Instant analysis: Who’s up, who’s down after Kentucky’s 14-7 win over Vanderbilt

Instant analysis from No. 14 Kentucky’s 14-7 win over Vanderbilt:

How the game was won

The Kentucky defense made a crucial, fourth-quarter stop on fourth-and-1 at the UK 16 and Benny Snell carried 10 times for 74 yards on the ensuing drive, including a game-deciding 7-yard touchdown run.

Game balls

1. Kentucky defense. Just keeps stoning teams. That fourth-quarter hold with Vanderbilt deep in UK territory was epic.

2. Benny Snell. With the game on the line, the UK star put a struggling Kentucky offense on his back and refused to lose.

3. Backup UK offensive linemen. On Kentucky’s ground-hugging, game-winning drive in the fourth quarter, backups Darian Kinnard, Mason Wolfe and Luke Fortner were in the game opening holes for Snell.

4. Josh Allen. Sealed another Kentucky victory with a quarterback sack and forced fumble to foil Vandy’s last-gasp drive. Unquestionably the best UK defensive player since Art Still.

5. Kash Daniel. Playing with a painful left-hand injury, the UK middle linebacker had 11 tackles and two tackles for loss and made a big play on a crucial Vandy fourth-and-1 in the fourth quarter.

6. Davonte Robinson. With seven tackles, the ex-Henry Clay star played the best game so far of his Kentucky career.

Running gassers

1. Kentucky passing game. There pretty well isn’t one.

2. Derek Mason. The Vanderbilt head coach is now 1-4 against Kentucky. Hard to succeed at Vandy with so little success vs. UK.

Key number(s)

Three. Kentucky has now beaten Vanderbilt three seasons in a row. The Wildcats currently hold win streaks of at least three straight against three SEC East foes — South Carolina (five in a row) and Missouri and Vandy (three in a row over each).

Fashion police

For its seventh game of 2018, Kentucky wore blue helmets, blue jerseys with white letters and numbers and white pants. Kentucky has now won five games in a row in blue helmets, 4-0 this season.

Fans in the stands

Kentucky announced attendance of 54,269. It broke a streak of two straight UK home games that had drawn in excess of 60,000 fans at the 61,000-seat capacity Kroger Field.

Mark Story: (859) 231-3230; Twitter: @markcstory

This story was originally published October 20, 2018 at 10:38 PM.