"We moved the ball effectively, mixing up the run and the pass," Kentucky offensive tackle Zipp Duncan said. "That's what we've got to do to win games. Now, it's just a matter of finishing every drive with some points and trying to come out on top."
Kentucky managed to score against Alabama, but three miscues were too much to overcome. However, the Wildcats' scoring output was the second-highest total allowed by the Crimson Tide and the highest against a Southeastern Conference opponent. Virginia Tech scored 24 against Alabama in the season-opener for both teams. Arkansas netted just seven points against Alabama last week in Tuscaloosa.
"We have the confidence that we can move the ball," Jeffries said. "That's a big plus, but other than that, we've just got to keep working. A couple of minor goals were set today and we just have to build on what we did."
Jeffries said the intention was to test Alabama's defensive line.
"We made that one of our key points today," Jeffries said. "We came out and did a fairly good job, but it was just the mistakes that killed us. Playing against a team like Alabama, you can't make mistakes like that. It's always good to move the ball against a team like Alabama, but we just have to take it as it is and try to forget about it and go to work next week."
Kentucky's offensive line dominated the first quarter and had the ball for 12 minutes and trailed 7-6 and collected 147 yards in the third quarter alone.
Duncan said the first quarter showing sent a statement to the guests.
"We wanted to set a physical tone, that we were going to be able to move the ball and I felt like we did that," Duncan said. "We established that we could move the ball down the field, but we caught a couple of unlucky breaks and the game got away from us."
Like Jeffries, Johnson said the Cats will focus on correcting mistakes heading into next week?s contest at South Carolina. Johnson said Alabama didn't handily defeat Kentucky "like Florida did" a week ago, but said the "only difference were the turnovers."
"You can't be happy when this is a game that you could have won," Johnson said. "There's not much we can do about it, except try and correct the mistakes, but it still hurts. We had three turnovers and they had zero. They were the better team."
