I'm currently sitting at an airport in Norway, somewhere above the Arctic Circle. My eyes are half awake and half closed, but that's not jet lag. Instead, I made the embarrassing mistake of staying up until 5:30 last night, watching Kentucky stumble, stumble, and ultimately fall to Vanderbilt. It turns out that embarrassing mistakes, much like my sleep neglect, were the theme of the game.

Kickoff started at about 2:00 a.m. local time, so I figured I'd fall asleep after the first quarter once Kentucky got out to a comfortable lead. Unfortunately, that comfortable lead, or any hint at all, never materialized.

I will not go into the details of the misery here. There's already enough of that to fill your cup of sadness, but let's take a look at what the experts at Pro Football Focus (PFF) think about the performances of Kentucky's players.

Dane Key is still the bright spot on offense

Despite the inexcusable personal foul penalty on Kentucky's opening drive, which almost certainly cost the Wildcats three (maybe seven) points, and his poorly timed fumble, Dane Key was the team's primary offensive weapon throughout the game. It's easy to play the Sunday morning pessimist after a loss like this, but sometimes it feels like he is to much of a weapon, like Brock Vandagriff focuses almost exclusively on Key on any passing play that isn't a screen or a quick pass Barion Brown to take him into space.

Vandagriff targeted Key 11 times against Vandy, and the talented wideout completed eight of those throws for 83 yards and a touchdown. This resulted in Key leading the offense in PFF grades with a 75.9, just as he did against Ole Miss.

According to PFF, all key players performed well, including Key, Brown, Vandagriff, Wimsatt and the two running backs. Jamarion Wilcox And Demie Sumo Karngbaye all in their 70s.

Speaking of running backs, it would have been nice if Wilcox had gotten a few more carries. The young rusher looked explosive with three runs, an adjective not often used to describe Kentucky's offense. Once he develops his pass blocking skills to the level Mark Stoops needs them to be, the future is bright for this man.

The blocking against Vanderbilt was generally solid. The offensive line, which faced a lot of criticism all year, all performed above average in both pass blocking and run blocking, but also incurred a total of five very costly penalties, contributing to Kentucky's ultimate demise.

Kentucky Offensive Grades and Snap Counts vs. Vanderbilt

The defense played its part

Kentucky's defense held Deigo Pavia and the creative Vandy offense to half the points Alabama's defense allowed last week. While the Commodore's opening 97-yard rush didn't raise hopes, the Cats did a pretty good job overall of keeping college football's newest golden boy at bay.

Special, D'Eryk Jackson And Tre'Vonn Rybka Everyone scored an insanely high grade of 83.6, putting them at the top of the team. Jackson had the honor of being the first all season to intercept Diego Pavia, but unfortunately the turnover did not result in any points.

Deone WalkerHe too was his usual dominant self and JQ Hardaway stepped into the defensive backfield to secure that area of ​​the field without any issues Maxwell Hairston outside.

Ultimately, enabling the touchdown in the final minute of the first half proved to be the game's deciding factor. I screamed, “Call timeout!” into my hotel room pillow after the defense initially stopped the Dores with three minutes left in the half, but the only thing that did was wake me up my wife.

Mark Stoops obviously couldn't hear me from Norway and left the clock running. Then Kentucky blew its possession and Vandy left no time on the clock as they scored at the end of the half.

We need to get Stoops to play some NCAA football on PlayStation in the offseason to work on his clock management skills.

Kentucky Defensive Grades and Snap Counts vs. Vanderbilt