Mississippi State vs. Kentucky: Quarter-By-Quarter Game Summary

Spooked? The No. 12-ranked Kentucky Wildcats certainly looked the part as they fell 31-to-17 on Saturday night in Davis Wade Stadium.

Here is a quarter-by-quarter summary of how the team performed throughout a game in which the Bulldogs made another statement.

First Quarter -- Mississippi State 0 Kentucky 7

After a targeting penalty resulted in Martin Emerson being ejected from the game less than five minutes in, Shawn Preston Jr. picked off Kentucky quarterback Will Levis's pass deep in Mississippi State territory. The Bulldogs were unable to make much happen and punted away. On the following drive, Josh Ali returned Tucker Day's punt 74 yards for a touchdown to put the Wildcats ahead early.

MSU got the ball back, and made it to UK's 25-yard line before a sack and incomplete pass set up fourth down and long. Kicker Brandon Ruiz came on to attempt a 47-yard field goal, but was unsuccessful.

As the quarter came to an end, Kentucky was marching down the field looking to score again. Quarterback Will Rogers had a good first quarter and finished 6-8 with 65 yards at the end of the frame.

Second Quarter -- Mississippi State 14 Kentucky 10

With 12:14 left until halftime, Kentucky added on to its lead with a 41-yard field goal by Matt Ruffolo. However, MSU was not discouraged: they got the ball back and got to work quickly.

Rogers completed five of his six passes on the following drive, but ultimately it was Jo'quavious Marks who took the ball to the house on a seven-yard rush with 7:45 remaining. Ruiz came on to make the extra point, and the Bulldogs cut the lead to three.

After the defense forced a three-and-out, the offense took the field in hopes of keeping the momentum going. They did just that. The second drive of the quarter was even better than the first. The team had no penalties and never found themselves in a third-down situation. Rogers was 6-6 passing and had 53 yards, including a 17-yard beauty to Christian Ford. Ultimately, MSU scored once again on the ground -- this time on a nine-yard rush by Dillon Johnson.

The tough State defense forced another three-and-out, but could not go into the halftime break without a little bit of excitement.

A 70-yard punt by Kentucky's Colin Goodfellow put MSU at their own three-yard line. The Dawgs were unable to move the ball and punted out of the back of the end zone. UK got the ball back near the middle of the field and used all three of their timeouts in their final possession to get the ball close to the end zone. With 14 seconds left, quarterback Will Levis threw a high, desperate pass to the end zone. It bounced off the hands of Emmanuel Forbes Jr. and was caught by safety Jalen Green in the end zone. Mississippi State avoided a scare late and took the momentum into the locker room.

Third Quarter -- Mississippi State 31 Kentucky 10

Yes, you read that score right.

MSU could not stop shooting themselves in the foot on the first drive after half-time, but Rogers seemed to get them out of it almost every time. A false start penalty coupled with a holding penalty set the Bulldogs up with a first and 25 almost immediately. Rogers completed a 22-yarder to move the chains, and the Dawgs were marching down the field once again. The team was able to make it to the Kentucky 10 yard line with a first and goal opportunity, but once again had a holding and false start penalty back-to-back. A tackle behind the line of scrimmage gave MSU a second and goal from 28 yards away. Rogers threw yet another long pass -- this one for 23 yards to Polk -- to give the team a more favorable field goal distance. Ruiz drilled a 27-yard field goal to give the team a seven-point lead.

Then, the greatest thing happened: Jett Johnson recovered a fumble at the Kentucky 22 yard line. Rogers threw another long pass to Walley to set D. Johnson up for the one-yard touchdown rush.

Still, that wasn't all. On Kentucky's next drive, Levis threw his third interception of the day, this one to Cameron Young. The Bulldogs took over yet again deep in Wildcat territory. Rogers threw a beautiful 25-yard pass that sailed into the hands of Rara Thomas in the end zone. MSU went up 31-10 and the fans in the stadium were buzzing with excitement.

The Dawgs scored 17 unanswered points in the third quarter alone behind an outstanding performance from Will Rogers.

Fourth Quarter -- Mississippi State 31 Kentucky 17

Kentucky finally broke through with 13:38 left in the game. Levis's first touchdown of the night came on a 17-yard pass to DeMarcus Harris. State's defense seemed to struggle some, but the offense came right back to work.

On the kickoff, Tulu Griffin returned a bouncing kick all the way to the MSU 40 yard line. However the officials declared that he had called a fair catch after the bounce at the 10-yard line, and placed the ball there. The extremely debatable call didn't break the Bulldogs' spirit. The team fought hard to march down the field until they had to punt the ball away around the UK 40 yard line.

After allowing Levis to complete a 12-yard pass on the opening play of the Wildcats' next drive, the MSU defense forced three straight incompletions and got the ball back in the hands of their offense with eight minutes remaining in the game. However, that ended up being the last drive of the game for either team. The Bulldogs used a slow, clock-draining drive to kill any chance Kentucky had of getting another chance.

Mississippi State added a huge victory to the win column by defeating the No. 12 Kentucky Wildcats by a score of 31-17 in front of a rowdy crowd in Davis Wade Stadium.

Rogers finished an outstanding game with 36 completions on 39 attempts. He accounted for 344 yards and one touchdown while having no interceptions. D. Johnson added two touchdowns on the ground.