 28 of 47 passes for 254 yards and two touchdowns, without an interception.

Yes, Hartline did lose a fumble that set up a Blue Raiders score.

And yes, Hartline had to go it alone because the second quarterback in the Cats' two-quarterback system, Randall Cobb, suffered a high ankle sprain early in the first quarter while playing wide receiver and did not return. Turned out the ankle sprain was contagious on this night. Both middle linebacker Micah Johnson and defensive tackle Ricky Lumpkin were lost to the same malady.

But then Hartline must have felt alone at other times, too, which leads back to those receivers, the subject of Phillips' ire. They ran wrong routes. They broke off good routes. With the exception of Dicky Lyons Jr. (12 catches), they dropped balls.

"One of the things we're going to do is stop rotating the Commonwealth Crowd at wide receiver and narrow it down to who knows what's going on," said Brooks, speaking of the off week coming up.

There are more tasks to tackle. Truth be told, the offensive line has been an early disappointment. The much-anticipated UK running game hasn't materialized, at least not in these first three games. There have been too few holes and too much defensive penetration.

Brooks excused some of that to the defense stacking the line of scrimmage to stop the run, but he admitted he's not been too happy with the grunts up front.

And even Brooks would have to admit there might have been some not too happy with the head coach after he sent the "poor to atrocious" (Brooks' words) Lones Seiber out to kick a 32-yard field goal with 20 seconds left on a night in which the senior had made just two of five field goals.

Make it two of six after Middle blocked the kick, then nearly scored only to have the runback called back by a holding penalty.

"My thinking was, if we kick the field goal, we're up by nine, and we can't possibly lose," Brooks said. "But you can call me an idiot because they nearly scooped and scored."

We won't call him an idiot, just a coach lucky enough to claim a win over a good visitor, knowing his team is going to have to get a lot better.

"The best thing is, we've got a week off to work on things," said Hartline. "And we've got a lot of things to work on."

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