STARKVILLE – The sound of cowbells gave way to shouts of Hotty Toddy midway through the fourth quarter of the 122nd Egg Bowl on Friday. The Bulldogs turned the ball over on downs at midfield, effectively ending the contest with Ole Miss out in front with a 38-19 lead.

The scoreline remained final through to the end of the game, with the visitors snatching the Golden Egg for the fifth time in six years, and the third straight year.

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin continued to take the national spotlight after the game, with mounting speculation over whether he will abandon his team mid-national championship push to take the reins at an SEC rival. He took full advantage of the attention to take shots at the Bulldogs, as well as to allege a break-in for the visiting locker room with a stolen jersey, but

In Starkville, with MSU head coach Jeff Lebby, the problems quietly continued to mount.

The Bulldog defense allowed more than 500 yards of offense, with Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss rarely getting any kind of pressure as he threw for 359 yards and four scores. It was the seventh time in eight SEC games that the Bulldogs allowed more than 30 points, and for the third straight game the defense was helpless against a conference opponent aiming for bigger and better things.

“The explosive plays on the perimeter and not being able to make plays on the edge to me was the difference today,” Lebby said. “We’ve been so much better against the throw game until some of these moments today, which was again really frustrating.”

The second-year head coach and offensive playcaller had set both the Golden Egg and bowl eligibility as goals for his group at the beginning of the season. With a chance at both, Lebby rolled the dice with the decision to bench Blake Shapen in favor of true freshman Kamario Taylor, and while there was a noticeable spark in the offense, the team struggled to sustain any momentum against their rivals.

“There was great disappointment from top to bottom,” Lebby said after the game. “The message in the locker room is I hate it for guys like Nic Mitchell, J-man, Brylan, Albert Reese and Brenen that don’t get the ability to go enjoy this and have a happy locker room and be able to extend our season by one. That’s what I hate as much as anything.”

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The poor defensive display was nothing new for the Bulldogs under Lebby’s tenure, and under defensive coordinators Coleman Hutzler and Matt Barnes. The team has allowed more than 1,000 yards on the ground in the last four games alone, which now includes three straight blowout losses, and it prompted a line of questioning for the head ball coach.

“We’re going to be evaluating every single piece of it,” Lebby said when asked about looking at changes to his defense, both in terms of players and personnel.

“When you sit here and you don’t finish the way you want to, it’s my job to make sure we’re putting our guys in position, and that’s the evaluation of every single bit of it.”

Ole Miss running back Kewan Lacy ran for 143 yards and a score against MSU, joining a long line of backs to find success against the defensive front, but the real damage was done on the outside and down the field.

Chambliss had nine explosive passing plays of 15 or more yards on Friday, and broke the game open in the second half with touchdown passes to De’Zhaun Stribling and Deuce Alexander. The one-on-one excellence of MSU corner Kelley Jones has been a boost to the secondary all year, but the reliance on man coverage failed the team as the Rebels found lanes behind the defense with regularity.

Defensively, there were almost no positives. Offensively, it wasn’t too much better, but one of the positives was the flashes of greatness from Taylor.

Tiger turned Bulldog

“I hit the one-stick on ’em, I’ve been using that move since I was in middle school,” Taylor said when talking about his second touchdown of the game.

He talked openly about the nerves he had in the buildup to his first collegiate start, but confidence in his game was evident from the playcalling, the execution, and indeed his first post-game press conference.

“We didn’t lose to them; we messed up a lot mentally, so it’s more on us,” he said. “Going forward, we’ve just got to watch film, clean it up and come back better.”

Taylor may not have picked up the win, but he picked up plenty of yards. He was 15-31 passing with 178 yards and ran the ball 20 times for 173 yards and two touchdowns. His lone turnover was a tipped interception that went off a lineman and his running back’s hands before finding the hands of an Ole Miss defensive back.

Lebby told the media that he wanted a lot of plays back, but there was no undermining the talent that was on display as both a passer and a runner. Even with the loss and another year without bowl eligibility, Taylor’s presence remains a significant positive for Lebby and the team as they move forward into the new year.

“I just felt like he was ready, and he had gotten better and better,” Lebby said. “When you’re around him and in the meeting room with him every single day, the young man’s got great command, and he’s got great understanding of what we’re trying to do.”