Kentucky football found a way to get another hard fought win in the SEC on the road against a tough Oklahoma team. The Sooners came into this game with a struggling offense down some starters on the offensive line, and we highlighted that before the game how important Kentucky's defensive line would be. It took them a couple quarters to get going, but they really impacted the game by heating up John Mateer and converting pressures into sacks. We reviewed the Wildcats offensive performance from the win, now let's dive into the defensive side of the football.
Kentucky's defensive line has gotten consistent pressure this season against SEC teams, but they have struggled to turn those pressures into sacks. Everyone always says that sacks come in bunches, and that proved itself on Saturday night in Norman. Kentucky had a season-high five sacks against Oklahoma, and they really started to push the pocket in the second half. Up front is where Kentucky won this football game, and they were opportunistic when given chances to create turnovers yet again.
Across the board, the Wildcats defensive line stepped up. We saw Mi'Quise Humprey-Grace get 1.5 sacks and made a massive play when he hit Mateer's arm that set up an easy interception for Ty Bryant to run under. Tavion Gadson and CJ Works both had 1.5 sacks. Ahmad Breaux had his best game as a Wildcat, he was disruptive and logged a half sack as well.
Sam Greene played just 13 snaps as he got banged up in this game, which led to other guys getting opportunities. Lorenzo Cowan stepped up, and he has shown flashes all season long. CJ Works had his best game as a Wildcats, similar to Ahmad Breaux. Jamarrion Harkless also had a solid game clogging things up in the middle, building off his incredible performance against LSU.
The secondary for the Wildcats stepped up in a big way. This whole offseason we spent time talking the importance of the experienced safety tandem of Ty Bryant and Jordan Castell. They have been phenomenal this season, and they had massive plays in this game as both got two interceptions, Castell has the go-ahead pick six and Bryant had the game-winning interception. I also thought slot corner Aaron Gates had his best game yet at the nickel spot, he had a massive forced incompletion down the sideline on the Sooners final drive.
Alex Afari is back, but he only played five snaps in this football game. This was another game that had a heavy workload for the starting inside linebackers, Grant Godfrey and Bo Barnes. Bo Barnes is another guy you can put in the "best game as a Wildcat" category. Barnes continues to develop which is extremely encouraging.
This was an incredible performance from Jay Bateman's defense. They allowed just one touchdown drive and held the Sooners to two field goals. After giving up some yardage in the first half, Bateman made adjustments and started bringing more pressure. Oklahoma had just three points in the second half, and the Wildcats forced three three-and-outs and three interceptions on the other six possessions of the second half.
This defense keeps playing opportunistically, they are forcing turnovers and making game changing plays when the team needs it the most. This defensive line continues to develop and multiple players are stepping up, this deep rotation continues to get pressure on quarterbacks and they have improved against the run game. The off ball linebackers are improving every week and the secondary is led by the experienced safety duo. Kentucky's defense has to keep making plays in critical moments during this final stretch.
This article originally appeared on UK Wildcats Wire: Kentucky defense review: Creating turnovers and getting pressure