With another chance to put a team away, Kentucky fails to do it
As it should have been against the statistically worst defense in the SEC, the Kentucky offense was in control of the Mississippi Rebels on Saturday.
The first five times UK got the football, the Wildcats put points on the board. Two Austin MacGinnis field goals were followed by three straight Kentucky touchdowns.
With Benny Snell (28 carries, 176 yards, three touchdowns) again punishing tacklers and Stephen Johnson completing 17 of his first 18 passes, the Cats opened a 27-17 lead early in the third quarter.
When a short punt and an Ole Miss penalty for interfering with a UK fair catch started a Cats drive at the Rebels’ 49-yard line, the game was right there to be taken.
Instead, just as happened earlier this season against Florida, Kentucky failed to put a game away.
Mississippi wide receiver D.K. Metcalf’s leaping, 7-yard touchdown catch over a well-positioned Kentucky cornerback Lonnie Johnson with 5 seconds left to play gave the Rebels (4-5, 2-4 SEC) a 37-34 victory over the Wildcats (6-3, 3-3) before a Kroger Field crowd of 55,665.
“Obviously, a very devastating loss,” Kentucky Coach Mark Stoops said afterward. “The bottom line is, we didn’t make enough plays in crucial moments.”
Perhaps the most crucial moment was that early third-quarter drive that began at the Ole Miss 49 with UK up 27-17.
Score a touchdown and go up 17, even an offense as explosive as Mississippi’s would have likely been in a hole too deep to climb out of.
Instead, Johnson kept on a read-option for 3 yards on first-and-10. Snell ran off right tackle for 4 yards on second down. Facing third-and-3, Kentucky called another run to Snell.
“We ran it on third down because we were going to go for it on fourth if we got it manageable,” Stoops said.
Instead, Snell was thrown for a 2-yard loss.
Kentucky had to punt.
Instead of a cut to the Mississippi jugular, the Rebels found new life and the game’s momentum turned.
It was eerily reminiscent of the 28-27 loss to Florida on Sept. 23, when UK twice got the ball near midfield in the second half with a double-digit lead but failed to produce a touchdown.
That left the door open for the Gators to rally.
In this case, Mississippi entered the game last in the SEC against the run (allowing 261.1 yards a game) and last in total defense (468.1).
So it wasn’t crazy for the Kentucky offensive brain trust to think it could put the Rebs away with the run.
But when it didn’t work, that left the door to defeat open again.
“I’m sure I will go back and say I would do things different,” Kentucky play-caller Eddie Gran said afterward. “I think you always say that. To say you are going to do the exact same thing again would be ridiculous.”
Kentucky’s three-and-out from the Ole Miss 49 started a stretch of four straight UK offensive drives that ended without a first down.
Against the No. 1 passing attack in the SEC, that proved lethal. Impressive Mississippi quarterback Jordan Ta’amu (31-of-40 for 382 yards and four TDs) made the Cats pay.
To its credit, after Ole Miss took a 30-27 lead, the Kentucky offense roused itself and took the advantage back with a 12-play, 95-yard drive that ended on a 1-yard Snell TD run with 2:14 left for a 34-30 UK lead.
As it turned out, that left too much time for Ta’amu and his impressive receiving corps.
Kentucky was left to lament not putting the game away when it had the chance.
“If I convert on third down and don’t go three-and-out (four) times, it’s a completely different ballgame,” Kentucky QB Johnson said.
With a seventh win so close UK could taste it, the Cats instead got another lesson on what happens against SEC football teams when you have a chance to put them away but don’t.
Said Gran: “We had a couple more opportunities (to score after going up 27-17) and you got to keep scoring.”
Mark Story: 859-231-3230, @markcstory
This story was originally published November 4, 2017 at 9:32 PM with the headline "With another chance to put a team away, Kentucky fails to do it."