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Fortunate is the word Kentucky coach Mark Stoops kept using after his team managed to rally to beat Eastern Kentucky 34-27 in overtime here Saturday night.
Kentucky was on the verge of one of the most disappointing losses in program history when it fell behind 27-13 with 7:39 to play in the fourth quarter. Kentucky certainly has had its share of bad losses, but coming off a win over a ranked Missouri team and looking ahead to the first Thursday night game ever at Commonwealth Stadium against Auburn a loss in this game would have been hard to ever justify.
So what if UK had lost six straight games to in-state teams (four to Louisville, two to Western). This time Kentucky was supposed to be on the rise with a 3-1 mark and Eastern Kentucky had already lost 35-0 to North Carolina State, a team Louisville beat earlier Saturday.
But the Colonels were the better team for the first 52 minutes. They were more physical, more emotional and more consistent.
Stoops knew it, too.
“I feel very fortunate to have won,” said Stoops. “Fortunate is the word that jumps out right now. Give them credit. I feel like they coached better than we did. They played with more energy and executed better than we did.
“I am proud of our team for determination and somehow finding the way to get the victory. Overall not very pleased with how we played. At the end of the year, nobody will know what it looks like. Very fortunate to get the win tonight.”
He admitted it “wasn’t looking good” when Eastern took the 27-13 lead.
“I am human. We were certainly going to fight and finish that game. We had to get a spark offensively and finally got it and gave our fans something to cheer about and that gave us a little bit of juice. We were not playing very well on either side of the ball. Patrick (Towles) was struggling, but it was great to see him come back and make some plays,” Stoops said.
Towles threw two first-half interceptions, but finished the game 29 of 42 passing for 329 yards and three scores and also ran for a score.
He hit Dorian Baker with a 5-yard scoring pass with 52 seconds left to tie the game. Baker, who had eight catches for 86 yards and drew three pass interference calls, said both he and Towles had to make an adjustment on the play based on Eastern’s defense.
“Great individual effort. What can you say. He just went up and made a play. It’s hard to put into context how important that was. Just a great play. We had some other options on the play. We saw them in one-on-one (with Baker) and he’s big and we went to it,” Stoops said.
They went back to him in overtime with screen passes for a first down and then for a 3-yard touchdown.
“Playmakers want the ball. I was calling for it the whole game honestly, but then I knew I had to score and did,” Baker said.
Stoops said it would have been “pretty significant” to the program if UK had lost and that his team had to learn to handle prosperity.
“We don’t respond very well to that. You can’t be nice at all. That’s the game of football. You have to respect the game, preparation and the opponent and play with toughness and a mental edge about you,” Stoops said. “I would have liked to see us play, improve and move forward as a team. I am not sure we did that tonight, but getting a victory obviously is very critical.”
After all, not playing well and winning is a lot better than not playing well and losing.
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