The good, the bad, and the ugly from Kentucky's dominant win over Ohio

This was a great game and one that the Kentucky Wildcats needed as a break in their SEC schedule. Before this game, they suffered two frustrating losses, one as lopsided as this game, but Kentucky was the loser against South Carolina. The second loss was against Georgia, in which it was down to the wire, and had the controversial pick-six not been overturned, it would have been a win. This is why winning and doing it dominantly was crucial for the Wildcats.

Let's evaluate this game using the classic metric of "the good, the bad, the ugly." What was good? What was bad? And what was ugly?

The Good

The offense had a great start to the season in a 31-0 performance against Southern Miss, but it went silent and stagnant against South Carolina and Georgia. The team went into the second quarter of this Ohio game without scoring a touchdown in nine straight quarters. It was nice to see the offense finally get into sequence with a consistent rhythm while finding the endzone four times on offense (and once on defense).

The team accumulated 488 total offensive yards, with 282 yards in passing and 206 rushing. This explosion was exactly what we needed to see from this team. It also led to the emergence of a star in Dane Key, who had seven receptions for 145 yards.

New Offensive Coordinator Bush Hamdan seems to be finding his groove and learning how to maximize his personnel. The goal is to continue this push as Kentucky goes to Ole Miss on Saturday. As for now, it may have been good in this game, but we have yet to see an excellent offensive production in an SEC game.

I should note that the other units were also outstanding. Our defense is elite and has a chance to be one of the top in the SEC and the country.

The special teams was also special, as Alex Raynor is on a streak of 12 consecutive field goals made. The streak isn't over yet, and he will work to get to 13 and beyond in the following contests.

The Bad

As elite as the offense was in this game, the pass blocking is still suspect. QB Vandagriff rarely has much time in the pocket and often scrambles to prevent being sacked. He was sacked twice in this game but was hurried many more times. Coach Mark Stoops addressed this in his post-game comments; "He was 17/24, but that probably doesn't count, probably running for his life on 6 or 8 and the sacks. But to him, we have to speed up, and he has to go through a progression. For us to progress, we have to give him some time."

The offensive line seems to be getting the push it needs to create running lanes and help the rushing attack, but it continues to struggle in pass protection. Coach Stoops rolled out different linemen this week in an effort (it appeared) to see how each o-lineman would do with that, but it's an area of great improvement. For the offense to continue this push, Vandagriff will need time against SEC defensive lines.

The Ugly

I continue to harp on this However, the clock management at the end of the half was ugly and continues to be a problem for Stoops. Stoops may need to regulate these decisions to someone else; he's been here for 12 years and continues to make clock management problems. Fans on Twitter posted a lot of comments like this:

Our upcoming schedule will allow a smaller margin for not getting points in this situation. There should be a solution. Stoops said in the post-game comments, "I wanted to kick the Field Goal on 3rd Down, and everyone told me to go for it, and I should have gone with my gut. That's on me...I've been here for 12 years... I should have known better and kicked the dang ball."

It's the ugly this week, and I hope it's the last clock management "ugly" of the season, but I don't want you to end this article with a bad taste in your mouth because your 2-2 Wildcats beat a team 41-6 and has one of the best defensive units in the nation.