QUICK TAKES: Tennessee 44, Kentucky 6
Kentucky quarterback Will Levis was sacked by a pair of Volunteer defenders during Saturday's game at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville. (Randy Sartin/USA Today Sports)
Jeff Drummond • CatsIllustrated
Managing Editor Edit
@JDrumUK
In our regular postgame feature, the Cats Illustrated staff offers its first impressions from Kentucky's 44-6 loss to No. 3 Tennesssee on Saturday night at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville.
JEFF DRUMMOND:
It's deeply troubling that a Kentucky program that has arguably been trending ahead of the Volunteers for the last five years could be lapped this bad in such short order. The Cats had two weeks to prepare for this formidable opponent, and the roster was nearly 100% for the first time this season. Despite having a quarterback who has been hailed as a first-round NFL Draft pick, the best wide receiver room of the Mark Stoops Era, and facing the penultimate worst pass defense in the FBS, the Cats were almost completely inept on the offensive side of the ball. Will Levis was asked to throw an assortment of screen passes and shovel passes until the Cats were backed into predictable passing scenarios, and he paid the price with three interceptions. A really bad day for him, although it's somewhat tough to gauge with the plays he was given by OC Rich Scangarello and the non-existent protection provided by the O-Line. The unit ended the night in the most fitting manner possible, running out of bounds several yards short of the first-down marker on 4th-and-9.
Meanwhile, the defense left arguably the best wide receiver in the nation wide open for two touchdown passes, and special teams were a trainwreck with blocked PAT, a blocked punt, and a punt return to their own 13 yard-line. As Rich Brooks used to say: "All Systems Failure." Credit where it's due, Tennessee is really good. Maybe College Football Playoff good. But this was a completely non-competitive showing from Stoops team that leaves us with a lot of questions with four games remaining on the schedule.
JUSTIN ROWLAND:
Nothing was working for Kentucky tonight aside from that lone score in the first half to answer, which we know was only false hope in hindsight.
I can't say that I'm surprised that Tennessee won. I thought the odds of a Kentucky win against that team were pretty low. Now when you look at the bigger picture and see what Tennessee has done this month, this was playing a playoff conversation-worthy team on its homefield. That doesn't change the fact that the offense is really a disaster and there's no excuse for that. The offensive line has prevented this team from being what it could be, but there have been other failures. Will Levis was very bad tonight himself.
Kentucky's not on Tennessee's level and when you make as many mistakes and have such small margin for error as Kentucky, an elite team is going to make you pay. That was far from UK's best game but it's probably a bad matchup.
