Vanderbilt scored a huge 20-13 win at Kentucky, and here are my thoughts on that.

Diego Pavia was (again) a gritty hero.

Kentucky has one of the most physical defenses you’ll see. So it wasn’t a shock that Pavia twice went to the injury tent and after the second visit, came back to the field with a knee brace to start the fourth quarter.

So of course Pavia came back on the next play (and ripped off a 28-yard run a few plays after that) on the drive that Brock Taylor ended with a 50-yard field goal.

For the night, he hit 15-of-18 passes for two scores and a pick, and ran 14 times for 53 more, which included a minus-32 charged to Pavia for sacks.

Two walk-ons made huge plays.

Linebacker Nick Rinaldi had a fumble recovery and also added a sack on the last drive. Rinaldi ended the night with five tackles, which ranked third on the team.

Meanwhile, Richie Hoskins had a touchdown reception of 18 yards in the first half, his first career score.

Both walk-ons have consistently played well in fall camp and turned my head before anyone knew who either were, and it’s great to see that rewarded.

That’s double-digit upsets in back-to-back weeks under very different circumstances.

A week ago, Alabama—with perhaps the most explosive offense in the country—came to Nashville and lost because Vanderbilt’s ball-control approach and Pavia’s play-making were just too much, in a spot where there was no pressure on Vanderbilt coming in because hey, who expects them to beat Alabama?

This week, Vanderbilt—playing in a spot in which everyone questioned whether the Commodores could handle the unprecedented publicity and accolades from debatably being the country’s top sports story—beat a Kentucky team with one of the country’s best defenses in its building.

The two situations couldn’t be different, Vanderbilt won in both, and that’s a statement.

Vanderbilt handled adversity.

The Commodores played without one of their best players in linebacker Langston Patterson and endured having to watch starter Miles Capers being carted off the field to the hospital. Not only was that a tough scene to handle, but Capers entered Saturday with 231 snaps, second on the defense behind only Randon Fontenette.

Vanderbilt went to Rinaldi and Bryce Cowan (two tackles and a pass break-up) to pick up the slack in Patterson’s absence, which they did and then some.

Kicker Brock Taylor deserves a lot of credit.

None of us were sure what we’d get with Taylor, who got his first real shot at playing time this year, and then missed a huge field goal against Virginia Tech (and another one against Missouri). Taylor has hit 11 of his 12 other field goals, including a 49-yarder in the third quarter and a 50-yarder with 8:03 left that put the Commodores up 13.

Taylor also made a potential touchdown-saving tackle on Barion Brown on a kickoff return.

He has now hit four field goals of 50 yards or more this season.

Sedrick Alexander played well, again.

Alexander’s stat line—11 carries, 58 yards and four catches for 18—isn’t eye-popping, but those yards were hard-earned and all of them important. Vanderbilt’s offense succeeds when it consistently gets three, four and five yards and puts itself in a spot to convert third-and-short, and Alexander had a big hand in executing that plan.

Third downs were big, again.

A week after converting 12-of-18 on third downs, Vanderbilt went 8-of-13 there against Kentucky.

Catching some breaks didn’t hurt.

Not that the Commodores got all of them—the overturn of Cowan’s interception seemed to violate the standard of “indisputable evidence” that’s supposed to guide replays—but Kentucky gave Vanderbilt some gifts tonight. Included in them were a botched field goal and extra point when holder Wilson Berry couldn’t get a simple snap down. The Wildcats were also penalized 12 times for 106 yards, including a big one holding call in the final minute.

My guess is that Vanderbilt will be a 27-to-30-point favorite over Ball State.

The Cardinals improved to 2-4 after a 37-35 win at Kent State (probably one of the two worst FBS teams) today. Ball State's only game against a Power 5 team this year was a 62-0 loss at Miami.