All eyes were on the new QB. Meanwhile, UK’s defense played its best game yet.
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Game day: Kentucky vs. Arkansas
Click below for more of Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Arkansas football game at Kroger Field in Lexington.
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Kentucky’s defense was torched for a 74-yard scoring run just two plays into its game against Arkansas.
What in the moment seemed like the mark of a long night to come — it was the Hogs’ longest play of the season as well as their fastest score this year — turned out to be an outlier in an otherwise sound showing for a unit that has had to overcome inexperience and injuries since before the season started.
That one play — just 42 seconds into the contest — accounted for nearly 25 percent of Arkansas’ entire offensive production and about 40 percent of its rushing total Saturday night. Outside of that possession, Arkansas just one other time put together drive longer than 45 yards — its final one.
The Razorbacks, starting from their own 18-yard line and facing a 24-20 deficit, drove 60 yards with a backup quarterback whom the possession before led them to a go-ahead touchdown. Ben Hicks completed a 22-yard pass and rushed for 2 yards to set up second-and-8 at Kentucky’s 15 with several minutes to spare.
But the Wildcats rose to the occasion: Hicks threw an incomplete pass, was sacked for a 7-yard loss by Calvin Taylor Jr. and then, out of an Arkansas timeout, was hurried by T.J. Carter and threw another incomplete pass that landed nowhere in the vicinity of another Razorback.
The game, fittingly on Jared Lorenzen Day, effectively ended on the 22-yard line.
Much discussion before and after the game revolved around UK being patient with its offensive game plan, but that same patience was present in the defensive huddle after the Hogs’ big gain.
And it started at the top.
“It’s like we talk about with the players,” defensive coordinator Brad White said. “You can’t live on a roller coaster. Yea, does it hurt? Are you angry? Are you pissed off? Absolutely, you are. But if you get stuck in that realm, that’s how you’re going to call the whole game. You’ve just got to put it behind you, make the adjustments and just keep going.”
Other than its explosive start, Arkansas’ other three scoring drives were aided by short fields: a fumble and a missed field goal allowed it on back-to-back possessions to swell its lead to 13-0 with just 67 yards of total offense. Its second touchdown drive started at UK’s 30 after a missed tackle on Arkansas’ side of the field on a punt return.
The Wildcats gave up 305 total yards — almost 100 yards fewer than their average allowed to opponents this season — against an offense that averaged more than 400 yards per game coming in. It was the fewest yards allowed by Kentucky in a game this season.
Kentucky matched its season high with seven tackles for loss (it also had seven TFLs against Toledo) and generated three sacks (its season high was four, also against Toledo).
“Defensively, (we) really put them in a tough situation a lot of the night,” UK head coach Mark Stoops said. “They ripped off the first run early and one guy cut out and created the long run. And after that the defense really settled in and played good.”
He noted the two times that short fields led to Arkansas field goals. The first one was the result of a failed fourth-and-1 conversion.
“We put them in a tough situation when I went for it and didn’t get it,” Stoops said. “And then off the punt return. Both times they responded with holding them to a field goal. I thought that was huge.”
White lamented his own play-calling for the short field that led to Arkansas’ go-ahead TD in the fourth quarter. It wasn’t a call made on that series, but one on the Razorbacks’ previous possession: an 18-yard pass completion on second-and-20 that led to six more Arkansas plays before it was forced to punt; the Razorbacks pinned UK deep in its own territory and the Cats subsequently punted from their own 2-yard line.
“We ended up stopping them later in the drive but if you stop them there early, they’re not able to hit that punt that ends up rolling down inside and then we’re having to punt back up,” White said. “People forget how everything sort of plays a part, and one play starts a trickle effect. I need to make a better call on that 2nd-and-20. I was thinking one thing and they gave us another.”
Overall, White was pleased with the way the game played out on Saturday.
“Ultimately, there are some things you’d like to clean up and do better, but, y’know, we’ll never apologize for a win,” he said.
This story was originally published October 13, 2019 at 1:37 AM.
