Kentucky Football: Wildcats end losing streak but can’t slam door on Vandy

The Kentucky football team got all the pieces back in running order and firing at the same time at least in the first half breaking a three-game losing skid and securing second place in the Southeastern Conference after throttling Vanderbilt 34-17.

Sometimes when Kentucky and Vanderbilt meet the unexpected happens, but on Saturday it was business as usual for the Wildcats who beat Vandy for the fifth straight time and extended the Commodores SEC losing streak to 19 games. They haven’t beaten an SEC team since October 19, 2019, when they downed Missouri.

The most impressive thing to come out of the game was the first half and just how much better this team looks when the offense and defense both show up to play in the same game. It’s been one or the other in nearly every game this season.

Kentucky football plays great in first half, but coaches must explain the second

Especially the past two with the offense misfiring against Mississippi State and then the defense gets picked apart last week against Tennessee. The second half was a coaching disaster that led to a complete revert to the old ways.

The coaches have a lot of explaining to do to Big Blue Nation as to why they stopped coaching, got conservative, and let the team fall back into the mindset after it worked so hard in the opening half to regain its confidence.

Don’t get me wrong I’ll take the win but this game had the makings early of a major blowout and the end result was the same old Kentucky that has frustrated generations. The norm is no longer yeah we got to six wins and are bowl eligible finally.

However, we should celebrate that this team has accomplished something no other has and placed second in the SEC East. It is the first time since the league split into divisions in 1992 that UK will end the season that high.

Even so, Big Blue Nation was out in full force in the Music City and they weren’t disappointed at least by the final score.