Inconsistent offense doesn't take away from Kentucky's SEC road win

Kentucky‘s perfect record doesn’t mean Kentucky is a perfect football team. The Wildcats can improve in several areas despite their unbeaten record a third way of the way through the season.

For example, against Vanderbilt, the offense got off to a great start with an opening-drive touchdown, but fell into a rut in the second and third quarters, going six possessions with only a field goal. Four times Kentucky punted after going up 21-0, plus Devin Leary‘s first of two interceptions on the afternoon, before adding another touchdown. It would take an interception by the defense to reignite the offense late in the third quarter. Starting at the 11-yard line helped.

After the game, Mark Stoops was asked if he is concerned that the offense couldn’t put together four quarters. He replied, “I’m not exactly ecstatic about it,” then smiled and asked back, “Can I enjoy it for five minutes? I’m 4-0 and I’ve been pissed off at every press conference.”

Stoops followed the playful comment by defending the overall win, saying, “I told the team that and I’ve said it to you guys before, that you go on the road and win by 17 points against a team I really respect, and I know what we have ahead of us, so we will improve, but let’s learn from it and continue to grow.”

He called some moments “bewildering,” naming non-efficient runs, negative-yardage runs, protection, drops, and missed throws as mistakes being made across the roster. However, Stoops liked his team’s attitude leading into the Vanderbilt game and believes they will continue to improve with that mentality.

“Whether you want to call it revenge, whatever; we knew we need to play,” Stoops said. “You’re going on the road playing the SEC, let’s step it up, and I think they’re trying. We’re trying; we’re trying to be more detailed. We’re trying to be more effective. And then there’s things that happen, tipped balls, there’s holes, there’s a lot of things to clean up. But if our mentality stays the way it is, I think good things will be ahead of us.”

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Coen: “We are not going to be disappointed about winning on the road.”

Offensive coordinator Liam Coen understands the significance of winning on the road, too. Echoing Stoops’ postgame comments, Coen knows his side of the ball could’ve played a more consistent game, but no one is apologizing for winning 45-28 in Nashville.

“This is a team game,” Coen replied to a question about complementary football. “It’s all about the team. One side, are we frustrated? Is it the standard? Yeah, but we are not going to be disappointed about winning on the road. That’s not going to happen. You go out and you score 45 points against a good team, because the defense makes plays, the offense makes plays, the special teams make plays, and we’re not gonna apologize for that.”

Coen wasn’t completely dismissive of the offensive struggles. He spoke of frustrations throughout the game and getting a little agitated when players weren’t executing.

“We’re just shooting ourselves directly in the foot,” he said.

“But then overcoming it, so it is good. It is resilient. It is nice to see. And honestly, if we were clicking on all cylinders right now, I mean, is there anything, any more to coach? So at the end of the day, it’s a good thing, but it’s also something we gotta get cleaned up and we gotta get cleaned up fast.”

Run game inconsistency

Leading the way among areas to clean up is Kentucky’s inconsistency in rushing the football. The Cats are hitting on enough explosive plays to keep the average up. Still, too many rushes are stopped for zero, one, or even negative yards.

Asked what he thought of Kentucky’s running attack in Nashville, Stoops replied, “Just a little inconsistent again. We popped the early one, and popping that big one was good. We’ve got to look at it again and see where the negative yardage plays are coming up, and I would imagine there’s some movement involved there. We’re working hard to get that cleaned up.

“We went to some gap schemes and some other runs that could be more effective. Right now, some of our zone schemes have been inconsistent at best.”

Liam Coen also spoke about the team’s rushing inefficiency and the challenges of playing behind the chains. He told the Herald-Leader’s Mark Story, “It’s pretty miserable. It’s pretty tough to overcome some of those second-and-longs and have too many third-and-longs. It’s the same thing we were preaching all week, but it, obviously, it didn’t show consistently throughout the day with early down success, early down efficiency, negative runs on first-and-10.

“That’s something that’s putting us behind the chains and ultimately making the game hard on us.”