Playcalling is not the issue here.

You don't just make a decision to pass.

As a coach, Petrino will read the defense and take what it give's him.

Unfortunately, youth, once again, wound up being our Achillis heal.

Petrino is playing with the hand that was dealt to him his first year. Like it or not, that's just the way it is.

If a Freshman doesn't fumble the ball with a little over 4 minutes left, and we don't have miscommunication with our young players on defense in KU's final drive, we win, plain and simple.

If those two things don't happen at critical times in the ballgame, we win, plain and simple.

I think the the answer your looking for Okie, about our passing game, evolve's around the KU passing defense.

They have very good cover corners this year, and Casey Dick was out of sink the whole game.

Petrino is smart enough to know that certain coverages might spell trouble for certain passing plays.

What was Dick's passing stats for the game? 11 – 29 I think?

That probably didn't give Petrino a lot of confidence in sticking with the pass.

The philosify may have been that if we keep passing, we may get burned by an interception in the end.

As it turned out, we got burned anyway

by another Freshman mistake when Curtis fumbled the football.

After that was when we had another defensive collapse, winding up with a LB covering thier best reciever, which was attributed, once again, to a first year player being out of position on the play.

I also didn't like the so-called illegal shift penalties that only one of the refs, on one side of the field, was so inclined to keep calling over and over, but that's life on the road in the SEC.

I know we are limited in Talent. I have no problem losing to better teams because our players are not up to the talent level. But I really do think we were as good or better than Kentucky. My problem this week is we have been passing all year. We havent really been winning much but we have had alot of passing yards. That is until this game. This game we scraped the pass and went run. I admit it worked until the last 5 minutes of the game too. So maybe its not a bad game plan but I think ,and I could be wrong (wouldnt be the first time) if we had our passing game going like we had been doing all year this would have been a win by 14 points. But the running game was the plan and I question that judgment. Thats all I am saying. Defense is looking better so there is a praise for Petrino things are getting better defensively. I just hate to lose the winnable ones.

How do you get to this point in the season and not have a red zone offense, a goal line offense? Smith is a great kid but he is no short yardage back. We need to rethink that somehow. We should not still be making this many mistakes or having this much trouble scoring. But, I suppose we are about where we thought we would be. And, it is only mid season.

I had a feeling it was time for Casey to have another day off. Michael almost won it anyway and, he would have if he wasn't exhausted. I know this coaching staff is doing everything it can to win games but, I do have to wonder a little if it is not time to see Tyler Wilson and the other running backs.

Kentucky may not glare out at you as a name team like Auburn, but thier still at least that good anyway.

Remember, Kentucky was #1 in scoring defense at 10.5 points per game, while thier passing defense alone was one of the best in the conference.

They also just held 'Bama to a 17 -14 ballgame in Tuscaloosa the week before.

Thier offense was struggling a bit, but probably still wasn't as bad in the passing game as Auburn was.

I think the Hogs are still too much of a work in progress to count on winning these types of games right now, and I also don't exspect them to beat (God forbid) Ole Miss on Saturday either.

The Rebels have an outstanding D-line. Even better than KU's or Auburns, so if M. Smith doesn't make it back this week, I think our chances are very slim without our best offensive player.

Hopefully, with Ole Miss being a little suspect in the secondary, we can exploit that in the passing game. Here's the flip side of that though. With the line play the Rebels have at putting pressure on the QB, Casey Dick could be toast.

Remember the 'Bama game? Were definately playing better now than we were then, but this team is way too inconsistant to exspect anything just yet.

The Rebels have looked very much like a Houston Nutt coached team this year. Even more overall talent than what the Hogs had last year, while at the same time shooting itself in the foot at critical times of the ballgame with very undisiplined penalties from some of the team leaders, and terrible playcalling.

The bottom line is reality says the Rebels beat the Hogs, but if it come's down to coaching, and our players don't forget to stay focused in the 4th qr., then the Hogs might just have a shot.

Exhibit A: Matt Harris is an awful safety and needs to be banished to the bench

Exhibit B: London Crawford plays in fear with alligator arms and needs to be banished to the bench

Exhibit C: We need a power back to punch it in from the one… Smith trying to superman his 5 foot 6 body over the O and D lines was a horrible idea and lead to a loss of the deciding points

Exhibit D: How in the world does a team get that many illegal shifts and illegal formations… not to mention holding

Exhibit E: Casey you hold the ball way to long… make a decision and act, not made a decision, think about decision, then act

I'm sure there are more, but I am tired of rehashing the memories

I guess the only answer I can give you is this;

If you demand to know what was going on with Petrino's decision making, then I suggest you call him and ask him, because i'm

quite sure knowone else on this blog is going to be able to help you.

Peace out.

I'm sure my comments aren't going to change anyone's mind.