I'm really trying to come up with something positive to take away from last night, but I haven't been able to come up with much.
1) Our defense appears to have zero playmakers, and you're just not going to win many games in this league without forcing turnovers. The "pressure" that we put on Maxwell last night was a joke, and I can only think of roughly 3-4 snaps in which we laid a finger on him. We are damn lucky that their receivers dropped so many passes and that their QBs are about as accurate as Bell's leg
2) For you dads out there, there's a saying we all know that says that you NEVER mess with a happy baby. Well, the exact same could be said for an efficient offense as well as a kicker/punter that's doing what he's supposed to be doing. Mullen inexplicably screwed with both last night as he took Dak out after two straight TDs, and then he decided to let Bell punt because he was allegedly better in practice this week. Are you 17ing kidding me? Someone needs to send Allen Iverson over to Mullen's house for a serious heart to heart
3) Too many of the same coaching mistakes are getting made over and over again. The 4th down playcall has been been beaten to death so I won't hit on that, but what about the two times that KY ran QB sneaks to convert on 4th down? Both times, our players were looking around at each other like they had no clue what was going on and sure enough, KY easily sneaks for the first down. Coach your players Dan! Tell them how to handle that situation in practice, call a TO, do something... they looked absolutely clueless each time last night
4) Aside from Dak, CJones, and possibly Redmond, I'm really struggling to see which youngsters are going to lead this team during the next two years. You watch other teams, even kentucky, and there are bright spots all over the field. I'm not seeing that from our group. Is that a lack of talent or simply players being put in bad positions? I don't know. All I know is that I'm just not seeing it
5) Lastly and I stated this last night... I am seriously nearing the point of being ready to fire Mullen over this Devon Bell BS. The kid sucks, and it is nothing short of a miracle that he has not single-handedly lost multiple games for us to date. I feel for him, but he absolutely folds when the pressure is on and the fact that he's still trotting out there is inexcusable. Let him continue to handle kickoff duties due to his leg, but that's it.