It will break your heart. It is designed to break your heart. Those words were written by poet/baseball commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti about the game of baseball. But he could have been talking about Kentucky football. Despite controlling the game for three quarters, the Wildcats came up short on Saturday against visiting Florida, 29-21. Here’s the breakdown on a heartbreaker.

What I Liked

The atmosphere

Kroger Field held a near-capacity crowd of 63,076, which supported its team loudly and consistently. Kentucky certainly seemed to feed off the energy in grabbing an 11-point advantage after three quarters. While the Wildcats came up short, the Big Blue Nation certainly wasn’t to blame.

Ground threat Kavosiey Smoke

The redshirt freshman running back from Alabama was the game’s leading rusher with 16 carries for 81 yards on the ground. For the year, he now has 34 carries for 251 yards, and his shifty running style seems to be a better fit for Kentucky’s offense than A.J. Rose.

Continuing development of Ahmad Wagner

The rangy former basketball player again was a playmaker for the Wildcats. Wagner caught three passes for 70 yards, including a jaw-dropping 26-yard touchdown in the second quarter.

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Wagner also drew a crucial pass interference penalty on Kentucky’s late drive to take the lead, which was foiled by a missed field goal. He continues to be the outside threat UK needs to pair with Lynn Bowden.

The starting debut of Sawyer Smith

Yes, the grad transfer made some mistakes — three of his four turnovers gave Florida the field position to create 17 points. But Smith also was excellent on third down and stayed calm in the pocket. Kentucky’s offense with Smith looked different at times than it had with Terry Wilson, but not really worse.

Kash Money (Daniel)

Kentucky’s senior leader at linebacker had been fairly quiet in the season’s first two games, but he had 10 tackles against Florida, one for a loss, to lead the Wildcats and he also added a QB hurry. With the loss of safety Yusuf Corker to a targeting penalty, Daniel’s defensive leadership was also pivotal.

What I Didn’t Like

The lack of playcalling aggressiveness

Yes, there were some struggles with execution, but this game felt like one that Kentucky lost in large part because the playcalling on both sides of the ball got incredibly conservative. Backup Gators QB Kyle Trask could set his watch on about 10 yards of cushion for his receivers, and he went right down the field against UK. Offensively, Kentucky began the 4th quarter with a perplexingly bad 4th-and-1 Wildcat run for A.J. Rose that flipped the game’s momentum. Yes, Stoops and company won last year (and some before that) by being conservative and safe. But Josh Allen and Benny Snell aren’t walking through that door, and the Wildcats will need to play a little less risk-averse.

The missed field goal

No game is won or lost on one play, but Kentucky appeared to have staunched the bleeding of a Florida comeback with a nice drive to set up a 35-yard field goal try with just under a minute to play. A good kick would have given the Wildcats the lead but redshirt freshman kicker Chance Poore shanked it (just) wide right. Poore didn’t lose the game, but at the same time, an SEC kicker has to make that kick.

Too many mistakes

Frankly, Kentucky just made too many mistakes to beat a top-10 team. Sawyer Smith fumbled and gave Florida a short field on UK’s first possession. He threw a costly red zone interception that was returned 70 yards to set up another UF field goal, and had an odd 4th quarter pick that was both untimely and kind of odd. Kentucky had two players ejected for targeting; the second wiped out a sack that would have placed Florida in a 3rd-and-15 situation from its own 44 with 5:44 to play and Kentucky up five. Instead, Florida got a first down and, three plays later, the Gators took a lead they never lost. Hidden yards, going minus-2 on turnovers, missing a late field goal, all of these errors combined to leave UK shy of victory.