Week 2 – Kent State at Kentucky

Week 2 CFN Fearless Prediction – Kent State at Kentucky

- CFN Fearless Predictions

Kent State (1-0) at Kentucky (0-1) Sept. 8, 7:30, ESPN3

Here’s The Deal: After an complete and total disaster of a start to the season with an ugly 32-14 loss to Louisville, Kentucky is in win-or-else mode. There’s still time to get to six wins and go bowling, but with the way the team appeared to pick up where it left off offensively last year, and not in a good way, and with the problem on defense, it’s going to take several big upsets to turn things around. A winnable game against Western Kentucky is up next week, but if UK can’t beat Kent State, it’s going to be panic time with head coach Joker Phillips put squarely on the hot seat.

On the other side, Kent State is coming off an easy 41-21 win over Towson, but the offense didn’t get moving and the line had a slew of issues. Before diving into MAC play next week against Buffalo, the Golden Flashes kick off a run of four road games in five weeks and seven away games in the next ten. The defense should be strong enough to carry the offense at times, but even with UK in its weakened state, it’ll take a major task to come up with a huge win for the program.

Why Kent State Might Win: Kentucky doesn’t score. It couldn’t find any sort of a groove last year and it sputtered and caught throughout the ugly performance last week. The offense finished with 373 yards, but the running game didn’t go anywhere and the team ended up failing to control the clock or the turnover margin going -2. It might have just been against Towson, but Kent State managed to come up with six turnovers with the defense swarming all over making key plays. Roosevelt Nix was Roosevelt Nix making eight tackles with a sack and five tackles for loss, and he could end up being a one man wrecking crew against the struggling Cats.

Why Kentucky Might Win: Kent State doesn’t have an offense, either. The passing game only cranked out 166 yards and the ground game was stuff netting a mere 101 yards, but it took advantage of good field position from the defense on the way to an easy win. Quarterback Spencer Keith isn’t going to be Louisville’s Teddy Bridgewater when it comes to accuracy, and Kent State won’t explode by any stretch, so if Kentucky can get a few turnovers early, not make many mistakes, and score right away, it should be smooth sailing.

What To Watch Out For: After a battle to get the starting quarterback job, Kentucky’s Maxwell Smith has to start pushing the ball down the field more. He threw for 280 yards and two scores against Louisville but it took 50 passes to get the job done. Certain to be under a steady pass rush all game long from Nix and the aggressive Golden Flash D, he needs to be calm and cool under fire and not force any bad plays. Letting the awful Kent State offense into the game with picks would be disastrous.

What Will Happen: In the battle of putrid offenses Kent State’s will be worse. The defense will keep the game close, but there won’t be nearly enough offensive pop to pull off the upset. Smith will come up with a stronger game for the Cats.

CFN Prediction: Kentucky 24 … Kent State 13
ATS Consultants Line (Click for more lines and picks) Kentucky -7 O/U: 44
Must Watch Rating (5 – Phineas & Ferb, 1 – Steve Harvey): 2