Kentucky's defense forced three turnovers but wore down in the second half of Saturday's loss. (Vicky Graff Photo)
For an offensive guru like Will Stein, the second half of Kentucky’s 45-17 loss to Alabama had to be a nightmare.
Kentucky had a 17-13 halftime lead that included a well managed drive late in the half to add a field goal — something Kentucky had not been able to do often in former coach Mark Stoops’ tenure. However, the UK offense was overwhelmed in the second half.
Kentucky had the ball six times with these results:
— Five plays, 13 yards, punt.
— Three plays, minus 4 yards, fumble.
— Four plays, 9 yards, turnover on downs.
— Three plays, 3 yards, punt.
— Eight plays, 18 yards, turnover on downs.
— Three plays, 18 yards, fumble.
That was a combined 26 plays for 57 yards with no points and two turnovers. That is not winning football for any team and not the numbers Kentucky’s new head coach is used to seeing his offense put up.
Kentucky finished the game with 209 yards after amassing over 500 in the opening win against Youngstown State. Quarterback Kenny Minchey completed 18 of 31 passes for 146 yards and one touchdown but had trouble getting the ball down the field. He threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown, lost a fumble and was sacked four times by Bama’s relentless pressure. It didn’t help that Kentucky was penalized eight times for 70 yards.
“We just could not get anything done in the second half offensively and put our defense in bad positions,” Stein admitted. “I thought our defensive line played really well early but when you are playing on 40 yards of grass it is hard to keep them out of the end zone or kicking field goals.
“Our defense played really good early on. I thought (defensive coordinator) Jay (Bateman) had a great plan. It’s just once momentum flipped it was hard for us. The field position game obviously flipped in their favor.”
Kentucky was 1-for-14 on third down plays.
“That is not winning football to stay on the field and move the chains,” Stein said. “They beat us on basically every statistical category. All in all it was not good enough. I am proud of our fight. I know it sucks but we have to respond. It is not the last game of the season.
“We have really good players. This was self-inflicted wounds. This is not on our players. We can do a better job coaching. I didn’t get it done today. There was definitely a lot of good. The score will not show that and everybody will feel we were terrible. I feel there were plenty of positives. We just did not finish. Our guys played extremely hard but it was obviously not good enough.”
12 Responses
Now Stein knows what needs work…a lot of things. The secondary is porous, the big blue wall did not play so big, Minchey faced a higher level of talent and got schooled, and the confidence gleaned in game one took a beating and now we go to A&M. It's going to take Stien 2 or 3 more years to compete with the better teams, but he will get there.
Depth is what put the game away but I still think Stein jumped the gun on the fake punt we were only down by 6 and was about to put them on there own 20-30 yard line instead they got the ball on the our 30 yard line and from there the game was over. It was tight game until the and that knocked the wind out of the sails in my opinion.
Long story short, Alabama adjusted at half and we didn't. We have had that problem for almost along as I have been alive and I'm 78 years sold. I thought we played at SEC levels in the first half but when we got kicked in the teeth in the second half, we folded instead of responding. I though our coaching was sub par most of the game and the three play calls at the end of the third quarter were bone head at best and probably took us out of the game. You have a quarter and a half to make up a 6 point deficit and you call plays that have not worked all night. you're kidding me. I didn't hold out much hope for beating Alabama but I did hope that we wouldn't beat ourselves.
Instead of hope, we got more of the same. Inept offense and bonehead coaching. Stein is going to have to find a way of kicking it up a notch before Saturday next or it's going to start to be embarrassing – again.
I agree 100% the fake punt took the wind out of the sails. We were only down 6 why would you fake punt in the 3rd quarter that killed us and we never bounced back from it.
Welcome to the big leagues Mr. Stein. It is going to take more than cheerleading to get us where we were hoping to go. We were told we had good backups many positions. The DL played up to their hype for most of the first half but that is where the compliments end. We were told Minch had good IQ, accuracy, and decision making but little evidence. He averaged little over 5 yds per attempt. He didn't seem to show much confidence starting game and went south with first interception. Quarterbacking looked no better that what we have seen for last several years. The pass D looked the same. It was the Stoop's bend but do not break, and we managed to do just that. Wonder if Oregon misses Stein or does Stein miss Oregon. The next couple of weeks will determine bowl eligibility. Maybe the saddest part of the L is that we had some Stud recruits in the seats.
A&M’s D just as good as Bama’s.
Supposedly better than Alabama all around. A&M has even recruited better than Alabama the last 3-4 years so better players too.
"Because of Me! We faked a punt in the 3rd quarter down 6. That was the biggest bonehead call I've ever seen from a coach. Then the fake punt goes to the slowest player on the offense. Lol stuuuuppiiddd.
Let me go ahead and call it. We can play with the Vanderbilts and Missouri's (maybe). But I don't think we will beat any of the playoff teams that we go against. We are good until we have to start subbing players in there 3rd string is better than our second string so they can just keep putting able bodies in and we have to stick with the guys that are exhausted. I also question our conditioning. It looked like they couldn't move in the second half.. the first half we were blowing them off the offensive line the second half the defensive line was pushing our offensive line back that comes with great depth.
With you there. It looks like all of our future opponents met expectations, and we did not. I am not sure of Arkansas on our schedule or not. I would say Nebraska recovered very well with Minchey departing, and it looks like UL made very good decision on their QB. We go thru the big presell every year of what we think we have and then the game starts. Some things never change, and we still UK FB. Alabama holding a 40-2 record is just obscene.
Ky football will always be the way it has been for years don't belong in the SEC been saying that for years. Now the league is even stronger don't for see any changes.
Keep the faith Cats79
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