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 – Minimize turnovers: “We’ve got to play fast, we’ve got to play aggressive, but we also have to take away the ball on defense and have to take care of the ball on offense. If you look at some of the huge upsets, that’s usually a huge reason why teams get beat by teams like Jacksonville State and North Dakota State. … We’ve got to protect the ball. You get a punt blocked or a punt return or fumble and give them a short field, that’s what keeps teams like this in the game. It gives them confidence. The longer you give them confidence, the more they feel they’re in the game.”Cat Scratches’ take:  In the two biggest upsets of the first week of the college football season – Jacksonville State over Ole Miss and North Dakota State over Kansas – turnovers were the story. Ole Miss and Kansas combined for six turnovers in the losses, including a minus-four margin. Western Kentucky forced two turnovers against the highly favored Cornhuskers last week and will be looking to do the same against UK. Kentucky did a good job of holding on to the ball in the win over Louisville last week by not committing a single turnover. Defensive keys – Eliminate big plays: “Continue to up the level of play and be sound in what they’re doing in their fundamentals. We played well, but we got out of gaps a couple of times and gave up a couple of big runs that we cannot do. Nobody rushes for 155 yards on us, and we gave up over 100 yards to one rusher. Nobody runs 80 yards on our defense, and we let that happen last week.”Cat Scratches’ take: With the exception of a few big plays, the Kentucky defense actually played very well against Louisville considering the personnel UK had to replace from last year. Of the 317 yards the defense surrendered to U of L, 155 came on five plays (31 yards per play). The other 56 of Louisville’s plays accounted for 162 yards (2.9 yards per play). Meanwhile, Western Kentucky’s offense was consistent in week one. Of WKU’s 62 offensive plays last week, only three went for negative yards. Of those three negative plays, one was a sack, one was a QB kneel at the end of the half and the other was a tipped pass that was caught by an offensive lineman for a 2-yard loss.Key matchup – UK’s defensive line vs. Western’s run game: “Our defensive line has to do a good job of holding the point of attack. Our linebackers have to do a good job of fitting in and our safeties have to do a better job of getting down in the box and tackling.”Cat Scratches’ take: Much like last week, the spotlight will once again be on a thin UK defensive line and a very good running game. UK will be without the services of defensive tackle Mark Crawford, who is suspended one game for a violation of team rules. Without him, first-year tackles Donte Rumph and Elliott Porter have moved up the depth chart. Walk-on Luke McDermott played well in his first start at Louisville, recording a sack, but can he repeat it again as one of the few interior players with in-game experience? UK allowed 190 rushing yards to the Cards.WKU’s strength – running game: “I like their running game. Anybody that goes into Nebraska and rushes for the amount they rushed for, you’ve got to be concerned about that. We’ve got to be able to account for their quarterback (Kawaun Jakes), who is a runner also. They’ve got a running back (Bobby Rainey) that has rushed for a 150, but you have to account for an athletic quarterback.”Cat Scratches’ take: Forget the 49-10 Nebraska-WKU score last week – the vaunted Cornhuskers’ defense could not stop the ground game of Western Kentucky as Rainey ran for 155 yards on 30 carries. Phillips has compared Rainey to UK running back Derrick Locke in that he has the perfect blend of shiftiness and power. If Phillips is right, the Kentucky defense could be in for a long day.Areas of concern No. 1 – overlooking WKU: “We talked Sunday and the first part of Tuesday, but after you see how focused they are, you know that these guys will be ready. I haven’t said much since then, but earlier in the week we did talk about it quite a bit. Watching practice, they’re focused and they understand what we need to do to get this game underway. … We have enough good leaders at the top that understand. A couple of years ago, we were a play away from losing to Middle Tennessee. A lot of those guys were freshmen at the time, so they understand that you’ve got to get up to play for every team. Every team has good personnel, no question about that, and personnel that can beat you on any given day.”Cat Scratches take: It’s hardly of consolation for first-year WKU head coach Willie Taggart, but his team played with Nebraska in the second half last week. After Nebraska scored an early touchdown in the third quarter to go up 28-0, the score was 21-10 the rest of the way.Area of concern No. 2: UK’s special teams: “One time we had seven guys on the field (against U of L) where we had mix-up with our punt safe and our punt return team. We can’t have those things and we’ve got to get them fixed. … We’ve got to kick it to the right place. The punter did a good job of placing the ball this week, but our kickers are still inconsistent. We want to cut the field down into a third. We’re kicking the ball outside a hash. Sometimes we go right, sometimes we go left, but you have to kick the ball to the hash we’ve designated so that we can cut the field in half and cover it.”Cat Scratches’ take: Junior Ryan Tydlacka missed a field goal and an extra-point attempt in his debut as placekicker, prompting Phillips to reopen the kicking battle between Tydlacka and highly touted freshman Joe Mansour. The open competition still appears to lean in Tydlacka’s favor, but don’t be surprised if Mansour gets a shot late if the game is in control.UK strength – Hartline-tight end connection: “I think Mike has practiced really good this week. Both the tight ends (Jordan Aumiller and Tyler Robinson), the game has slowed down for those two guys after playing a game for the first time. They look a little bit better this week than they did last week and could have a big game for us.”Cat Scratches’ take: The biggest thing to come out of week one was that quarterback Mike Hartline put to rest the lingering questions about Phillips’ decision to go with the veteran. Hartline is now one of the unquestioned leaders of the team and can now turn his attention ahead to having a big senior season with another good game. In Aumiller’s debut, he recorded two catches for 23 yards, including a 19-yard reception.