Post-game Diagnosis

I am quite happy, though after that dismal performance I expect I'm in the minority among UK fans.

Since Brooks has been Kentucky's coach his teams have played one or two absolute clunkers per season. This was definitely one, and it was a victory. And U of L is not that awful. Kentucky will see better teams the rest of the season, but Louisville played pretty well, and Victor Anderson is the best running back the Cats will face this year.

Kentucky survived a day of lousy tackling and incredibly sloppy ball-handling. They have one or two games like that every year. I always hope those games come against either a team they manage to beat anyway, or against someone like Florida who would win no matter what. This time it came in a lucky win.

I'm pleased. I'd still love to see an offensive line that can run block and a defense that can put pressure on a third-and-long pass, but otherwise I'm okay with the game. I'm not too worried about the tackling or the ball-protection; at the moment I'm prepared to just call it an off-game with a fortunate result.

Also, I haven't been a big Pat Forde fan lately, but he deserves credit for his call this week at ESPN.com. It's not exactly a prediction, but here's what he had to say about USC/Washington.

... the following teams should be on upset alert (or at least scare alert) this week:

USC (11) -- The Trojans were a marvelous self-sustained energy force Saturday in The Horseshoe, jumping en masse and dancing and shouting to each other all game long. "We stayed with the juice on the sidelines," coach Pete Carroll said, approvingly. "It was 100 guys versus everyone in the world, it seemed like. We were just trying to create as much energy as possible. We needed every single guy jumping."

So what happens this week, when USC travels to Seattle to play a Washington team it has beaten seven straight seasons? A Washington team that went winless in 2008, including a 56-0 loss to the Trojans?

Will they be jumping all game long again?

Meanwhile, Washington finally won a game last week and is coached by former Carroll assistant Steve Sarkisian -- with former Carroll assistant Nick Holt as defensive coordinator. Rest assured, the Huskies and their coaches have had this game in their sights far longer than USC and will have the Trojans scouted right down to their sweat socks.