By LARRY VAUGHT
Once again, Kentucky football turned a win into a loss.
With 10:58 left in the third quarter, Kentucky had the ball at the Ole Miss 49 with a 27-17 lead. The Cats had a chance to bury the Rebels. Instead, the offense went three-and-out for the first time in the game.
That led to Mississippi surging to a 30-27 lead before UK scored with just 2 minutes, 14 seconds to play on Benny Snell’s 1-yard run to take a 34-30 lead. However, as UK fans have seen way too many times over the years, it wasn’t enough.
The Rebels — who blew a 31-7 lead at Arkansas last week and lost 38-37 — scored with just 5 seconds to play on a 7-yard pass to D.K. Metcalf. He outjumped UK defender Lonnie Johnson in the corner of the end zone and got his foot clearly down inbounds to give Ole Miss a 37-34 win that left UK and Cat fans stunned.
“Obviously a very devastating loss,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said. “Bottom line is we didn’t make enough plays in critical situations and they did. Difficult loss.”
It hurt even more because UK thought it had recovered a fumble three plays before the winning touchdown pass but replay showed Ole Miss quarterback Jordan Ta’amu was on the ground before he fumbled.
“Thought we had it won with the fumble. Then they made a super competitive catch in the end zone and we didn’t,” Stoops said. “Give them credit. I thought the last play there Lonnie played good. He played physical. You have got to go up and strip it out. Just got to finish.”
Kentucky quarterback Stephen Johnson completed 17 of his first 18 passes. He finished the game 19 of 24 for 204 yards and one score. But he knew the offense let Kentucky down.
“We had the game and just didn’t finish it off,” Johnson said. “That last drive was great, but we had a chance to put the game away before that.”
He’s right.
Ole Miss got a field goal after UK’s three-and-out with the 27-17 lead.
Next series for UK— three-and-out followed by a 58-yard touchdown pass to Ole Miss’ D.K. Metcalf that tied the score 27-27.
Next series — three-and-out again. See the trend here. Ole Miss got the ball at the UK 38-yard line. This time the defense kind of held and forced a 49-yard field goal but that still gave the Rebels a 30-27 lead with 14:16 to play.
Next series — three-and-out. After Snell ran for 3 and 5 yards on the first two plays, Johnson was sacked on third down.
Kentucky’s offense which had been averaging 7.8 yards per play managed 14 yards on 12 plays in those four series. Johnson was 0-for-4 passing and was sacked once.
“We didn’t make enough plays defensively. Same thing offensively. We had opportunities to pull away and didn’t do it,” Stoops said. “We had one drop I remember (on the four straight three-and-out series. Then we just got off balance. The three and outs hurt. We just got off balance.”
Off balance at the worst time until that final series when UK drove 95 yards with Snell getting 77 of those yards, including the touchdown. The team just turned the game over to him and the offensive line and he responded. He finished with 176 yards rushing and three touchdowns.
“If we don’t win, it doesn’t matter,” Snell said.
“We knew what Benny would do,” freshman receiver Isaiah Epps said. “We knew he would get us to the end zone.:
So did Stoops.
“Great effort by Benny. Really good effort,” the UK coach said. “It’s tough because we were running and having great success. We had our opportunities for sure.”
But the last drive UK’s defense had no answer for the Rebels who just chewed up yards in big chunks. Ta’amu finished the game 31 of 40 passing for 382 yards against what was already ranked as the SEC’s worst pass defense. He threw four touchdown passes, including the game winner.
Stoops was obviously as a loss to explain what else he could try with his secondary — which was expected to be a team strength this year.
“There’s only so many things you can do. We tried zone, We tried man. We tried pressing. We played off. We tried everything,” Stoops said without adding that nothing worked.
Now the question is what can UK do going forward. The Cats play at Vanderbilt Saturday and then must play at No. 1 Georgia, a team with a devastating running game. They close the season by hosting Louisville, a team with its own problems.
Kentucky is still 6-3, bowl eligible and positioned for a solid season. But this win would have made that position a lot, lot better.
“Your backs are against the wall every game in this job. Every game is important,” Stoops said.
So how hard will it be for his team to put this game behind it and bounce back?
“It better not be (hard). We better not let it be. We have three big games left. If you invest a lot, it should hurt a lot. The losses should hurt any which way they come,” Stoops said.
Tight end C.J. Conrad, who had five catches for 75 yards and a score after not having a catch in four straight games, agreed.
“This one hurts a lot. We know can’t let one loss turn into two, but this still hurts because we know we should have won. Offense had chances. Defense had chances. It’s a team thing. We just didn’t make plays we know we can make and should make,” Conrad said.
No argument there but also no argument with Kentucky fans who were teetering on believing in this team before it rallied to beat Tennessee last week and now are going to have a whole bunch of questions again.
