There wasn’t much Kentucky coach Mark Stoops could say after his team’s 13-12 loss to Georgia late Saturday night.

The Wildcats (1-2, 0-2 SEC) played their best on an off-night for the No. 1-ranked Bulldogs (3-0, 1-0), and it still wasn’t good enough.

“There were several plays left out there that Georgia really made some nice plays at some critical moments,” Stoops said, asked if four-touchdown underdog Kentucky could have done any more to upset the Bulldogs.

“That was one of the reasons why they are number one. We had some nice plays designed and maybe got open by a short margin and they made some really nice plays. You know, it’s a credit to them.”

Kentucky out-gained Georgia 284 yards to 262, including an eye-popping 170-102 advantage in rushing yards.

The Wildcats had to earn every yard, as true to form, Kirby Smart’s defense didn’t give up a play longer than 19 yards on any of UK’s 73 offensive snaps.

The Wildcats, otherwise, had a textbook plan to pull an upset that started up front, the Big Blue winning the line of scrimmage much of the night while piling up 23 first downs to the Bulldogs’ 12, enabling UK to keep Georgia’s offense off the field, a commanding advantage in time of possession: 35 minutes and two seconds, to UGA’s paltry 24:48.

But as Stoops said, there’s a reason Smart’s football program has proven the best in the nation, and much of it came down to coaching and timely execution.

The Bulldogs’ offense, for all of its struggles, was not going to help Kentucky out with a turnover — just as UGA did not turn the ball over in opening wins over Clemson and Tennessee Tech.

Stoops knew his team needed to play a flawless game and win clutch battles, as it did in taking a 6-3 lead into halftime.

“No flukes, no gimmicks, you can’t trick a really good team like that,” Stoops said. “You have to man up and make plays when you need to. Give them credit. They made more than us.”

Georgia’s well-coached defense — soft as it appears on the interior defensive line — continually stiffened as the Wildcats approached the end zone.

Only one of Kentucky’s 10 drives was able to penetrate UGA’s 20-yard line — the Red Zone — leading to the Wildcats having to settle for four field goals.

Georgia’s offense, meanwhile, flipped a switch in the fourth quarter.

Stoops, a defensive wizard, was particularly irritated as Carson Beck unleashed a 33-yard completion down the left sideline with the game in the balance, the Bulldogs desperately needing a first down to run clock and prevent UK from last-second heroics.

“What I don’t like is one play during that four-minute drive where they had the sail (route),” Stoops said. “We have to man that up and not give them that sail route that was completed on their sidelines and that’s the one play that will haunt me right here tonight and for a long time.”

Bobo, of course, had set the play up and knew it would be there when Georgia needed it most, provided Beck (15-of-24 passing, 160 yards) and the offense could execute.

It was second-and-9 at the UGA 16-yard-line with Georgia holding on to 13-12 lead and just over two minutes left — the Wildcats holding timeouts — plenty of time for a potential game-winning drive if they could get a stop.

Beck, instead, dropped back and rifled a 33-yard completion downfield to his go-to receiver. Dominic Lovett (six catches, 89 yards).

The game’s longest play of the night lifted the Georgia sideline and put a charge of confidence into Beck, who had looked unsure of himself much of the night.

Two plays later, Beck delivered again — an 8-yard strike to tight end Oscar Delp.

Kentucky jarred the ball loose, but there was receiver Arian Smith, trained to follow the play, on the spot to fall on the football so the Bulldogs could maintain possession.

The clock kept rolling on UK as Georgia stubbornly maintained possession, Trevor Etienne breaking off a clutch 11-yard drive on a second-and-7 from the UK 38, forcing Stoops to exhaust his timeouts.

By the time UGA’s drive stalled and Brett Thorson’s punt trickled past Bulldogs in position to down it at the 1 — one of few special teams miscues this season — Kentucky had only 10 seconds left to work from its own 20-yard line.

Stoops lamented not being able to get a stop after his calculated decision to punt the ball back to Georgia — rather than go for it on fourth down — after reaching the Bulldogs’ 47-yard line needing only a field goal to take the lead.

“You know, they are very efficient — there are things you can’t do to them,” Stoops said. “They pick everything up. They are very efficient, as I said earlier in the week, I think they have a very cohesive offensive line and it’s a very good group.”

Well-trained and confident, the Georgia players believing in a system that has led the program to a modern-era record 42 straight regular-season wins, and an SEC-record 28 in a row in conference action.

“I know, people are going to question the fourth down,” Stoops said. “You know I have been honest with you for years, and if I made a mistake like last week I will tell you.

“I do not regret punting that ball. I felt like if we went for it there and don’t make it, our offense, if we stop them, has to go the length of the field. That was going to be tough against that defense.”

Indeed, the Georgia defense has not given up a touchdown through three games, a winning edge if ever there was one.

“I think you know I’m not saying I’m pleased with the moral victory,” said Stoops, UK’s all-time winningest coach, but also the longest-tenured coach in the nation to have never so much as won a division title.

“I do care about the way we play. I do care about our preparation. I care about the way, you know, we represent the fan base and the way we represent this university and the way we play. We played hard. I thought we had opportunities to win the game.”

Instead, it was Georgia’s 15th straight win over Kentucky, on a night when the Wildcats played their best in a home game under the lights.