Shaky special teams play, costly fumbles doom Cats

Will Levis (7) can only watch after Ole Miss recovered his fumble to close out Saturday's game. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Since Mark Stoops has been at Kentucky, he has taken great pride in having his team capable of winning close games and also not beating itself.

Kentucky failed in both areas Saturday at Mississippi when it lost 22-19 to the Rebels in a game that will haunt UK coaches, players and fans for quite a while.

This was not just another game. Kentucky came into the SEC matchup 4-0 and ranked No. 7. A win would have put UK 2-0 in league both with both wins on the road and kept alive the dream of a sensational season.

“This is most definitely a very difficult beat,” Stoops told Tom Leach on the UK Radio Network after the game in Oxford. “I told them (his players) how we talked all week about the more precise team is going to win.”

Kentucky was not the more precise team. Instead, Kentucky was the more mistake-prone team.

Here are a few of them that were the most costly:

— Quarterback Will Levis lost two fumbles in the fourth quarter when UK needed a field goal to tie or touchdown to win. Both fumbles came deep in Ole Miss territory when UK should have been in field goal range on a normal day. Two late trips into the red zone resulted in ZERO points.

— Kentucky also lost what would have been the go-ahead touchdown pass to Dane Key when Levis did not let the offense get set before having the ball snapped in the hurry-up offense before he fumbled on the next play to basically end the game.

“We rushed that. We have to calm down right there. Just relax and let everybody get set,” Stoops said.

— Matt Ruffolo missed a 39-yard field goal in the first half and then had an extra point blocked. If that wasn’t bad enough, a low snap led to another failed extra point kick.

“Ruff hit the field goal good but just pulled it and missed it,” Stoops said. “Who anticipates problems with snapping and kicking. We have been good. Those guys do it right all the time. Today we struggled with that.”

— Kentucky gave up a safety in the second quarter when Levis was called for grounding from the UK end zone. However, that scenario was set up when Tayvion Robinson elected not to field a punt that bounced to the UK 1-yard line.

 — Barion Brown had an 85-yard kickoff return to set up a Kentucky touchdown but might have broken a second return for a touchdown in the second half but was accidentally tripped up by his own teammate.

— Kavosiey Smoke was wide open in the first half when he dropped a screen pass when he seemed to have a path to score before Ruffolo missed his field goal. That helped the Rebels jump on top 14-0,

It was just that kind of game for Kentucky which finished with 328 yards. Levis was 18 of 24 passing for 220 yards but was not as sharp as usual. Running back Chris Rodriguez had 19 carries for 72 yards and one score and three catches for 40 yards.

Stoops even left himself open to second guessing. He turned down a third-down holding call against Ole Miss that let the Rebels try a 53-yard field goal try on fourth down that they made. Maybe it was his lack of confidence in his own kicking game that led him to believe Ole Miss could not hit that kick.

“It (the kick) wasn’t easy. I just took our chances,” Stoops said. “I didn’t want to give up seven (points). I just felt it was a tough field goal.”

Kentucky faced a fourth-and-three at its own 32 in the second half. Rather than try a 49-yard field goal, Stoops went for the first down and UK failed to convert.

“With the way they move the ball, I just wanted to be aggressive and wanted to win,” the UK coach said. “The possession where Will fumbled, I was going for it on fourth down.”

However, it was just one of those games where Kentucky had a lot of opportunities to win but did way too much wrong to beat a ranked SEC team on the road.