Penalties, Third Down errors almost doom Kentucky vs. EKU

There’s a lot to unpack from Kentucky’s ugly 28-17 win over EKU, but if you’re looking for the immediate things that need to be fixed, look no further than all the flags that were thrown on the field. Kentucky committed 10 penalties for 70 yards today vs. the Colonels. Six of those came in the first half for 50 yards, a big reason why the Cats got off to such a horrible start. This comes one week after Kentucky committed seven penalties for 51 yards in the 44-14 win over Ball State.

Mark Stoops chose to mostly focus on the positives from his team’s performance in the postgame press conference and gave EKU plenty of credit, but he did sound off on the penalties his team racked up.

“The bottom line is winning,” Stoops said. “But an area where we didn’t get clean and we have to improve is the penalties. Penalties are really hurting us.”

Kentucky had six offensive penalties, two holding by Josh Kattus, and four false starts, three on Marques Cox and one on Jordan Dingle. On defense, the Cats were called offsides three times and had one personal foul on Kahlil Saunders. On the flip side, EKU only drew four penalties for 36 yards.

“I mean, there’s no excuse,” Stoops said when asked if the penalties could be chalked up to early-game jitters. “I can’t make an excuse for, you know. Can’t do it. Do I think our guys are, you know, a little amped up and all that? Yeah, but the bottom line is, is it’s still not okay. And I got to, you know, find a way to get it corrected.”

Kentucky played better in the second half, especially on offense, but still committed two false starts on the final drive. Stoops tried to bite his tongue but did hint at some questionable tactics at the line of scrimmage.

“It’s like on the last drive there. We got about a third and one and we flinch again. And early in the game when we had the third-and-one. There are things that go on with the line of scrimmage sometimes that are tough, you know. I’m not being critical of officials but there’s a simulated — you know, our guys felt they were simulated, you know what I mean? Got us to flinch, but it happens. We got to do better.”

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Abysmal on 3rd down in the first half

Another stat to circle on both sides of the ball: third downs. Kentucky finished the day 4-11 on third down (36%), while EKU was 6-12 (50%). If you break that down by half, Kentucky was 2-9 on third down in the first half and 2-2 in the second half. Dane Key and Barion Brown dropped crucial balls on third down in the first half, and a holding penalty on Josh Kattus negated what would have been a key first down run by Ray Davis inside the EKU 10-yard line.

The offense found its flow in the second half, but Stoops did note the missed opportunities that prevented the Cats from getting out of the gate in the first half.

“We’re still taking some time and the overall procedure will continue to improve. There were left opportunities out there as well. And when we miss some throws and kill some drives, you’re leaving some things out there that we will improve on.”

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