Kentucky football was handed their second loss of the season against the Tennessee Volunteers in Neyland Stadium. On the bright side, the Wildcats still control their own destiny. There is no room for error over these final three games, but if they win all three you have to like their chances of making the College Football Playoffs. We reviewed Kentucky's offense that was uncharacteristically sloppy against the Vols, now let's review how the defense performed over the weekend.
You look at a 34-6 final score and can't imagine the Wildcats played good defensively, but I thought the defense played well enough to give Kentucky a chance to win on the road. Similar to the Alabama game in week two, the defense did all they could for three quarters before
the dam broke in the fourth quarter. Kentucky's offense did not play complementary football, which put the defense in a difficult spot. This was a one score game heading into the fourth quarter, but Tennessee got back-to-back short fields that quickly turned the game into a three possession deficit for the Wildcats.
At the end of the first quarter, Kentucky dialed up a run blitz that allowed Tennessee's running back to make one move before being out the gate for an explosive touchdown. The 66-yard touchdown run from running back Duane Morris allowed the Vols to play with a lead for the entire game. Slot corner Aaron Gates misfit the run on a blitz off the edge which gave Morris a ton of green grass to turn on the burners. The box score won't suggest it, but I think Kentucky did a fine job at defending the run in this game.
Tennessee had that one explosive carry for a 66-yard touchdown score, and they leaned on the run game for the final drive of the game when the Wildcats were gassed defensively. The Vols went on a 10-play, 65-yard touchdown drive to extend the lead to 34-6 late. That 10-play drive was all runs, if you take that final drive and the explosive run out; the Wildcats allowed just 109 rushing yards on 26 carries. You cannot do that unfortunately, but it was really those two possessions that Tennessee dominated on the ground.
Like I mentioned, this was a one score game heading into the fourth quarter and the defense deserves a ton of credit for that. They gave the Kentucky offense plenty of chances to respond and tie up this game, but they just failed to do so. This game and the Alabama game played out eerily similar, the defense kept giving the offense opportunities to get back into the game but they could not capitalize. Tennessee hit a couple of explosives in the passing game, which was all they needed to leave with a win.
We had talked all week that Kentucky needed to forced Tennessee into a dropback heavy game, but they were unable to do so with the offense not being able to finish drives. That is ultimately what the game came down to, the game script was in favor of Tennessee as they got to lean on their rushing attack while playing with a lead. The Vols had just 15 pass attempts in this football game, which was the ideal game script for them to win this game. That is what made the opening drive so crucial for Kentucky, and a holding call set them back to a 3rd and 16 on the opening drive in which they were moving the football down the field.
Two of Tennessee's fourth quarter touchdown drives started in Kentucky territory across midfield in the fourth quarter, which is asking a lot for the defense to keep holding them to field goals. This quickly led to a 14-point swing that the Wildcats could not recover from in that environment. The defense played well enough to win this game and the offense did not, we did not see complementary football from both sides of the ball. This led to Kentucky's second loss of the season and played out exactly like their first loss of the season in a lot of ways.
This article originally appeared on UK Wildcats Wire: Kentucky defense review: Cats second loss similar to first
