Prescott leads Mississippi State's 42-16 rout of Kentucky

STARKVILLE, Miss. — Want to scare Kentucky this Halloween?

Put on a Dak Prescott mask and a No. 15 jersey.

The Mississippi State quarterback might haunt the Cats for years to come, as will the 42-16 loss to the Bulldogs at Davis Wade Stadium on Saturday night.

Prescott accounted for six touchdowns, three through the air and three on the ground. All by himself, he had 465 yards, which was 42 more yards than Kentucky in all.

The Cats (4-3, 2-3 Southeastern Conference) gave up a season-high 586 yards to the Bulldogs, who won their seventh straight in the series.

It was a bad night all around for Kentucky, which managed 423 yards of offense, including 195 in the second half.

Cats quarterback Patrick Towles threw for 218 yards with two interceptions. UK's only touchdown of the game was a 2-yard run for Towles midway through the first quarter.

He was yanked late for Drew Barker, who completed seven of nine throws for 42 yards with an interception.

It was almost all Mississippi State (6-2, 2-2), which had touchdown catches by Brandon Holloway, De'Runnya Wilson and Darrion Hutcherson.

In the blink of an eye, it went from a four-point game to a blowout. Kentucky trailed 14-10 midway through the second half and then the wheels started to come off.

Chris Westry had just picked off Prescott, the first interception of the season for the Mississippi State quarterback, and the Cats were driving.

Austin MacGinnis lined up for a long field goal, which he made, but time had run off the play clock and Stoops called a timeout to save it. MacGinnis' next try from 48 yards went slightly wide left.

Then the Bulldogs proceeded to score 14 points — first on an 8-yard pass to Holloway and then a 20-yard run by Prescott — in the final 1:34 of the second half to grab a 28-10 advantage.

MacGinnis nailed a 48-yarder in the final 25 seconds to send UK into the locker room trailing 28-13.

At the break, Coach Mark Stoops told the UK Radio Network that he did a poor job of clock management at the end of the half and said UK's deficit should've been no more than 14-13.

"That's on me," he said.

The second quarter was disastrous for the Cats, who were outgained 233-86, including having seven runs for minus-4 yards.

One bright spot for Kentucky was the interception for true freshman Westry, which ended Prescott's pick-free season. It helped keep the record of former Cats quarterback Andre Woodson for consecutive throws without an interception intact. It was Kentucky's first interception since Sept. 19.

UK also got big runs from Boom Williams, who had 18 carries for 95 yards. In the loss, the sophomore became the 35th player in school history to rush for 1,000 or more yards.

Kentucky meets Tennessee at Commonwealth Stadium on Saturday night.

This story was originally published October 24, 2015 at 5:32 PM with the headline "Prescott leads Mississippi State's 42-16 rout of Kentucky."