Each and every week prior to a Kentucky football game, Cat Scratches will talk with head coach Joker Phillips’ for his game plan of attack. Without giving away too much of the game plan, Phillips will tell us his keys to the game, a key matchup and who Kentucky has to look out for on the opposing team.Offensive keys – Continue to take care of the football: “It’s always the key. If you take care of the football, your percentages and chances to win go up tremendously. That’s the reason we’ve been as successful as we have. We haven’t given up any opportunities offensively. When you fumble, that’s more plays you could have run.”Cat Scratches’ take: Astoundingly, UK has yet to turn the ball over this year, one of only six teams in the nation yet to commit a turnover. No coincidence that those six teams have a combined record of 9-1. Kentucky is also tied for seventh in the nation in turnover margin, with a plus-two clip per game. Defensive keys – Tackling better, getting DeQuin Evans involved: “We defended the pass well because teams haven’t passed it. That’s a statement that people have made about us. We’ve got to get people in the box, and we have been. Once we get there, we’ve got to tackle. We’ve got to show up and then gang tackle. We had a full-speed live period tackling for the defense for about 10 minutes (earlier in the week). We want those guys to come up and wrap up. I think we’ve gotten away from putting our face on people and trying to arm tackle too much. We wanted to make sure we were getting in really good position and exploding through people. … I think DeQuin, he’s not playing horrible. He’s not playing great either, but he’s not a guy that’s freelancing, too. He just hasn’t made as many plays as he or we would have liked. I just want DeQuin to play within the defense and not start pressing.”Cat Scratches’ take: It’s been no secret that tackling has been an early season issue for Cats, as the defense has surrendered an average of 188.5 yards per game. But don’t be too quick to pick on the defensive line and players up front; some of the blame falls on the linebackers and secondary. Too many times this season, an opposing tailback has broken through the line and a defensive back in support has whiffed the tackle. Much has been made about Evans’ zero tackles through two games, but as Phillips said earlier in the week, defensive linemen don’t rack up a ton of tackles anyway. When they do, they often come in spurts (Evans went through a four-game stretch last year without recording a sack). Akron’s strength – Another solid run team:  “It concerns you when they are able to run off the ball like they have with a team like they have. I’ve worked with their line coach before. He does an unbelievable job with the guys up front and they understand how to run the football. They take advantage of numbers. Sometimes you’re outnumbered, but you’ve still got to get people to rally to the ball and make plays. They also do a good job of when they don’t have the numbers, that back makes that extra guy miss. We cannot allow that. If we’ve got a free hat, a free safety that comes down and is unblocked, he’s got to make the play. … That’s going to be the difference in this game – who controls the line of scrimmage on that side of the ball. I really like our offensive line’s chance. They’ll win the majority of the battles there. Our defensive line has got to win the majority of battles on their side.”Cat Scratches’ take: Coincidentally, UK has run into three straight solid rushing teams to begin the season. Akron will be no different, as two of their players, running backs Nate Burney and Alex Allen, are coming off 100-yard games. Burney carried the ball 17 times last week for 119 yards, and Allen totaled 114 yards on 20 attempts.Matchup to watch for – UK’s special teams coverage: “I like our personnel. One thing we tried to do was focus on getting our best personnel on the field. I like where we are personnel-wise. We’ve still got some guys that are beat up that we couldn’t put on there, but I like what we have available. We’re trying to hold (Martavius) Neloms and (Randall) Burden and those guys because they’ve been beat up a little bit, but we do get a couple of guys back like Dakotah Tyler and guys like that, defensive guys who are familiar with tackling. On one return (last week), we had seven offensive guys, wide receivers and running backs.”Cat Scratches’ take: UK’s special-teams coverage, a staple of former coach Rich Brooks’ teams in the past, have struggled through the first two games. After giving up a touchdown to Western Kentucky, the Cats rank 115th nationally in kickoff coverage, surrendering more than 30 yards a return. Changing personnel should help, but as Phillips has mentioned several times, UK has to kick the ball to the side of the field that the coverage is designated for.Akron player to watch for – tailback Alex Allen: “Their running back is a really good player, No. 10. He does a really good job for them. We’ve just got to keep them contained.”Cat Scratches’ take: Four of Akron’s touchdowns this season have come on the ground. Three of those have came courtesy of Allen.Kentucky players to watch for – Trevathan, Cobb, Locke and Matthews: “Danny Trevathan shows up a lot on defense. Those two dynamic guys (Randall Cobb and Derrick Locke) on offense. And I look for Chris Matthews to have a big game also. He’s had a really good week, and so have our tight ends.”Cat Scratches’ take: Phillips’ choices should come as no surprise, as all lead their respective position groups. Trevathan has 17 tackles, five for a loss, Locke has posted 206 rushing yards, Cobb has 342 all-purpose yards and four total touchdowns, and Matthews is averaging 17.6 yards per catch.Final injury report: Tight end Nick Melillo and strong safety Taiedo Smith are both out. Free safety Dakotah Tyler is expected to see his first action of the season.