LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Tennessee evened its record to 4-4 in emphatic fashion on Saturday night with a 52-21 win at Kentucky.
The Volunteers spotted the Wildcats a 7-0 lead and then proceeded to outscore the hosts 38-7 after rattling off 28 straight at one point.
Here's a look back at the key plays, players and numbers from Tennessee's win.
SATURDAY'S STAR
Take your pick. Quarterback Josh Dobbs passed for 233 yards and accounted for four touchdowns. Jalen Hurd scored a touchdown rushing and receiving. Alvin Kamara had 70 yards on four carries. Receiver Josh Malone had a 100-yard game. Defensively, Darrin Kirkland had a tackle for loss and an interception. Derek Barnett had two sacks. Evan Berry and Cam Sutton scored on special teams.
SATURDAY'S STAT
Big plays. Tennessee scored touchdowns on offense of 28, 37 and 75 yards, and a 63-yard run set up another score. The Vols' special teams produced a 100-yard kickoff return and an 84-yard punt return for touchdowns. Through three quarters, Tennessee's offense averaged 7.6 yards per play. Tennessee's five plays of 20-plus yards in the first three quarters produced 227 yards, and that will help any offense.
TURNING POINT
The Vols did what many good teams often do: Score just before and right after halftime. Leading 17-14 late in the second quarter, Tennessee got a defensive stop and scored after Alvin Kamara's 63-yard run set up a 1-yard touchdown run by Josh Dobbs. The Vols then caught Kentucky blitzing with a screen pass that turned into a 37-yard score. Just like that, Tennessee led by 17 points.
HIGHLIGHT PLAY
Dobbs may have unleashed the best deep ball of his Tennessee career in the second quarter on the 75-yard touchdown pass to Josh Malone. He missed on some easier throws throughout the first half, but his ball deep to Malone was perfect, right over the defender's shoulder. Dobbs had to step up into the throw as the pocket collapsed around him, which made the throw more impressive. Both Dobbs and Butch Jones credited Hurd with his key block in protection, too.
WHAT IT MEANS
Tennessee's quest to win its final five games got off to a rollicking start. The Vols overcame a deficit as late in the second quarter and produced a powerful response by rattling off 28 straight points during one stretch. Tennessee then effectively put the game away by the end of the third quarter. Tennessee will be favored from here on out. Home games against South Carolina and North Texas are up next.
BY THE NUMBERS
98: Four years ago, Kentucky snapped a 26-year losing streak against Tennessee with a famous (or infamous, if you wear orange) 10-7 win. The Vols have since restored order in a series they have dominated. With a 31-point win on Saturday night, Tennessee has won the last four games by a combined 98 points following a 37-17 win in 2012, a 27-14 victory in 2013 and last season's 50-16 romp.
13-of-16: Tennessee's woes on fourth down continued on Saturday night, at least for one possession when Kentucky picked up two more conversions on its lone first-half scoring drive. Towles got loose for 21 yards on fourth-and-5, then scored on fourth-and-goal at the 1. The Vols entered the game with the fourth-worst fourth-down defense in the country.
13-3: Tennessee has been pretty successful in games on Halloween. The Vols have won 13 of their 16 games on October 31. The previous three games were all against South Carolina. Tennessee beat the Gamecocks in 2009 in Lane Kiffin's lone season and won in Columbia during its national title run in 1998. The Vols' last loss on Halloween was at South Carolina in 1992.
11: Josh Dobbs loves playing Kentucky. The Tennessee QB pushed his touchdown count to 11 with four more scores on Saturday night. As a freshman in 2013, Dobbs earned his first win as a starter when he accounted for 251 yards and three scores. Last season he had 345 yards and four touchdowns. He threw for 233 yards and ran for 51 more on Saturday night.
11:15: Kentucky was seventh in the SEC in first downs per game (21.1), but the Wildcats didn't move the chains without the help of a penalty until nearly four minutes into the second quarter on an 11-yard pass from Patrick Towles to Garrett Johnson. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Tennessee defensive tackle Owen Williams late in the first quarter gave Kentucky their first first down of the game of any variety.
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.