dpSo, I took a look back at the offensive game film from Saturday, and there really isn’t a lot to be happy about. Only three drives went over 20 yards, and the Cats’ 3rd-down offense was some of the worst I’ve seen.
All 10 of Kentucky’s offensive points came off Alabama turnovers. That is not going to get it done in the SEC.
It starts up front; the line was mostly bad, but the tackle spot was the worst. Heard and Wood were supposed to be anchors, and unfortunately for Kentucky, I think they took it literally Saturday. They were slow to fire off the ball, and Alabama’s edge pressure blitzed them. That can’t happen going forward, but Kenny Minchey didn’t have his best game on Saturday either.
The biggest takeaway from the coaching staff this week isn’t about Minchey’s arm talent; it’s about his mentality.
After throwing an early pick-six, Minchey could have folded up shop and allowed it to continue to bother him. Instead, Kenny kept competing and trying to get better. Will Stein praised his ability to isolate each down, playing with a “one-play focus” rather than letting past mistakes snowball into new ones.
The SEC is an unforgiving league, and the pocket isn’t going to get any cleaner, especially if the line can’t improve drastically. The coaching staff is hammering home the importance of operating in “muddy pockets” and knowing when to simply live to fight another down.
There was a specific sequence in the Alabama game that Will Stein called Minchey out on. He could have stepped up and thrown the ball away to avoid a loss of yardage. Instead, he held the ball and got sacked.
“That is where that’s a growth opportunity for him,” Stein noted. “The right play is to throw the ball away. It’s not to try to do something outside of the realm of the offense.”
Minchey was 18-for-31 for 146 yards, throwing one pick and one TD, averaging just eight yards per completion. That means nearly everything was either incomplete or dink-and-dunk. Good defenses aren’t going to allow you to consistently drive the ball down the field meticulously. You have to hit the home run ball, and it’s not going to get any easier for Minchey on Saturday.
Playing in front of 100,000 screaming fans in College Station will be another massive test for a rebuilt line and a new starting QB. But time on task is everything at the quarterback position. Seeing the speed of an elite defense this past weekend should slow the game down for the offense moving forward. Minchey took his lumps, but his mindset proves he’s exactly the kind of guy BBN wants under center.
