NASHVILLE — It’ll be hard to convince anyone who watched the third quarter of the Music City Bowl that Mississippi State once led Louisville 14-0.

But the Bulldogs did! Then 31 unanswered points from the Cardinals later, a complete unraveling was complete. MSU dropped its contest in Nashville 38-28, finishing the year below .500 for the first time since 2016.

There were blown defensive coverages left and right all night, but the offense might earn more than a fair share of the finger-pointing here.

Louisville’s defense entered Monday’s contest allowing 446 yards per contest. Early in the fourth quarter, in the midst of the Cardinals’ 31 unanswered points, they were outgaining MSU 444-169. In short, the Bulldogs made a seemingly horrific defense look stout for most of the night.

About a month’s worth of momentum was built up after a memorable Egg Bowl win. That seemingly was halted Monday if you look at a good portion of MSU fans’ social media accounts.

One final quick programming note for those who are new here: Bulldog Bullets was a weekly recurring article filled with short observations and commentary written throughout Mississippi State football games that posts shortly after the final gun. Hopefully, it will be back next season. To those that have followed along all year, we appreciate it.

Anyway, to the Bulldog Bullets:

– How far did the wheels fall off for Mississippi State? Louisville fans even booed Jak, the live Bulldog mascot, when he was shown on the JumboTron. That’s…..That’s just mean. They followed with a sarcastic S-E-C chant.

– One of the saddest things about the bowl game was the way Kylin Hill ended his collegiate career. Hill was hurt on the first play from scrimmage and carted off to the locker room but tried to gut it out by returning later. He entered the contest 45 yards short of breaking the MSU all-time single-season rushing record. He finished with seven carries for a paltry 3 yards. It’s unfortunate that a supremely talented player like Hill elected to suit up with his team one last time instead of sitting out and left with nothing to show for it.

– Obviously, there was a lot of controversy leading up to the bowl game because of a post-practice fight between Willie Gay Jr. and Garrett Shrader that left MSU without its starting quarterback. My knee-jerk reaction is this wouldn’t be much of a story if it involved anyone other than the quarterback. Teammates fight. More often than you think. This is a sport where aggression is not only encouraged, it’s a requirement. It’s unfortunate, but skirmishes are going to happen sometimes. That being said, if Gay engages in friendly fire with a starting quarterback at the next level, he’s quickly going to find himself in the unemployment line. Remember when Jets linebacker IK Enemkpali broke Geno Smith’s jaw in 2015? Enemkpali was immediately put on waivers. If I had to guess, I’d say Gay comes back for his senior season, considering his 2019 season included an eight-game suspension, getting ejected in one of the games he actually played in because of two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties and decking his quarterback in the face.

– That aside, man, does Gay make a difference for MSU’s defense when he plays.

– I think the last four read-option plays MSU ran, Tommy Stevens picked the wrong read.

– Louisville had two tackles for a loss in its entire game against Kentucky. It had two straight on its opening defensive series.

– Let’s talk a little bit about that eight-play, 99-yard MSU touchdown drive. It was the best offensive drive of the season, by far. There was creativity with a flea flicker and a double reverse, Tommy Stevens made the correct decision on every read-option play, and the execution was optimal. Say what you will of Joe Moorhead’s play calling, but it was on point for that drive.

– Now, take that and a few other moments away, and the offense was pretty anemic.

– Louisville outgained MSU 260-157 in the first half and still trailed 14-10.

– MSU went a whole season without a quarterback throwing for 250 yards or more in a single game.

– There’s a whole laundry list of things MSU needs to fix for next year. It will be an interesting offseason in Starkville.

Hodge is the former sports editor for The Dispatch.