MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Jaden Walley stood facing his quarterback at the 25-yard line, waiting for the football.

Will Rogers’ pass to his fellow sophomore wasn’t a perfect one, but it was close enough. With a sure first down on the way, Walley stood still and watched the ball sail in.

It bounced off his chest. It bounced off his hands. And it fell to the grass below.

Walley’s unsightly drop in the third quarter led to a Mississippi State punt, ending just another failed possession in Tuesday’s Liberty Bowl.

The Bulldogs (7-6) managed just one touchdown, which came early in the second quarter, as they turned in one of their worst performances of the season in a 34-7 loss to the Red Raiders (7-6).

“It was everything tonight,” quarterback Will Rogers said. “We kind of just could never get going.”

Mississippi State coach Mike Leach coached 10 years at Texas Tech and hoped his former school would “deliver the check” he believed he was owed.

On Tuesday, all the Red Raiders delivered was a beatdown.

“I thought they beat us on all sides of the ball: coaching — starting with me — offense, defense and special teams,” coach Mike Leach said. “They deserve credit for preparing the way they did and playing the way they did.”

The clear underdog in Tuesday’s game, Texas Tech jumped out to a 10-0 lead before Rogers found Rara Thomas for a 17-yard touchdown in the second quarter, but it was all the Bulldogs could muster against one of the country’s poorer defenses.

Mississippi State was held to just 344 total yards, its third-lowest output of the season, and misplays like Walley’s were in abundance.

“It seemed like every time we were starting to get in a rhythm, get a couple first downs or something like that, we kind of stalled — whether it be me making a bad check or a bad read or a receiver not being in the right spot or dropping a ball,” Rogers said.

Rogers finished 32 of 53 passing for 290 yards and an interception, checking in under 300 yards in a game for just the second time this year.

He missed several throws in an inconsistent performance that was one of many on the offensive side of the ball as Mississippi State posted its lowest scoring output of the season and its lowest ever in a bowl game.

“I think Texas Tech was the biggest problem we had offensively,” Leach said. “I thought they did a lot of good things defensively. I didn’t think we protected consistently. I just didn’t think we were a consistent team. We didn’t get out of the blocks particularly well.”

Meanwhile, the Red Raiders shredded an undermanned Mississippi State defense throughout the night. Texas Tech averaged 7.1 yards per play, racked up 512 yards and pulled away with 21 points in the second half.

Tech romped against a Bulldogs team missing left tackle Charles Cross and cornerback Martin Emerson, who skipped Tuesday’s game to prepare for the NFL draft. Defensive linemen Jaden Crumedy and Randy Charlton as well as safety Jalen Green were among the players who missed the game for unspecified reasons.

Leach said he lost track at one point of how many Bulldogs did not play because of COVID-19 contact tracing. A forfeit, though, was never on the table.

“I don’t like that very much,” Leach said, citing the importance of game experience for his young team. “I think you try to play if you can no matter what because it’s an opportunity to improve. I didn’t want to pull out if there was any way that we could play.”

So, Mississippi State played. But the Bulldogs didn’t play well.

They fell behind for good after Texas Tech ran for 80 yards on its opening drive, capped by a 19-yard Tahj Brooks touchdown scamper. Jonathan Garibay hit a pair of field goals for the Red Raiders in the half to put Tech up 13-7 at halftime.

It got worse from there. Plays of 39 and 52 yards cued a four-play, 95-yard touchdown drive for Tech, which would score twice more before the night was over.

Mississippi State, meanwhile, could not get out of its own way. The Bulldogs’ second-half drives resulted in two punts, a turnover on downs, an interception, a lost fumble and the clock running out.

“We never got in a rhythm, and I thought Texas Tech did a great job keeping us out of a rhythm,” Leach said.

It added up to an unsightly loss for the Bulldogs in their final game of 2021 — and a reminder that Mississippi State has a ways to go.

“I don’t think we’re anywhere close to where we want to be yet, and we’ve got a lot of strides to make between now and the first game next year,” Rogers said.

Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.