In the first half Kentucky struggled to convert third downs on offense, while the defense consistently failed to get off the field on third down. It was a recipe for disaster, and when I say disaster, I mean a tie ballgame at halftime against a MAC school.
“I think that was the game early; that’s why it was close early,” Mark Stoops said after the game. “They were converting third down; we weren’t. Part of it was they were in manageable third downs. We’re pretty good when we are in manageable third downs as well.”
The numbers are even worse than you think.