Joe Imel/Daily NewsClemson’s Marcus Gilchrist grabs the facemask of Kentucky’s Derrick Locke on Sunday during the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl at LP Field in Nashville. Clemson knocked off the Wildcats 21-13. — Click here for more photos from the game in Nashville.

NASHVILLE — Kentucky coach Rich Brooks had a simple explanation for the Wildcats’ 21-13 loss Sunday to Clemson in the Music City Bowl.

“We didn’t score.”

The Wildcats (7-6) marched into the end zone on their opening possession to take a 7-0 lead and ignite the partisan crowd at LP Field. After that, however, there wasn’t much more for the folks in blue to cheer about.

“I thought we had quite a few chances where we crossed midfield and we couldn’t finish the drives,” a somber Brooks added.

Kentucky could only penetrate as far as the Tigers’ 22-yard line after its first score in the first half, and only the Clemson 27 in the second. Both drives resulted in field goals.

“I don’t know – I really, honestly don’t know,” UK offensive lineman and former Bowling Green High standout Stuart Hines said about the Wildcats’ inability to score after the initial TD. “I guess we just didn’t click after that. We came out clicking and then I just really don’t know what happened.”

On UK’s final drive of the game, Brooks even called for a fake punt with 6:49 left at the Clemson 43 to try to light a fire under his squad. The call worked, but the flame didn’t light.

Three plays later quarterback Morgan Newton scrambled for seven yards on fourth down to the Tigers’ 25 – one yard short of a first down – and UK never saw the ball again.

“I thought that might spur us to get us into the end zone,” Brooks said of the fake punt. “You gotta give Clemson a lot of credit. They have a good, physical defensive front. They did a good job of against our wildcat (formation).”

Kentucky rushed for only 167 yards, and 60 of those came in the first quarter. The Tigers (9-5) only managed one sack in the game, but it was apparent their front caused enough trouble to generate panic in the UK backfield the whole game.

“They had a good defensive line, they came off the ball really hard and they did quite a bit of movement – twists and inside twists and stuff like that,” said Hines, who was given the task of blocking Clemson’s Miguel Chavis (6-foot-5, 285 pounds) and Brandon Thompson (6-3, 305) for most of the night. “They had a really good defensive line that played hard and deserved it.”

The Tigers came to Nashville having lost two in a row and having allowed plenty of points – 34 to arch rival South Carolina and 39 to Georgia Tech in the ACC Championship Game. Only Boston College, Wake Forest and Coastal Carolina failed to score more than 13 points this season against Clemson.

“The frustrating thing to me is when we got a possession at midfield (to start the fourth quarter) we were three-and-out,” Brooks said. “We’d cross midfield, get down to about the 35 and couldn’t finish that drive on several occasions. We squandered opportunities to get points. (Kicker Lones Seiber) kicked two pretty good field goals, but we never got close enough to give him another chance.”

The Tigers didn’t exactly light up the scoreboard, either. Despite only totaling 128 yards in the second half, 53 of those came on the game’s final drive. Clemson also took advantage of the game’s lone turnover in the fourth quarter.

— Click here for photos from the game in Nashville.

On first down from his own 13, Newton hit Gene McCaskill on a slant to the 19 where McCaskill was stripped, giving the ball back to the Tigers.

“The short field and the touchdown after the turnover was a very difficult play for us,” Brooks said. “We had just stopped ’em and got the ball and I think if we could’ve moved it out of there, we’d have been in pretty good shape. But we fumbled it, they took full advantage, stuck in the end zone and that really was the difference in the game.”

As for Hines, UK’s failure to move the ball and find the end zone was frustrating enough. But ending the season with an ‘L’ was even more so.

“We got here, and we didn’t do what we wanted to do,” the sophomore said. “We wanted to send these seniors out with four bowl wins in a row and do something that’s never been done here. We just weren’t able to do it.”