Will be interesting to see if we can keep the passing game numbers up to elite levels since they seem to be only allowing 178.3, will we run the ball more, or just torch them with now having Hyatt, McCoy, Keyton, AND Tillman?
Well it's one of those things where ya have to look at it game by game to appreciate what it really means.
Kentucky has had only 3 opponents attempt 30 or more passes. (Mississippi State: 37, Florida: 35, Miami (OH): 32) and of those 3 opponents only 2 of them were better than 50% completion. They gave up 213 passing yards to Ole Miss, highest of the season. They gave up 73.7% completion to South Carolina, highest of the season and they gave up 2 passing TDs to Northern Illinois also the highest of the season.
They have allowed 100 rushing yards or more in 5 of their 7 games. So I really think our balance will be too much for them. The teams that beat them, South Carolina & Ole Miss were more rush heavy, but passed effectively enough to keep Kentucky from focusing on stopping one or the other. Their rushing defense gives up more yards than their rushing offense and has done so on fewer carries. If you eliminate the Mississippi State game (because they simply didn't run the ball) and Youngstown State (because biggest cupcake) their rushing defense is actually terrible. Giving up 740 rushing yards on 176 attempts for 148 per game and 4.2 ypc. Those numbers would put them 75th or worst in every category. So they really don't do anything great on defense, except limit total plays (and that's partly because of their offense too).
They've not had a team hit 70 offensive plays against them yet, we average 76.1 snaps a game on offense. Akron & Florida being our two lowest snaps at 70. We've only had one game this season where we failed to hit 500 total yards, at Pitt. We have rushed for 175 or more in 6 of our 7 games, while also passing for 325 or more in 6 of our 7 games.
Bama's defense has given up 100 rushing yards only twice this season 1st to Arkansas (who ran the ball 51 times to get 187 yards) and to us where we only ran it 39 times to hit 182. They had not given up 300 passing yards until we racked up 385 on them. And no team had scored 28 on them until we hung 52.
And to Bama's credit they had already faced Texas & Arkansas both teams with offenses in the top 50 in the major categories.