What happened to the Kentucky offense?

Will Levis was under constant pressure from the Tennessee defense and got sacked five times Saturday night. (Vicky Graff Photo)

A year ago Kentucky lost 45-42 to Tennessee and amassed 612 yards, including 372 yards passing by Will Levis who completed 31 of 49 passes. Wan’Dale Robinson had 13 catches for 166 yards and Chris Rodriguez ran for 109 yards.

Fast forward to Saturday night when Kentucky lost 44-6 at Tennessee and had a total of 205 yards, including just 98 yards passing by Levis who completed 16 of 27 throws and had three interceptions.

Kentucky gave up a 55-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Jalin Hyatt — the nation’s hottest receiver — less than 90 seconds into the game. He finished the game with five catches for 138 yards and two scores — and was also wide open on the second one.

Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said it was “inexcusable” to blow coverages like UK did twice, especially since Hyatt had scored eight touchdowns on the same plays in other games.

“We have to be better than that,” Stoops said. “Not saying it is easy. What they do is hard. The stress points they put on you are hard. They are executing at an extremely high level but a couple of those (blown coverages) were inexcusable.”

Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker completed 19 of 25 passes for 245 yards and three scores with an incredible quarterback ranking of 197.9.

The No. 3 Vols were close to a two-touchdown favorite and had a win over then No. 1 Alabama. But the hope was a healthier Kentucky could catch the Vols looking ahead to Georgia and find a way to stay in the game.

It didn’t happen.

Kentucky was awful in special teams again and it seemed like the Vols had a short field far too often — one reason the Vols had “only” 422 yards (about 100 less than Tennessee’s average).

Kentucky’s offense was inept. The Cats were 2-for-13 on third down — an incredible stat since Levis came into the game completing 82 percent of his third down passes, the nation’s highest rate.

And think about this. Tennessee’s pass defense ranked No. 130 out of 131 teams entering the game giving up 330 yards per game. Kentucky could not take advantage because Levis was sacked four times, receivers had trouble getting open and Levis was not always sharp with his throws — maybe because he was worried about a lack of protection.

“Offensively you can’t have 205 yards and think you are going to beat Tennessee,” Stoops said on the UK Radio Network. “We didn’t sustain drives. Early we did and we couldn’t capitalize.”

The coach didn’t elaborate on why UK could not get the ball down the field to receivers against a pass defense that had been porous at best all season.

“At one point we were playing them as well as anybody as far as containing them but it can get away in a hurry if you don’t make first downs,” Stoops said.

It did in the second quarter when the Vols outscored UK 20-0 thanks in part to UK offensive, defensive and special teams miscues.

“It’s not like I am going to sit here and be proud of giving up a bunch of points,” Stoops told UK Radio Network host Tom Leach. “But there were some good stops in there. To beat the No 3 team you have got to play good offense, defense and special teams. You can’t go three-and-out and think the defense is just going to keep stopping them.”

The defense couldn’t stop the Vols and the Cats couldn’t generate any offense. It made for total domination by the Vols and a disappointing and perplexing loss that left Stoops frustrated and many UK fans angry about what they thought would be a special season becoming  mediocre at best.