If you’re a glass half full kind of person, allowing 601 offensive yards in two games with a defense that had to replace the likes of Micah Johnson, Trevard Lindley and Sam Maxwell isn’t all that bad. In fact, it’s pretty respectable.But if you’re a glass half empty kind of person, there’s a bevy of question marks surrounding the defensive side of the ball, even after two comfortable wins. One week after head coach Joker Phillips hammered his team about limiting big plays, UK’s defense let up in the second half by giving up two long, methodical Western Kentucky drives. Both spanned 80 yards over nine plays and resulted in touchdowns.”On defense, two 80 yard drives cannot happen,” Phillips said following Kentucky’s 63-28 win over Western Kentucky. “Those are things that cannot happen … especially if you want to be a great defense.”For the second game in a row, the Kentucky defense allowed a sizeable chunk of yardage on the ground, surrendering 187 yards just a week after giving up 190 rushing yards to Louisville. Most of this week’s damage came from the legs of tailback Chris Rainey, which could be disturbing when one considers that stopping him was one of the sole keys of the game for the defense.”My hat’s off to Rainey,” UK defensive coordinator Steve Brown said. “I think he’s a (heck) of a player. He’s a good back. He can play in the SEC.”Even so, Phillips and Brown were not happy with some of the tackling in the second half.”We’ve got to tackle better,” Phillips said. “We tackle a guy, he’s continuing to move for five, six, seven yards. We’ve got to get guys on the ground. The guy is a really good back, but no back rushes for 180 something yards against us. For us to be the type of team we want to be, have the type of season we want to have, you can’t allow anybody to run for that many yards on you.”Senior defensive tackle Ricky Lumpkin said some of the missed tackles had to do with focus and technique.”At times we’re a great tackling team and at times we look like a high school team out there tackling, having people break runs off because of the tackles,” Lumpkin said. “It’s something that we have to fix. Keep our head up, wrap our arms and drive through them.”After Rainey bounced through a couple of tackles on his way to an opening-drive 59-yard touchdown run, UK’s defense tightened up in the first half.In the second quarter alone, the Wildcat defense allowed two total yards. Joined with Danny Trevathan’s continued solid play (six tackles and a sack) and the almost unbelievable emergence of walk-on defensive tackle Luke McDermott, who recorded his first career interception in his second start a week after getting his first career sack, there are positive signs worth pointing to.”The thing about (McDermott) is he is a guy that if you pay close attention to his work ethic and to his desire to be good, he is a great role model to his teammates, not only on defense but as a team,” Brown said. “Here’s a guy that puts in a lot of work, and it’s paying off for him. Other guys should follow suit and work hard like he does.”The jury is still out on the UK defense, but remember this unit is young and learning. If the Cats can learn from McDermott, as Brown hopes, and continue to improve, this could be a very balanced UK football team.”There are a lot of guys that haven’t played a lot of football,” Brown said. “You’re trying to get them all as one unit. When you put in guys in there all of a sudden, it’s not as stout as you’d like it to be. They’re getting a chance to play, they’re finding out where they fit, where they need to work, how hard they need to continue to work. It’s always good to have something like this happen with a win.”