Kentucky football picked a bad year to have a bad offense.
That's not me talking. That's Nick Saban talking.
"It used to be that good defense beats a good offense. Good defense doesn't beat a good offense anymore," the Alabama coach told ESPN last week. "It used to be if you had a good defense, other people weren't going to score. You were always going to be in the game.
"I'm telling you, it ain't that way anymore."
Indeed, scoring in the SEC continues to rise. Last year, the 14 league teams averaged 25.6 points per conference game. This year's number is 28.7. Alabama's 63-48 win over Ole Miss set a conference record for points in a non-overtime game. LSU scored 52 points in a win over South Carolina, 41 in a loss to Missouri. Florida scored 51 points in a win over Ole Miss, 38 in a loss to Texas A&M.
True, some of those points have come from the defensive end. Crazy stat: In 112 SEC games a year ago, eight interceptions were returned for touchdowns. Through 30 SEC games so far this year, 12 interceptions have been been returned for scores. Kentucky and Arkansas each have three INTs for TDs. LSU has two. Four other teams have at least one.
But part of the pick-six explosion might come from the fact that league coaches know that, as Saban said, to win this year you're going to have to score this year, i.e. take more chances.
"I definitely think there's some truth to that," UK head coach Mark Stoops said Monday. "We all, including him, we all want to play great defense, especially defensive coaches. But you have to understand, and we all understand, that you have to score points."
Which makes Kentucky's current offensive struggles all the more troublesome. It was the defense's six interceptions, including one pick-six, that fueled the Cats' 24-2 win over visiting Mississippi State. It was a pair of interception returns for touchdowns in the second quarter that jump-started the Cats' historic 34-7 win at Tennessee.
Meanwhile, if you go by total yards, the UK offense has suffered the league's two poorest showings in 2020. Kentucky gained just 157 yards in the win over Mississippi State. Last Saturday, the Cats managed a meager 145 in the 20-10 loss at Missouri. No other SEC team has gained less than 200 yards in a game.
The Cats are capable of moving the football. They rushed for 408 yards and gained 559 overall in the 42-41 overtime loss to Ole Miss back on Oct. 3. Despite a key turnover and failed fake punt, they gained 384 yards in the 29-13 loss to Auburn in the season opener. They rushed for 187 yards in the win at Tennessee.
Yet for whatever reason, they started in a different direction at Missouri, throwing the ball three straight times on their opening possession. The first two attempts fell incomplete. The third came up 4 yards short of the first down. It didn't get much better after that.
"We felt like with the way Missouri was going to play us, that they were going to be one-on-one outside, press us and get in our face outside and load up the run game so we felt like we had to throw the ball," Stoops said Monday. "We felt like we had to push the ball down the field a little bit and create some in the pass game. Unfortunately, we weren't very effective in that."
Throwing the ball is not the same as effectively throwing the ball. Or throwing the ball like Saban and Alabama is throwing the ball, or running the ball, or piling up the points.
"Watching both sides of the ball against Georgia," Stoops said of the Tide, "it is almost absurd the offensive playmakers that they have."
Maybe this season's second half will reveal a playmaker or two on Kentucky's offensive side. In this high-scoring year of SEC football, the Cats could certainly use the help.
