I’m sitting here trying to figure out what to say, and I am truly at a loss for words.

We all saw it. Kentucky got ran over by South Carolina tonight, 24-7.

Sawyer Smith

After hearing that Sawyer Smith was a “little banged up” and they were going to do the “best they could” with the situation I was scared. Then, he threw another interception and off they went.

Smith was an atrocious 11/32 for 90 yards and an INT.

Yeah, Smith was banged up, which makes him the easy scapegoat. Stoops did say after the game that they should’ve gone to Lynn Bowden sooner. I concur.

“Rough day offensively. Sawyer is giving everything he can. He’s banged up. He’s banged up. We don’t need to make excuses – there are no excuses. Maybe should have went to Lynn (Bowden) maybe earlier. Everyone is going to ask that.”

Smith injured his wrist and shoulder against Florida.

There were a lot of inaccurate throws, which I think were caused by his injury, and lots of miscommunication on throws.

What happened to the running game?

Earlier in the week, Stoops made it sound like they threw the ball 40x just to shut the fans up. This made me think we would see A.J. Rose and Kavosiey Smoke in the run game more. That wasn’t the case at all.

Five Kentucky rushers totaled for 115 yards. Rose saw the most carries, with ten for 33 yards. Chris Rodriguez, who we hadn’t seen since his fumble against Toldeo, had six carries for 65 yards and the lone touchdown for Kentucky.

Kavosiey Smoke sat out the second half with an illness.

In all of this, I wonder why Stoops and Gran didn’t run the ball more. Helen Keller could’ve told you the passing game wasn’t working.

Did the defense show up?

Tackling, missed assignments, tackling, blown coverages, tackling, no effort, tackling. Did I say tackling?

The defense allowed 387 total yards of offense tonight.

TACKLING!

Should we let Lynn Bowden try QB?

If we’re talking about somehow salvaging the season, I think you try this. Yeah, I know Sawyer Smith will get healthy, but trying both wouldn’t hurt.

He’s a threat back there. Get a little crazy, and make losses like these more exciting. Please!

Did Benny, Josh, and Terry really cover all of this up?

We have seen the bad play calling, disorganization, lack of effort, etc. from Stoops’ teams in the past. But, we didn’t see it last year a lot.

That all leads me to believe that Josh Allen, Benny Snell, and Terry Wilson covered up all of the problems that are once again rearing their ugly heads. No, I do not think Stoops needs to go, but we cannot act like he doesn’t have problems of his own. The issues we have seen this season are nothing new. It’s his sixth year and these things haven’t been fixed.

Max Duffy is one hell of a punter

The most entertaining part of the game tonight, other than the touchdown, was Max Duffy’s excellent punting.

The Aussie had nine punts for 460 yards. That’s over 4.5 football fields.

Punting nine times, though? No thanks.

I wish I had an Australian accent.

Where do we go from here?

A 24-7 loss to a 1-3 team is just flat out terrible. South Carolina isn’t good at all and Kentucky looked like they didn’t even belong on the same field as the Gamecocks.

Well, the Cats are now 2-3. Not good. But, they have a bye-week coming up, which means a chance to get healthy and fix things.

Will Sawyer heal up before Arkansas?

“I hope so. I hope so. I don’t know. He definitely will not throw for a solid week. But I’m no doctor, so I shouldn’t pretend to be. I do what they tell me to do.”

So, if Sawyer is that banged up, then why didn’t you go to Walker Wood or Lynn Bowden sooner?

Stoops said they still have confidence in Walker, but he’s gone through a lot of injuries himself.

But, tonight was the make-or-break game. If you won tonight, 8-9 wins was a real possibility. But that’s pretty much out the window now.

What’s realistic you ask? Just make a damn bowl.

The Cats will return to Kroger Field on October 12th to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Big Blue Madness is right around the corner folks!

Goodnight and go Cats.