It was not a pretty game for the No. 14 Mississippi State Bulldogs on Saturday night as they fell on the road to the Kentucky Wildcats, 28-7. The Bulldogs essentially lost at their own game, failing to both establish the run on offense and stop it on defense, which had been their calling cards all season long.

Penalties were an absolutely huge factor in this game as the Bulldogs committed a stunning 16, costing them a grand total of 139 total yards – a number made even more damning when considering they were able to muster only 206 yards of offense all night.

Let’s take a look at each positional unit for State and see how they fared. Believe it or not, not everyone played a bad game.

Quarterback

Nick Fitzgerald completed 16 of 32 passes for 145 yards with no TDs and 1 INT, adding another 20 yards and a TD on the ground. Obviously, it was not a great game for him. Granted, he wasn’t helped much by his receivers, who struggled to hold on to the wet balls throughout the game, but Fitzgerald struggled with consistent ball placement. He can afford games like this when the rushing attack is humming, but when it’s not, he has to be able to carry the offense with his arm, and he hasn’t proven capable of doing that yet. Grade – D.

Running backs

Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports

Brutal night for both Aeris Williams (8 carries, 22 yards) and Kylin Hill (4 carries, 14 yards). With the line struggling to generate much of a push, the backs couldn’t break through to find any space and often encountered resistance behind the line of scrimmage. Fitzgerald didn’t help matters by making bad reads on numerous occasions, but neither back found much room to run either inside or outside. Grade – D-.

Wide receivers/tight ends

6-5 sophomore Osirus Mitchell led the Bulldogs with 6 receptions for 65 yards, which doubled the number of receptions he has hauled in on the year. He was one of the few bright spots outside for State, whose receivers really struggled to catch the ball all night. The group struggled to consistently find separation, and when they did, they couldn’t hang on to the ball, which combined with a night of up-and-down accuracy from Fitzgerald and no running game made the offense completely stagnant. Grade – D.

Offensive line

The line simply got beat up in the trenches by the Wildcats, no two ways about it. They struggled with run blocking, pass blocking and penalties. They failed to generate any kind of push up front in the rushing attack, allowing constant penetration. Both OTs were simply abused by the Wildcats’ edge rushers, particularly Josh Allen, who gave a hefty boost to his NFL draft stock, and the line as a whole committed penalty after penalty. If it wasn’t a holding call (usually trying to block Allen – where was the help on him?), then it was a false start, which was due to a combination of the crowd noise and pre-snap movement by the Wildcats’ defensive line. Truly abysmal night for what is usually a very good offensive line. Grade – F.

Defensive line

An up-and-down night for the defensive line. On the bright side, they did a pretty good job applying pressure to Kentucky QB Terry Wilson, forcing him into a rough night throwing the ball. On the downside, they got beat up in the ground game by the Kentucky offensive line and really struggled to consistently contain RB Benny Snell, who finished with 25 carries for 165 yards and 4 TDs. As a whole, Kentucky ran the ball 47 times for 229 yards, averaging just less than 5 yards per carry. Give Snell credit: he backed up his talk with his play. Grade – D.

Linebackers

Similar to the defensive line, an up-and-down night for the linebackers. They were pretty solid in coverage and limited short and intermediate passes, especially on the flats. They were also effective blitzing Wilson, and Erroll Thompson had a nice sack. However, like the defensive line, they got beat up in the ground game. They really struggled to consistently find their run fits, which led to Snell finding chunk yardage both inside and out. Penalties plagued this unit as well, though the roughing the passer call on Leo Lewis early in the game was an absolute joke. Grade – D.

Defensive backs

The best unit of the night for the Bulldogs, as the secondary allowed just 8 completions for 71 yards and no TDs and managed to haul in an INT. The interception by Brian Cole was a thing of beauty, too. The unit was sticky in coverage and did a good job closing passing windows. The results are pretty hard to argue with here, and they could’ve been better only if they’d forced more turnovers. Grade – A-.

Overall

Very disappointing night for the Bulldogs, who dropped their first game of the Joe Moorhead era and fell to 3-1 (0-1). They entered the game seventh nationally in total offense, averaging 587.7 yards per game, and fifth in rushing with 311.7 yards per game. Kentucky held them to 201 total yards and just 56 rushing yards. They were simply beaten up on both lines of scrimmage. Combine that with the rainy weather, volatile crowd and an insane number of penalties, and this is the outcome. All in all, they were undisciplined and couldn’t execute. It’s certainly not the end of the road for the Bulldogs, who are still very much alive in the SEC West, but it does limit their margin for error considerably moving forward.