Kentucky headed down to Nashville and seemingly played a football game on an active construction site (embarrassing that the SEC allows this) and thankfully came away with 45-28 win. The final score and box score was pretty flattering for the Commodores but things still haven’t quite clicked for the Wildcats despite being 4-0 on the season.
Offense
In the first quarter it looked like the Kentucky offense had finally found it’s footing as they used explosive plays to create two TD (36-yard TD run by JuTahn McClain and then a 55-yard bomb from Leary to Brown) to put Kentucky up 21-0.
Then the wheels came off and the same issues we’ve seen all season came roaring back. Penalties, OL issues (getting stuffed on 3rd and 1), bad throws, players tripping over their own feet, and drops. The Kentucky offense just mentally shut off in the 2nd quarter and almost allowed Vanderbilt back in the game.
Leary finished the game 15/29 for 205 yards, 1 TD, and 2 INT and we honestly saw more of what we’ve seen all year. He was let down with at least 3 bad drops and he was frequently forced to dodge rushers and navigate the pocket which closed throwing windows quicker than you’d like to see. Through 4 games I continue to believe that Leary is fine and not the problem with the offense, others around him must step up if this Kentucky wants to win more than 7 games.
On the ground Kentucky put up 160 yards but just like the last couple of weeks a good chunk of that came on a handful of plays. Ray Davis broke a 38-yard run, McClain had the 36-yard TD run, and Leary had a 22-yard scramble. 96 yards on 3 plays and one of them wasn’t even a designed run is important context when trying to analyze this offense, but this is who this team is.
This offense has struggled to execute the simple stuff to sustain drives and when a team takes away explosive plays the offense will fall into a ditch. This offense doesn’t have to be perfect; it doesn’t even need to score 35+ points a game. The defense is good enough that the offense just needs to be competent and not make the defense’s job harder. Cleaning things up along the OL and not dropping catchable balls would go a long way.
Defense
As frustrating as the offense was for half the game, the defense was largely spectacular. Vandy has a gunslinger QB with several solid WR that will catch passes in the NFL, but the Kentucky defense carried the day.
The Vandy offense relies on big plays and Kentucky aggressively took that away by putting pressure on AJ Swann early. Swann was able to avoid taking a ton of sacks (Kentucky officially only got to him once) but he was harassed all day and the pressure forced him into some horrendous throws that led to 3 INT. On the day he completed just 16/40 for 189 yards and just 1 TD, that’ll do.
The defense did have a stretch where they looked like they were on their heels but that happens when you play road conference games and your offense is handing the other team all the momentum. They didn’t panic and made the plays to put the game away before a couple of garbage time drives from Vandy (one of which was helped by some poor officiating and the last one came against a lot of 2nd/3rd string guys). Maxwell Hairston’s two pick 6’s are obviously the story (he has since been named the SEC Defensive Player of the Week) but the defense was also responsible for another TD off the Jackson INT (and the savvy lateral to Andru Phillips to set up a big time return). That play came at a huge time in the game because it stopped all of Vandy’s momentum and essentially ended the game.
Special Teams
Kentucky had no glaring mistakes on special teams, but I’m officially worried about our punting. Wilson Berry had 5 punts and averaged 40.4 on each punt. His best punt was his first and it went 48 yards. He had two punts under 40 yards when Kentucky needed more and one chance to pin the Commodores inside the 10 and he kicked it into the endzone.
It didn’t help that Vandy’s punter had a fantastic day and showed everyone how valuable a punter can be as he consistently pinned Kentucky inside the 20. Kentucky fans have probably been spoiled with the quality of punting that the program has produced but Stoops just doesn’t have that at his disposal this season (and didn’t last season either).
The kicking game continues to yield results though. Alex Raynor hit his only FG from 27 yards out and was 6/6 on his XP opportunities. Raynor will become more important as we’re now in SEC play and so far, he hasn’t missed a kick on the season going 4/4 on FG with a long of 46 and 20/20 on XP. That’ll do.
Final Thoughts
Winning on the road in conference should never be waved away like it doesn’t matter. Vanderbilt is not a good football team and is, by and large, an unserious program. Beating them doesn’t mean much but last year Kentucky lost to this unserious program at home so I’ll take a 17 point win (and the game wasn’t actually that close) on the road.
Up next for Kentucky is a desperate Florida program coming to Kroger Field. In theory, Kentucky matches up well with the Gators but those sloppy mistakes and 100 yards of penalties can get you beat this week.
