Mark Stoops knew his team would face its toughest test to date in Tiger Stadium.For the first time this season, the Wildcats were unable to answer the bell and a blowout loss was the result. Stoops’ appraisal of what had just happened was simple.”There’s not a whole heck of a lot to say,” Stoops said. “They really took it to us from the opening kickoff return all the way through the game.”The opening kickoff return went 49 yards and gave the ball to the Tigers at the UK 29 following a facemask penalty, the first of a series of special-teams miscues that plagued the Cats in the first half. By the time halftime came, Kentucky trailed 27-3 in spite of being outgained just 184-135.”Just got outplayed,” Stoops said of special teams. “We got outplayed. We’ve been solid all year to this point and did not play good enough in this game. Give them credit. That’s a good bunch, and they physically played better than us.”In the second half, the Tigers would again exert their will physically, this time in the ground game. Behind 127 yards and two touchdowns by Terrence Magee, LSU (6-2, 2-2 SEC) gained 303 rushing yards in a 41-3 win that dropped UK to 5-2 (2-2 Southeastern Conference).”This is a physical football team,” Stoops said. “That’s what we’d like to look like some day. They’re extremely long, very physical.”Against that physicality, UK could never muster any consistent offensive production. The athletic Tigers sacked Patrick Towles twice and held him to 19-of-36 passing and 146 yards, a season low. The Cats had even less luck running the ball, gaining 71 yards on 27 carries.”You get humbled really quick in this league,” Towles said. “We were kind of riding high and we kind of got punched in the gut, which happens.”On the heels of the humbling, the Cats will have no choice but to pick themselves up quickly with the next test facing them. Top-ranked Mississippi State, coming off a bye week, comes to Lexington next Saturday for a 3:30 p.m. ET showdown in Commonwealth Stadium.”Well, we gotta go back to work,” Stoops said. “We gotta go back to work, and we’ll see how we respond. We’ll see how resilient we are and how tough we are. I have no reason to believe that we won’t respond and go prepare and play well.”Stoops didn’t hide his disappointment on Saturday night. In UK’s lone previous loss, the Cats absorbed punch after punch at Florida and were within a play of winning on the road. Two weeks ago, a blowout seemed a possibility as South Carolina built an early 14-0 lead, but Kentucky responded. That kind of fight suggested this team was past the kind of lopsided defeat the Cats suffered at the hands of LSU, but that wasn’t the case.Nonetheless, UK’s next step is just the same as it would have been had the Cats pulled the upset.”We will not let one game define us,” Stoops said. “We did not play well. They had a lot to do with that. We’ll get back to work this week and see what we can do to improve.”