Colin Goodfellow, Dane Key saved the day, potentially season, for Kentucky

Kentucky desperately needed a win today to get the season back on track, and even though the Cats led most of the game, it felt like victory was going to slip through their fingers.

Two heroes stepped up to make sure that wouldn’t happen. Freshman Dane Key caught two touchdowns, one to get Kentucky on the board 7-0 at the 9:33 mark in the first quarter, and another with five minutes left to put the Cats back on top for good 21-17. The fourth-quarter touchdown catch came at a crucial time, after a false start penalty on Kentucky turned 3rd-and-6 into 3rd-and-11. Key finished the day with four receptions for 53 yards, an average of 13.3 yards per catch.

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“Dane just, you know, he showed who he was and that’s what I love about the guys keeping on grinding,” Mark Stoops said afterward. “You don’t know what one play like that is going to matter in making the difference between a win and a loss. I’m not going to say that play won us the game but it darn sure helped us.”

Colin Goodfellow suffers knee injury on game-saving play

Key’s catches were huge, but the hero of the game was Colin Goodfellow. After Key’s touchdown, Kentucky’s defense forced a Missouri three-and-out only for the offense to stall on its next drive. Three straight Chris Rodriguez runs left Kentucky four yards of a first down with 2:34 left. That’s when Goodfellow came out to punt it away and disaster turned into miracle.

A high snap by Cade Degraw sailed over Goodfellow’s head. He was able to scoop it up and kick it away but was hit by Missouri’s Will Norris in the process. Because Goodfellow was still in the tackle box, Norris was flagged for roughing the punter and Kentucky got the first down. Unfortunately, Goodfellow’s knee was hurt on the play, and he was carted off to the sounds of Missouri fans booing (probably the call, not Goodfellow, but still, not a good look).

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After the game, Mark Stoops praised Goodfellow’s quick thinking but said the injury is severe.

“Really fortunate by us. Not a good snap. Not a good play. And then he made a great individual play. Unfortunately for him, he is hurt bad. The other part of that that we are fortunate on, is that the snap stayed in the tackle box. Because if he exits the tackle box and runs, you are no longer protected, so a couple of things fell our way on that.”

From there, Kentucky was able to take almost two minutes off the clock before backup punter Wilson Berry kicked it back to the Tigers with 0:38 left. Thankfully, Missouri couldn’t muster a miracle and the game ended.

This season may not be going how many of us had hoped, but it certainly would be worse with a loss to Missouri. Shoutout to Key and Goodfellow for saving the day, and potentially the season.