Mississippi State 45, Kentucky Wildcats 31 - Post Game Grouse

I know it’s tempting to go on a rant, Big Blue Nation, but let’s be honest — Kentucky was not good enough to win this football game. Not this year. The defense just isn’t good enough, the offensive line is just way too small and weak, and we aren’t good enough yet to upset the top team in the conference. That’s life, and I think most of us can live with it.

I’m not going to go off on anyone right now, we made mistakes and lost a game that, despite our talent deficit, we had a legitimate chance to win. The good news is that nobody who saw this game will think Kentucky was vastly inferior to Mississippi State. The bad news is that we lost and we lost mostly because we were stupid, and made stupid non-plays. Drops, special teams disasters, all of it. I don’t like it and neither do you, but we didn’t deserve to win and you and I know it.

Hat tip to Patrick Towles. I’m just spitballing right now, but he would’ve had a decent shot at offensive game ball if Kentucky would’ve managed to win. Sadly, that didn’t happen, and we don’t give game balls here for big numbers when the scoreboard isn’t on our side. Still, it was a great game for Towles that deserves to be recognized, and I’m recognizing it. He really played well and I’m proud of him.

I think I need to congratulate our worthy opponent for winning the game. They didn’t play their best, and It would be wrong of me to suggest they did, but they played more than well enough. Dak Prescott showed himself to be everything we thought he might be, and MSU’s running game was way too much for our defense. MSU’s defense is a real worry I imagine, if I were a Bulldog fan, but honestly, Kentucky’s offense is pretty darn good and arguably underrated.

I hate to lose, but we lost to a better team. UK is getting better every game, and I still think we have an excellent chance of seeing them get a bowl bid. Certainly they played like a bowl team tonight in some respects. In others, not so much, but we’ll deal with that in the postmortem tomorrow.

Don’t give up, Wildcats fans. We still have home games against teams ranked lower than this. I like our chances next week against Missouri.

Go, Cats!