All systems failure leads to embarrassing upset loss for Kentucky

The unacceptable happened at Kroger Field on Saturday afternoon. Mistakes on offense, defense, and special teams all played a role as Clark Lea’s Vanderbilt team was able to end an embarrassing SEC losing streak and hand Mark Stoops one of the worst losses of his Kentucky tenure.

Vanderbilt 24, Kentucky 21. Pretty hard to believe that happened.

There are many big-picture items to get to later this week, but now it’s time to react to what we just saw play out in a brutal 60 minutes of football in Lexington. All three phases and coaching decisions played a role in the historic home loss.

Kentucky’s passing game stinks up the joint

Entering Week 11, Vanderbilt ranked No. 124 in passing success rate, No. 128 in yards per attempt, No. 130 in passing EPA, and No. 130 in QB rating. Defensive coordinator Nick Howell’s unit has given up 25 touchdown passes this season with five opponents throwing for over 300 yards.

Well, that didn’t hold up on Saturday. For the second time in three SEC games, Will Levis put up an awful stat line against another pass defense.

The redshirt senior finished the game with 109 passing yards on 23 throws with a porous success rate (25.9%), completion rate (47.8%), and yards per attempt number (4.7). Levis took four sacks and had seven pass breakups/interceptions on his 12 incomplete throws.

In many ways, the matchup against Vanderbilt was supposed to be a get-right spot for an offense that had yet to score more than 31 offensive points in a game this season. It turned out to be the opposite in what was an awful performance outside of Chris Rodriguez Jr. and JuTahn McClain rumbling for 217 yards on 9.0 yards per rush.

Kentucky’s defense was not prepared for Mike Wright

With the news that starting Vanderbilt quarterback AJ Swann would be out for the matchup with Kentucky, it seemed like a great development for Kentucky. The Wildcats have been outstanding against QB run all season and Mike Wright has had struggles with accuracy.

Unfortunately, it seemed like Brad White’s defense was not ready for what Vanderbilt threw at them.

After forcing a fumble on the second play of the game, the defense lost contain on a simple zone-read action. Unfortunately, that was not the low point of the game.

🎶 He's a runner, he's a track star 🎶#AnchorDown pic.twitter.com/cDgYF15H3N

— Vanderbilt Football (@VandyFootball) November 12, 2022

The junior out of Atlanta finished the three-point road win with 184 passing yards on 23 throws (8.0 yards per attempt) and 127 non-sack rushing yards on 10 attempts (12.7 yards per rush). Wright posted a 60 percent rushing success rate and created five explosive plays.

On the game-winning touchdown drive that covered 80 yards in 12 plays, Wright connected on a deep ball with Quincy Skinner in man coverage for 40 yards on 4th-and-long to keep the drive alive.

The big plays specifically showed up in money downs as the Commodores were 12 of 20 (60%) on third and fourth down in the game. Normally it was Wright who made the play to extend drives as Vandy rolled up 448 yards on 6.7 yards per play.

Kentucky’s defense has been excellent all season, but that group let the team down on Saturday.

More kicking game blunders

Matt Ruffolo finished Saturday with field goals from 47 yards and 27 yards, but there were also some more errors. Ruffolo got a 37-yard attempt blocked in the second quarter. The third phase also had some other issues.

Once again a holding call negated a positive return and cost Kentucky some significant hidden yardage. Meanwhile, Barion Brown failed to find any room despite getting multiple kick-return opportunities.

Special teams remained an issue for the Cats in Week 11.

Chris Rodriguez Jr. deserved the win

We have mentioned it early, but he honestly deserves his own space in this post. Chris Rodriguez Jr. was outstanding for Kentucky on Saturday.

In the two touchdown drives in the fourth quarter, the redshirt senior tailback went for 110 yards on five carries and two touchdowns. His 72-yard rumble might have been the best offensive play of the season.

Let's go @CROD_JR 72-yard TD to give us a 21-17 lead.

📺 – @SECNetwork: https://t.co/pJ4g1uo5Zg pic.twitter.com/hDbkmXBfjx

— Kentucky Football (@UKFootball) November 12, 2022

The All-SEC producer finished the game with 18 carries for 162 yards and two touchdowns. Rodriguez deserved a victory.

Sloppy football costs Kentucky a 50/50 game

There’s no getting around it, Kentucky has been a sloppy football team all season. That was the No. 1 reason the Cats failed to beat Ole Miss on the road.

It showed up again on Saturday in a 50/50 football game.

Havoc plays in the red zone by Vanderbilt’s defense took points off the board in the first half. A fourth down personal foul penalty by the defense negated the game-winning interception by Tyrell Ajian. The kicking game continues to make big mistakes.

The Cats are just sloppy and it cost them multiple SEC wins this season.

Big changes must be made

Saturday was a bad day for the Kentucky defense. There is no getting around that. The Cats could not get critical late stops to win the game when the lead was taken twice in the fourth quarter. However, defensive coordinator Brad White does deserve the benefit of the doubt at this point.

The defense has been good since White arrived in Lexington and it helped carry the team to some wins this season. That cannot be said for the offense.

Even when facing one of the worst defenses in college football, Rich Scangarello’s offense could only muster 21 points. The Cats were awful at finishing scoring chances, were woeful in the passing game, and had to burn a timeout because a play call did not get in fast enough.

Kentucky has not scored more than 21 offensive points against a power conference defense through seven games this season. That is losing football.

This program had high expectations entering the year due to the star power on offense. That star power can’t put the ball in the endzone as nothing seems to come easy for this attack. Mark Stoops has a seismic decision coming in the offseason.

Things will go south quickly for this program if there aren’t some big offensive changes whether that be scheme or personnel. December will be a gigantic month for Kentucky football.