No. 24 Kentucky football (5-2) suffered its first home loss of the season 38-21 on Saturday, Oct. 14, against the Missouri Tigers.
Following Kentucky’s dominant first quarter, it’s safe to say that the final outcome was not expected by fans in attendance.
Quarterback Devin Leary and running back Ray Davis put up two touchdowns together during those first fifteen minutes of the game while holding Missouri to just 16 total offensive yards.
The Wildcats had all of the momentum in their home stadium, but they were soon met by their worst enemy: the second quarter.
Since beginning SEC play, Kentucky has allowed 34 points in the final three minutes of the second quarter.
Making that worse, out of the 131 points scored against them in those four games, 54 have come from the second quarter while the Cats themselves have only scored 17 in second quarters.
The pattern formed during Kentucky’s first road game down to Nashville, Tennessee. The Wildcats held 24 points over the Commodores with just under five minutes left until the half.
Vanderbilt then worked its way down the field in two minutes to make a 41-yard field goal and put up its first points in the game.
Then with under three minutes left, Kentucky gained zero yards on its next three plays and was forced to punt the ball away.
Catching the ball at the Vanderbilt 43-yard line, the Commodores reached the end zone within six plays.
The following week, when Kentucky faced Florida, the Gators were held scoreless against the Cats… until the final three minutes of the second quarter.
Once again, in just six plays, the Gators gained 75 yards in just over two minutes to reach the end zone at Kroger Field.
While these SEC matchups still resulted in favor of the Wildcats, Georgia did not let Kentucky make it very far in Athens.
Even though the Bulldogs already had three touchdowns and a field goal hanging over the Cats before the half, Kentucky still allowed Georgia to find another touchdown during those final three minutes of the second quarter.
Finally, coming back to the Missouri matchup, the Wildcats, for the fourth time, fell for the disastrous second quarter blues.
After being up two touchdowns at the end of the first quarter, Kentucky allowed the Tigers to outscore it 17-0 in the second, with the moment everything shifted being a fake punt touchdown.
In fact, the Tigers’ fake punt dropped Kentucky’s chances of winning the game by over 15%, a clear indicator of the shift in momentum the play had on the game.
“I think it definitely doesn’t feel very good, when you feel like you get out fast, have an opportunity to start really fast with defense, starting with a three and one, driving it down the field, overcome a penalty on both of the touchdown drives and start 14 nothing and then the fake punt definitely,” head coach Mark Stoops said. “It is one of those plays that feels like it punches you right in the gut. And we didn’t respond very good after that.”
The team felt this punch in the gut as well and it knew it was a pivotal moment that led to their downfall.
“Missouri was down 14 to nothing in the first quarter,” senior center Eli Cox said. “You can flip it that way and they responded, and we didn’t. And when they punched us, we didn’t respond. I think that’s something as a team we need to grow up and realize it’s a four-quarter game. There’s so much football to be played. And we can’t let one mistake become two and three.”
Missouri continued to build its momentum after that fake punt and then did what every SEC team has done thus far against Kentucky: scored a touchdown in the final three minutes of the second quarter. The Cats never recovered.
The Wildcats will hope to end this unlucky pattern when they take on Tennessee on Saturday, Oct. 28, at Kroger Field, with kickoff slated for 7 p.m. ET. It will air live on ESPN.
