By Keith Taylor
Special to NKyTribune
Kentucky hasn’t had much success in the Southeastern Conference during the past three seasons. Those struggles continued Saturday at Georgia.
The Wildcats (4-5, 2-5 SEC) dropped their fourth straight conference decision with a 27-3 loss to the Bulldogs, continuing a second-half spiral that has Kentucky in scrambling mode with three games remaining in the regular season. The Wildcats remain stuck two wins away from reaching bowl eligibility with three games remaining.
The way things have gone lately, Kentucky will be hard pressed to get the two wins it needs to reach the postseason for the first time in five years. Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said the third straight double-digit loss was “difficult” and “tough to swallow.”
“That was a pretty good beating by Georgia, a very good football team that had their backs against the wall and responded better than we did,” he said. “Give them credit, they beat us. It was very difficult for us to move the football.”
BOXSCORE: Georgia 27, Kentucky 3
For the first time this year, Kentucky is below .500 and much of the blame for the recent downfall lies on an offense that has scored just 33 points during the past three weeks.
The scoring output against the Bulldogs was the lowest of the year and marked just the third time in three years the Wildcats managed less than 200 total yards of total offense in a single game.
“The (offensive) possessions killed us,” Stoops said. “We were going three-and-out way too much. We would get some decent yards on first down. When I say decent, we’d get four or five yards. Then we wouldn’t get any on second. And we weren’t very good on third-and-medium or third down in general. When you’re not moving the football, that makes it extremely difficult.”
Through the first nine games, Stoops, and offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson stuck with quarterback Patrick Towles, but Stoops didn’t rule out a change at the position after the loss to the Bulldogs. Backup Drew Barker, a Connor High School product, played a series in the fourth quarter, setting up a possible quarterback controversy. Towles completed a season-low 8 of 21 passes for 96 yards with a pair of costly interceptions.
Stoops said after the game that the quarterback position would be up for grabs at practice this week.
Kentucky’s offensive issues are well-documented, but other concerns have developed during the past month. Kentucky’s special teams unit, which gave up a punt and a kickoff return for a touchdown in last week’s 52-21 loss to Tennessee, showed little sign of improvement against Georgia. Kentucky fumbled a punt early deep in its own territory, resulting in a field goal for the Bulldogs.
“Field position issues were major,” Stoops said. “With the fumbled punt, there’s not a lot I can say about that. Obviously we can’t do it. Field position has been a major issue.”
The road doesn’t get any easier for Kentucky next week. The Wildcats end a two-week road swing with a trip to Vanderbilt. The Commodores gave No. 10 Florida all it could handle, before dropping a 9-7 setback to the Gators Saturday in Gainesville.
A game that appeared winnable when the season began has slipped into the marginal category for Kentucky, especially considering the Commodores are on an upswing following their performance against the Gators.
Kentucky then returns home for games against Charlotte and Louisville.
Despite the team’s recent struggles, Stoops said the Wildcats have little time to dwell on the past four losses and remains optimistic for a late-season turnaround.
“We’ll look at ourselves, we’ll man up and know that this type of play is not acceptable,” Stoops said. “We’ll go back to work and do everything we can to go back and get a victory next week.”
Game tracker: Kentucky at Vanderbilt, 4 p.m. Saturday. TV/Radio: SEC Network, 98.1 FM WBUL.
Keith Taylor is a columnist and senior sports writer who covers University of Kentucky athletics for KyForward.com.