LEXINGTON — After 30 years, Kentucky probably thought it has lost to Florida every way under the sun. Saturday day night introduced a new one, a painful one, as Kentucky held a 27-14 lead with 11:33 to play, only to watch a handful of mental mistakes allow the Gators charge back for two late touchdowns.

Kentucky then moved the ball into field goal range, only to be thwarted by an untimely holding penalty, and then watched reliable Austin MacGinnis’ 56-yard field goal try at the horn fall a couple yards shy of a Kentucky happy ending.

The disconcerting thing about this game for Kentucky is that when the two teams lined up and played football, the Wildcats generally ended up getting the better of things.

But twice Kentucky left Florida wide receivers completely uncovered and both times, the Gators turned those plays into touchdowns, the last coming with just 43 seconds to play in the game and allowing the Gators to take their first lead of the game on Eddy Pineiro’s extra point.

A missed field goal at the end of the first half after consecutive sacks was also a significant matter in a one-point loss. That kick looked good, but hooked right at the end, smacking off the upright. Had it been tried from 5 yards closer, it probably would have been good.

For Kentucky, the unfortunate truth is that whether this game is lost by one point, a difficult penalty and a field goal coming up a couple yards shy, or by 65 points as it was in 1996, it’s still another loss.

Kentucky continues to cut into the talent deficit it faces annually on the gridiron. Stephen Johnson is a resourceful quarterback who did everything he could to put Kentucky in position to win. Florida might be the least impressive 2-1 team in the history of football. But at the end of the season, there are only wins and losses, not style points.

Kentucky had this game and its own poor preparation and communication handed in back.

“There’s one of probably 12 plays in there that change the game,” a crestfallen head coach Mark Stoops said after the game. “The breakdown in communication on the defense on the two plays (is) really a sore spot, because they stick out and it takes away from the great passion and energy that our team played with. … We have to get those things fixed.”

While Stoops’ 5-year tenure has been marked by increasingly competitive Kentucky football, if Kentucky is going to get over the sizable historical hump in the SEC East, they have to cut back the mental mistakes. Whether it ultimately goes on the coach or the players, the bottom line is that everyone shares the loss — the 31st consecutive to the Gators.

Ironically, Stoops could probably take a lesson from Jim McElwain, whose teams have won “ugly” division championships the past two years, and gathered their second “ugly” victory of the 2017 season.

Florida has dominated Kentucky for many, many reasons in the past three decades. Saturday night, it was about mental mistakes. That made it a new chapter in a very familiar story for Wildcat fans — a chapter they’d be happy to not revisit against soon.