Embarrassing numbers from Kentucky's embarrassing loss to Vandy (which was embarrassing)

There is no stat more embarrassing than back-to-back home losses to Vanderbilt, Kentucky falling 24-21 in Lexington two years ago, followed by tonight’s 20-13 joke of a performance at Kroger Field. That comes after the Wildcats entered the day as two-touchdown favorites at home, controlling their destiny in the SEC as a potential College Football Playoff participant — Florida, Auburn, Tennessee, Murray State and Louisville all appear beatable with a win over the Commodores opening the door to a potential nine-win season.

Then they lost to Vanderbilt and threw it all in the garbage. Now, you’re looking at that group of opponents and hope to find three wins to go bowling. Quite the shift from how we felt leaving that win in Oxford at No. 6 Ole Miss two weeks ago.

What were the worst numbers from Kentucky’s momentum-crippling loss? KSR’s got you covered (unfortunately).

12 penalties for 106 yards

Kentucky entered the matchup as the least penalized team in the SEC at 5.6 per game. Then the laundry hit the turf over double that rate, racking up 12 penalties for a whopping 106 yards. That’s compared to five penalties for 57 yards for Vanderbilt.

In a game of inches, the Wildcats lost 3816 of them on boneheaded, self-inflicted mistakes.

“Then we come back and do this tonight? It’s ridiculous,” Stoops said after the loss.

322-288

What makes that number even more frustrating? Kentucky actually outgained Vanderbilt offensively, racking up 34 more yards with higher yards per rush and yards per completion total while picking up four more first downs. On the flip side, the Commodores converted on more third downs (8-13 vs. 4-9) while winning the possession battle 34:35 to 25:25.

5-10 coming off the bye week

Penalties helped flip this individual matchup upside down, but bye week struggles are not new under Stoops. The Wildcats entered the day an abysmal 0-8 against the spread since 2017, regularly whiffing as a program coming off of breaks. This time around, they extended the record to 5-10 overall coming off a bye. Overall, Stoops has gone 2-0 both before and after the bye just once, that coming way back in 2016.

For one reason or another, Kentucky is never prepared coming out of the bye week.

2-10 in SEC home games

Big Blue Nation may be delivering at home during Kentucky’s games at Kroger Field, but the Wildcats undoubtedly are not. They’re sitting at just 2-10 in the program’s last 12 SEC home games. For comparison’s sake, Joker Phillips was 4-8 in his 12 SEC home games as head coach in Lexington.

On the flip side, Stoops’ group is 6-5 in SEC road matchups during that same 12-game stretch. Coming off an upset win at No. 6 Ole Miss, the Kentucky head coach cannot understand how unprepared the Wildcats looked on Saturday.

“What is it? Why? Are we too amped up? Let’s buy in, dial in and play winning football,” he said.

Six consecutive SEC home losses

Speaking of Kentucky’s streak within the conference, particularly at home, would it shock you to learn the Wildcats haven’t won a conference game at Kroger Field in six tries? What are fans even paying for at this point? Expensive beer and poor end-of-half adjustments? That’s a long time begging for a spark, even against the program’s lower-end foes in the SEC — tonight included. So much for dinner and a show.

Six years since an SEC team failed to score 14 vs. Vandy

The Wildcats finally found their offensive groove in recent weeks, combining for 61 points in two games to close out the month of September after a rocky start to the season. It appeared Brock Vandagriff had found his groove while the playmakers were ready to start making plays. And then Kentucky put up a whopping 13 points against the Commodores in historic fashion.

What stands out about the effort? It marks the first time in six years an SEC team has failed to hit that mark against Vanderbilt, the previous low sitting at 13 points held by Tennessee. That came in November of 2018.

Right when the Cats make us want to buy in, they rip the rug out from under us. Tonight was an all-timer.