Now I know what you’re thinking – Why do this game? Louisville beat us in 2007. It wasn’t even close. They shot 46 free throws. It was the worst game of Patrick Patterson’s young career. All of this is true, but of all the weeks of the year, this is the one where basketball is not on my mind. ESPN Classic aired the replay of the Kentucky/Louisville football game yesterday afternoon, and I thought I’d try doing one of these things for a football game. I think I can tweak the format enough to keep it from being a disaster.
Going into the third week of the 2007 football season, Kentucky was an up and coming team that, despite beating Clemson in the Music City Bowl the year before, was not getting a lot of respect from the media. Andre Woodson was working on his consecutive passes without an interception record and the Cats were as deep as I’ve ever seen them at the skill positions. The defense was young, but improving, led by the awesome Wesley Woodyard at linebacker. Kentucky hadn’t beaten Louisville since they took 15 years away from the life of Dave Ragone back in 2002, but the man behind the four consecutive Cardinal wins was busy coaching the Atlanta Falcons. Kentucky had two relatively easy wins to open 2007, beating Eastern Kentucky and Kent State.
Louisville, on the other hand, was awesome – at least they were supposed to be. The defending Orange Bowl champions were #9 in the country and returned everybody from their incredible 2006 offense except Michael Bush. You know how good Brian Brohm was. Harry Douglas was one of the rare Louisville players who I really liked, just a tough kid. Mario Urrutia was the other receiver with a Randy Moss body and crocodile arms. The Cardinals had a stable of running backs that rivaled, if not surpassed, Kentucky’s. Louisville demolished Murray State in Week 1, but gave up 42 points against Middle Tennessee, which called the defense into question. From Commonwealth Stadium in Lexington, Kentucky, our announcers are Eric Collins and Bill Curry.
Louisville won the toss and elected to receive. They shouldn’t have. Trent Guy fumbled the opening kickoff and Antoine Brown recovered for Kentucky. Woodson had the adrenaline pumping on the first drive, as his passes sailed way over his receivers’ heads. Lones Seiber kicked a 36-yard field goal to get UK on the board first. In both of Louisville’s games, the Cards scored a touchdown on their first offensive play from scrimmage. Against Kentucky, Brohm looked for Douglas on a play action go route, but Trevard Lindley jumped the route and picked off the pass because he’s awesome. Lindley returned the pick inside the 20, putting Kentucky in the red zone once again. Curry: “They really need a touchdown now.” Yeah, you’d know a lot about that, Bill. Run the option with Tim Couch, Bill. Jason Leger recovered a Rafael Little fumble, then on the next play (3rd and goal), Woodson found Steve Johnson wide open in the back of the endzone for a touchdown. At 10-0, the game couldn’t have started any better.
Hey, there’s a Willie Williams sighting! I have to restrain myself, but don’t eat the weed, Willie. Kentucky went on a nice long drive. The big play was a huge run by Little where he broke 2-3 tackles. Woodson was still visibly nervous, based solely on his throws. He was putting a little too much zip on his long passes, which led to another 4th down. Seiber came in to kick it from 32 yards, and the kick was true. 13-0 felt good, but being a UK football fan, I was nervous that the good guys left eight points on the board by not getting into the endzone twice. ESPN Classic cut out a large chunk of the first quarter, including the kickoff after the field goal, where Ashton Cobb absolutely destroyed Jujuan Spillman, forcing him back 15 yards after the initial hit. When they picked up, Louisville advanced to the red zone (after a QB sneak on 4th down), and Brohm caught Anthony Allen in the flat, where he dove and extended to the pylon for a touchdown.
However, as the game entered the second quarter, Kentucky regained the momentum with a nice drive. Curry: “The Louisville defense has shown that is isn’t going to play like it did in the Middle Tennessee game. They may give up yards, but they’ll do it begrudgingly.” What? Is he even watching the drive? Little kept running for solid yardage on 1st down, and Woodson his receivers on quick strikes down the field. The drive ended when Little bounced off of six Cardinals on a counter play for a touchdown. Seiber missed the extra point (man, I hope he’s got that worked out) and it was 19-7. Again, the score was nice, but points were still on the board. Once again, ESPN cut a large chunk out of the action. Louisville came back with a long drive that took 11 plays. We only got to see the last one, a touchdown strike from Brohm to Douglas. A turning point happened on 4th and 1. Kentucky went for it because they were in Louisville territory, but not in field goal range. You run QB sneak, right? It seems logical. Louisville did it on their first scoring drive. Or do you run the option with Andre Woodson, the antithesis of a mobile quarterback? Joker ran the option, it got stuffed, and I threw things. I threw lots of things. Brohm marched the Cards down the field and Allen ran it in from about 10 yards in on a delay. The PAT gave Louisville a 21-19 lead at the half.
Kentucky took the opening kickoff of the second half and embarked on an impressive drive. Most of the yards gained were courtesy of the feet of Rafael Little and the hands of Keenan Burton, who caught some huge passes on third down. Woodson hit John Conner in the flat (most underrated position, most underrated player) for a touchdown. I know Conner got a little banged up as SEC play progressed, but I wish Joker called that play more often in the red zone. John’s an excellent fullback. Unfortunately, the lead didn’t last 15 seconds. Trent Guy ran back the insuing kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown. The key to that TD was the presence of David Jones on special teams for Kentucky. Jones had the angle to keep Guy from reaching the sideline, but he had a bum wheel, and couldn’t get to Guy in time or catch up to him. It’s too bad, because a healthy Jones makes that play 50 times out of 50.
Kentucky once again went on a long drive, and yet again, I miss most of it because ESPN Classic decided to skip a large chunk of the drive. When play resumed, Woodson hit Boyle County’s Jacob Tamme (I will never hesitate to give a 12th region shout-out) in the back of the endzone for Jacob’s first TD catch of the season. Tamme was relatively quiet against EKU and Kent, but he had a tremendous performance against Louisville. Louisville drove to the red zone on their next drive, and were faced with 4th and goal. Brohm tried to hit Gary Barnidge on a TE delay route, but Wes Woodyard stuffed Barnidge at the 2 and Louisville was turned away. That was an excellent goal line stand. Of all the great plays Kentucky made in this game, Woodyard’s stop on 4th down is the one that gets the least attention.
At that point, with eight minutes and change remaining and Kentucky up 33-28, I thought the good guys were in good shape as long as they didn’t fumble. Woodson wasn’t going to throw a pick, so as long as we got a couple more first downs, I thought we had it in the bag. But the Louisville defense tightened, sacked Woodson and forced a punt with 6:34 to go. After a sack by Braxton Kelley, Brohm hit Douglas running down the sideline for a huge gain. Brohm found Urrutia for another big game (out route, of course – he’d have puckered if he had to go across the middle). On the next play, Allen ran up the gut on the draw for another first down. Douglas made a few more tough catches in traffic, Finally, Allen punched it in with 1:45 to go. Louisville went for two, but the try was unsuccessful. Kentucky had a minute and 37 seconds to go 74 yards.
It was crunch time. Little carried for 13 yards on the draw. Woodson threw o
ne
behind Johnson. Then he overshot Tamme. On third down, Woodson hit Little in the flat, but he went out of bounds before reaching the first down line, and UK faced 4th and 1. Woodson hit Tamme on a quick out to get the first down and stop the clock at 56 seconds. Then, in a controversial play, Woodson hit Tony Dixon on a screen. Dixon was immediately met by Louisville defense back Bobby Buchanan. Buchanan stayed on top of Dixon, trying to wrestle the ball loose. Center Eric Scott came in and shoved Buchanan off of Dixon, which resulted in a personal foul. I guess it didn’t matter, because Woodson found Steve Johnson wide open down the sidelines, and the Louisville defenders got burned something fierce. We like to call that play “Stevie Got Loose.” I’ll have video at the end.
Still, there were 24 seconds remaining. Being a UK football fan, 24 seconds is an eternity for me. I don’t need to say why. I know Louisville was on their own 20, but it was still too much time. Brohm went for it all on the first play, and the pass almost got picked off. A short pass to Guy got the Cards to the 30 with eight seconds to go, time for one last play. It was Hail Mary time. The long pass was deflected, but somehow fell into the hands of Douglas at the 11. It was the LSU game all over again. Except this time, Douglas was immediately tackled. The ballgame was over, and the good guys prevailed, 40-34. It was the first win over a top ten team in 30 years.
And now, enjoy some videos. Let me explain the videos. The first is a highlight reel of the game made by the Herald-Leader. The second is an old CFL highlight reel, but the footage in that video is not important. The audio, however, is very important because it’s “Classic Battle” by Sam Spence. I think this is the greatest football song ever created. For maximized viewing pleasure, here’s what you need to do. At approximately 40 seconds into the UK video, start playing the CFL video. The music and highlights will sync up as if Sam Spence himself designed that song for that highlight reel.
“Classic Battle”
I’m Seth Stogsdill, and don’t ask me how I came up with that video trick. It took hours.
