Ole Miss Killed Kentucky with YAC

In the fallout from the loss to Ole Miss, BBN’s crosshairs have been on the Kentucky offense, but the defense was not perfect. Ole Miss scored 30 points, nearly twice as many as they did a year ago against many of the same faces on the Kentucky defense. So went wrong?

Lane Kiffin has created an offensive juggernaut at Ole Miss. They’re going to hit a few explosive plays, like the 23-yard pass up the seam to Trace Bruckler. Kentucky rolled coverage to protect and corner, and it left the middle of the field open for the tight end.

Those are not the plays that killed the Kentucky secondary. Ole Miss hitched the Cats to death, turning 4-yard gains into 40-yard plays.

“The yards after catches, some of those things were frustrating. I mean, they probably had 100 yards on hitches,” Mark Stoops said on Monday. “You can get those things corrected. But they’re also a match up problem, because then we did get closer to them, and they did hit a post over our head as well. Not having DJ (Waller) didn’t help, but credit Ole Miss with that. They put you in a bind, they stress you, and they have talented guys.”

Waller was a surprising late addition to the injury report. He suffered a setback during Wednesday’s practice that will likely also sideline him for Saturday’s game against Eastern Michigan, giving him three weeks to heal with a bye on the horizon.

Kentucky could’ve used an additional 6-foot-3, 205-pound cornerback on the edge, but it’s no excuse. The secondary lost leverage and let Ole Miss turn lemons into lemonade. Ole Miss gained 126 of their 235 receiving yards after the catch. That’s the difference between winning and losing football.

Kentucky Defensive Players Who Performed Well

This is an ‘I love you, but’ in reverse order, because this defense does deserve plenty of credit. Ty Bryant‘s picks gave the Cats an early leg up. Alex Afari had ten more tackles and a tackle for loss in his ninth straight game. He is the SEC’s leading tackler through two weeks. He wasn’t the only performer who popped in the postgame film review.

“I thought the defense did some really good things. A lot of the guys played well,” said Stoops. “Alex (Afari), we talked about after the game, and after watching the film, (it was) very impressive. Kahlil (Saunders), I thought really showed up, was very disruptive, played one of his better games since he’s been here, and he’s been pretty consistent all year. That was really good to see. (David) Gusta got a lot of penetration, a lot of lot of pressure, and even the edge guys we’re good. They get rid of the football quickly, but we still affected (the quarterback).”