I've never been very good at predicting an outcome for a football game. Call me superstitious, but anytime I try and make a prediction for a team that I like to win, I feel as though I've instantly doomed them to an epic beating. I'm not about to start making predictions now, but just for fun I thought I'd simulate Saturday nights contest against the Wildcats on EA Sports NCAA 2011. To be honest, the game didn't really play out the way I expect the real one to go. But as I said, I'm horrible at predicting what will happen in these things. If you're interested, a few highlights of what happened and the final score are after the jump...
First off, let me say that I didn't put a whole lot of effort into keeping up with individual performances. For anyone that has every played an EA Sports NCAA game you are aware that the player names aren't on the jerseys. All you have to go by is the number and sometimes even the number isn't right. So, now that you know that, heres what happened:
Kentucky got the ball to start the game and immediately went three and out. . On State's first possession they marched right down the field and Chris Relf capped the drive off with a touchdown pass to give the Bulldogs an early 7-0 lead.
On Kentucky's kickoff return it seemed Mississippi State forced a fumble, but after one of those pesky booth reviews it turned out the Wildcat player's knee was down. It didn't matter though because once again they went no where on offense.
Mississippi State tacked on a 46 yard field goal late in the second quarter but they left just enough time for Kentucky to mount one last effort to put points on the board before the half. Finally the Wildcats got things going on offense but soon after they entered State's redzone #25 Corey Broomfield intercepted a pass and ended the drive. State went into half-time with a 10-0 lead.
No points were scored in the third quarter by either team, however Chris Relf threw an interception. Kentucky put together another productive drive deep in the fourth quarter and made the decision to go for it on 4th and inches in the redzone. The Mississippi State defense stopped them and got the ball back. State did what they usually do best and ran the ball in an effort to melt the clock away, that is until #2 Robert Elliott fumbled the ball. The Kentucky defense scooped the ball up and ran it all the way back to score their only touchdown of the game.
Final Score: 10-7 Mississippi State wins...
I'm glad State won, but like I said...it wasn't really what I was expecting.