Kentucky Football: Wildcats lets chance to beat Georgia slip away with miscues

No. 2 Kentucky football’s offense whiffs again at red-zone chances and points

Kentucky football’s efficiency at capitalizing on red zone opportunities continues to flounder game after game.

Nothing is more evident than the first opening drives by the Wildcats.

The Wildcats got the game’s first possession and moved 64 yards in 11 plays eating up 5:50 off the clock only to turn the ball over on downs at the Georgia 32. The Dawgs marched to the Kentucky 10-yard line but had to settle for a field goal.

Drive number two saw UK eat up over 10 minutes and moved into Georgia territory before Will Levis threw an interception in the endzone. Georgia took over and once again the UK defense withstood the test forcing another field goal.

You see the pattern here.

Kentucky finished 1 for 3 in red-zone chances that resulted in ZERO points on the above two drives. Coming into the game they ranked 98th out of 131 FBS teams as the numbers proved their offensive inefficiency.

No. 3 Special teams – why do we even send the kicking team on the field

Whiff.

Botched.

Pathetic

Oh My God!

Embarrassing.

All perfect words to describe what happens when the field goal unit steps onto the field. On Kentucky’s second-to-last possession and trailing by 10 the offense couldn’t get into the endzone. So Mark Stoops sent Mark Ruffolo out for a field goal that would have made it one touchdown game if the 38-yarder had split the uprights.

Instead, the ball was snapped and scooted along the field to Chance Poore who never had a chance to even barely pick up the ball and get it sort of in position. The result was a wide-left miss. In all fairness, this was not Ruffolo’s fault.

This major issue has haunted us all season and clearly cost Kentucky in close losses. This problem has to be addressed this off-season.

No. 4 Barion Brown showed just what a talent he is when given the chance

The biggest success for the Kentucky offense came from Barion Brown who was electric and showed just what he can do if offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello would figure out how to get the ball in his hands.

The speedster caught passes good for 31, 42, and 47 yards including an 8-yard touchdown after the 42-yard catch. That capped Kentucky’s 99-yard touchdown march. He finished with 10 catches for 145 yards and was targeted 13 times. He was the intended target on Levis’ interception in the endzone.

Stoops didn’t even realize how many catches Brown had until the media brought it to his attention.

"“I didn’t realize it was 10. Yeah, I knew — that’s impressive, and, again, I thought he really responded well. Youngsters that talented you’re going to have some moments, games where it’s like this and some games where it’s tough, and you have to respond either way.”"

Hopefully, the freshman knows how valuable he is and what a great threat he can be for Kentucky if the right person calling the plays would target him more often.

Levis had a solid day as well moving his team with his legs and arms. He rushed five times for 26 yards and passing was 20-31-1 206 yards and 1 touchdown.