Kentucky PFF Grades and Snap Counts versus Vanderbilt

I’m sitting in an airport in Norway right now, somewhere above the Arctic Circle. My eyes are half awake and half closed but it is not from jetlag. Instead, I made the embarrassing mistake of staying up until 5:30 a.m. last night watching Kentucky trip, stumble, and ultimately fall to Vanderbilt. It turned out that embarrassing mistakes, much like my sleep neglect, were the theme to the game.

Kickoff commenced about 2:00 a.m. local time, so I figured I’d doze off after the first quarter once Kentucky mounted a comfortable lead. Unfortunately, that comfortable lead, or any lead whatsoever, never came.

I won’t recap the specifics of the misery for you here. There is already enough out there to fill your sorrow-wallowing cup, but let’s take a look at how the experts over at Pro Football Focus (PFF) thought of Kentucky players’ performances.

Dane Key is still the bright spot on offense

Despite the inexcusable personal foul penalty on Kentucky’s opening drive that almost assuredly cost the Wildcats three (maybe seven) points, and his poorly-timed fumble, Dane Key was the team’s primary offensive weapon all game. It is easy to play Sunday morning pessimist after a loss like that, but sometimes it feels like he is too much of a weapon, as Brock Vandagriff zeroes in on Key almost exclusively on every pass play that isn’t a screen or a quick pass to Barion Brown to get him into space.

Vandagriff targeted Key 11 times against Vandy, and the talented wideout reeled in eight of those throws for 83 yards and a touchdown. It led to Key leading the offense in PFF grades with a 75.9, just as he did against Ole Miss.

All of the key skill players performed well according to PFF, with Key, Brown, Vandagriff, Wimsatt, and the two running backs, Jamarion Wilcox and Demie Sumo-Karngbaye all grading in the 70s.

Speaking of the running backs, it would have been good to see Wilcox get a few more carries. The young rusher looked explosive on his three carries, an adjective not often used to describe Kentucky’s offense. Once he gets his pass-blocking skills up to where Mark Stoops needs them to be, the future is bright for this man.

Blocking, in general, was solid against Vanderbilt. The offensive line, subject to much criticism all year, all graded above average in both pass blocking and run blocking, but it also combined for five extremely costly penalties, contributing to Kentucky’s ultimate demise.

Kentucky Offensive Grades and Snap Counts versus Vanderbilt

The defense did their part

Kentucky’s defense held Deigo Pavia and the creative Vandy offense to half the points Alabama’s defense allowed last week. While the Commodore’s 97-yard opening drive did not inspire hope, overall, the ‘Cats did a fairly good job of keeping college football’s newest golden boy in check.

Specifically, D’Eryk Jackson and Tre’Vonn Rybka each posted insanely high grades of 83.6, leading the team. Jackson took the honor of being the first person all season to intercept Diego Pavia, but unfortunately, the turnover did not lead to points.

Deone Walker, too, was his usual dominant self and JQ Hardaway stepped up in the defensive backfield to do a decent job of securing that area of the field without Maxwell Hairston out there.

Ultimately, allowing the touchdown in the final minute of the first half proved to be the crucial drive of the game. I was screaming, “Call timeout!” into my hotel room pillow after the defense initially stopped the ‘Dores with three minutes to go in the half, but the only thing that resulted in was waking up my wife.

Mark Stoops evidently couldn’t hear me from Norway and let the clock run. Then Kentucky screwed up their possession and Vandy subsequently left no time on the clock when they scored at the end of the half.

We need to get Stoops playing some NCAA Football on PlayStation in the offseason to work on those clock management skills.

Kentucky Defensive Grades and Snap Counts versus Vanderbilt