Kentucky’s victory over Austin Peay turned into a 49-13 rout, but the first seventeen minutes or so were hair-pulling. The tightness wasn’t in the secondary that came up with two important interceptions during that dreadful spell. In fact, it was pretty clear, even early on, that if this were a 7-on-7 passing league game, Austin Peay would have had trouble competing.
I think after Austin Peay’s second successful drive it was the front seven that looked shell-shocked. The defense was losing multiple one-on-one battles per play in the front seven indicating a lack of effort. Just as troubling was the lack of execution in terms of gap integrity.