With loss, Kentucky football shows it's not quite ready to lead

The SEC’s Eastern Division was laying right there for Kentucky to take Saturday night at Commonwealth Stadium. Try as they might, however, the Cats couldn’t quite find their way to first.

There may come a time when Mark Stoops’ team will lead the SEC East, but Saturday night was not that time as Georgia’s Rodrigo Blankenship kicked a 25-yard field goal at the final gun to give the visiting Bulldogs a 27-24 win at Commonwealth Stadium.

“Lot of disappointed people in that locker room,” Stoops said afterward.

After all, SEC East leader Florida had rolled a gutter ball at Arkansas earlier in the day, falling 31-10 to the Razorbacks in Fayetteville. The defeat dropped the Gators to 4-2 in conference play. A win over Georgia would lift Kentucky to 5-2 and to the top of the division standings.

And for the better part of three quarters, it appeared the Cats were ready to seize the spot. Stoops’ team led 14-13 at the half. It led 21-16 at the end of three quarters.

Midway through the third quarter, Georgia was making the mistakes that cost you games. The Bulldogs fumbled away a punt in the first half that led to a Kentucky touchdown. Georgia safety Dominick Sanders committed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on a 26-yard Benny Snell run that helped lead to a home team touchdown and a 21-13 lead with 9:15 remaining.

Then Kentucky started making the mistakes first-place teams don’t make. Garrett Johnson fumbled the ball away after a reception. Georgia kicked a field goal to pull within 21-16. The next possession, UK receiver Jeff Badet appeared to have caught a perfect post pass from quarterback Stephen Johnson only to have the ball get away and end up in the hands of the Dawgs’ Deandre Baker for an interception.

Without much help from the offense in the second half, the UK defense held and held until Georgia’s freshman quarterback Jacob Eason found freshman tight end Isaac Nauta for a 29-yard seam pass that set up a 26-yard Sony Michel run for a TD and a 24-21 Bulldogs lead (after the two-point conversion) with 9:13 left.

“They did to us what we had been doing to other people, possessing the ball, getting first downs,” Stoops said.

After rushing for just 95 yards in its last two games, losses to Vanderbilt and Florida, Georgia rushed for 215 against Kentucky. Michel gained 127 yards on 19 carries. Nick Chubb gained 85 yards on 21 carries. Earlier in the week, the two star backs had gone to Georgia offensive coordinator Jim Chaney to talk about their roles in the Bulldogs’ attack.

Give the Cats credit for fighting to the end. On its final possession, UK drove 68 yards on 14 plays. Dorian Baker made a terrific third-down catch to get the march started. Then Benny Snell pounded and pounded, running the ball for nine straight times. But despite a first-and-goal at the Georgia nine, UK had to settle for a field goal and a 24-24 tie with 2:47 remaining.

You could argue that Kentucky make a coaching error down the stretch, as well. On the final drive, Georgia moved to the UK 30-yard line with just under a minute left. Stoops didn’t use any of his two remaining timeouts. The clock ticked down to 20 seconds before Georgia called timeout. Then after Michel gained seven yards to the UK eight, Georgia took another timeout with three seconds left.

“At one point, they were going so slow, if we could have gotten a tackle for loss it would have been a long field goal,” Stoops said. “I don’t think I could have saved much.”

Maybe not. Maybe the game was actually lost long before, the golden opportunity to see Kentucky’s name at the top of the division standings on Nov. 5 lost as well.

This story was originally published November 6, 2016 at 12:05 AM with the headline "With loss, Kentucky football shows it's not quite ready to lead."