Kentucky Football: Wildcats loss to Vols hard to swallow in so many ways

Too many big plays from Tennessee too much to handle for the defense

In reality, the defense as a whole didn’t play awful, but the inability to contain the big strike plays sunk the Wildcats in the end putting too much pressure on the UK offense to keep up.

Tennessee had six scoring drives that went like this:

2 plays covering 75 yards in 11 seconds touchdown

4 plays covering 75 yards in 26 seconds touchdown

10 plays covering 52 yards in 2:52 touchdown

4 plays covering 35 yards in 16 seconds field goal

4 plays covering 49 yards in 47 seconds touchdown

4 plays covering 6 yards in 16 seconds touchdown

The Vols ran the ball 27 times for 145 yards gaining 5.4 yards per carry but it was through the air that they did their damage.

Quarterback Hendon Hooker took apart the Kentucky secondary who didn’t tackle well stretching the Wildcat defense sideline to sideline and vertical. He was 15 of 20 for 316 yards and four touchdowns averaging 21.1 yards per completion. He also carried it 11 times for 63 yards.

Stoops as a defensive coach himself had to feel like he was punched in the gut.

"“Defensively we have some struggles and have to get some things fixed. Defensively, obviously, we have some struggles. And we’ve got to get some things fixed. We are being put on an island on certain situations that we’re not winning enough. We’re not winning enough battles.”"

But they did step up a lot of time forcing stops and sacking Hooker five times.