Five things you need to know from No. 24 Kentucky’s 38-21 loss to Missouri
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Game day: Missouri 38, No. 24 Kentucky 21
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Missouri football game at Kroger Field.
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Five things you need to know from No. 24 Kentucky’s 38-21 loss to Missouri:
1. Devin Leary vs. the SEC. The struggles throwing the ball against SEC competition continued for the Kentucky quarterback Saturday night.
Entering the Missouri game, Leary had completed only 45.9% of his passes (34 of 74) in UK’s first three league games. After completing 10 of 26 throws in UK’s dispiriting 51-13 loss at No. 1 Georgia last week, the 6-foot-1, 217-pound Leary had another rough go versus Mizzou.
Leary finished 14 of 27 for 120 yards. The Kentucky QB threw two touchdown passes but also two interceptions.
Kentucky’s problems in the passing game cannot all be laid at the feet of Leary. Drops continued to plague the Kentucky passing game. UK true freshman wideout Anthony Brown-Stephens had two drops on well-thrown deep balls from Leary.
But whatever the major reason, the Kentucky passing attack continues to be a giant misfire in league games.
2. Sloppy play continues to kill the Cats. It’s hard to label Kentucky as anything other than an undisciplined football team.
In Saturday night’s loss, Kentucky was called for a whopping 14 penalties for 122 yards.
Many of the penalties came at crucial moments.
With UK down 20-14 early in the second half, a holding call on Eli Cox negated what would have been a 26-yard pass completion to Dane Key.
On what became Missouri’s go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter, a pass interference penalty on UK’s Andru Phillips gave the Tigers a first down on a third-and-2 from their own 38.
After Missouri scored to go ahead 26-21 on the second play of the fourth quarter, the Tigers opted to go for a two-point conversion. UK stopped the Missouri pass attempt, but Kentucky defensive lineman Kahlil Saunders was called both for roughing the passer and unsportsmanlike conduct.
Given another shot closer to the to the goal, Mizzou’s Cody Schrader punched the two-point attempt into the end zone on a run.
A Deone Walker offsides penalty negated a Phillips interception midway through the fourth period.
If the penalties weren’t a large enough hole for Kentucky, the Cats turned the ball over three times.
UK special teams struggled, too, as a Missouri touchdown on a fake punt while down 14-0 with 11:38 left in the first half was the play that flipped momentum.
Repeated short punts from UK’s Wilson Berry — admittedly on a blustery, rainy night — kept setting Missouri up with short fields, too.
3. The post-Georgia hangover is back. Kentucky followed up its 51-13 drubbing at No. 1 Georgia last week with a damaging home-field loss to another SEC East foe.
During the Mark Stoops coaching era, UK is now 3-8 in the game that immediately follows Georgia on its schedule.
4. Cats miss second chance to become bowl-eligible. With its loss, Kentucky (5-2, 2-2 SEC) missed getting the sixth victory required for bowl eligibility for the second straight week.
UK is seeking to extend a seven-year stretch of postseason play. The odds are that will happen — but none of the five games remaining on the Kentucky schedule are cinch wins for the Wildcats.
5. Un-Happy Homecoming. With its defeat, Kentucky is now 56-22 in Homecoming games since 1946.
Mark Stoops is now 9-2 on Homecoming.
Fashion police
For its 2023 Homecoming contest, Kentucky wore silver chrome helmets with black jerseys with white numbers and black pants.
It was the first time UK wore black uniforms since Halloween night 2015, when the Wildcats lost 52-21 at home to Tennessee.
This story was originally published October 14, 2023 at 11:00 PM.
