Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby borrowed a basketball term to describe what has gone wrong with an offense he was hired to build.

After Saturday's 25-23 loss to Vanderbilt at Davis Wade Stadium, Lebby kept returning to the idea of layups, the routine plays every offense counts on to stay on schedule.

"We, right now, are not making any of the layups," Lebby said in his postgame press conference. "Everything for us is incredibly hard, and we can't sustain right now, which is really, really frustrating. The three-and-outs are, without a doubt, the biggest issue in the game."

The Mississippi State Bulldogs scored 172 points during their 4-0 start and sat No. 4 in the SEC in scoring. Across the last four games, the Bulldogs have scored 41 points and four offensive touchdowns. Quarterback Kamario Taylor missed the LSU game, got hurt against Oklahoma on Oct. 24, and will miss the rest of the season after foot surgery.

What did Jeff Lebby call the biggest problem?

Vanderbilt forced seven three-and-outs, and the first half followed a grim pattern. A turnover on downs opened the night, four straight punts followed, and Mississippi State went to the locker room with 71 total yards.

The opening drive stung Lebby the most, after Mississippi State threw an incomplete pass on fourth-and-1 near midfield instead of handing off to running back Fluff Bothwell.

"The ball could've gotten handed to Fluff and it would've been really good," Lebby said. "Frustrating moment. We should've gotten the first down on third down."

Do the numbers back up Jeff Lebby's frustration?

Mississippi State finished with 297 yards, but 150 of them came on the final two drives. Before those two series, 129 of the Bulldogs' 147 yards came on four plays, leaving every other snap to produce a combined 18 yards.

All of it came against a Vanderbilt defense that entered the night ranked last in the SEC in scoring, and the Commodores still held the ball for 39:55 to Mississippi State's 20:05.

"I wish there was one thing," Lebby said. "I really do. If I could pinpoint the one thing that is keeping us from keeping the easy things easy, it would be fixed. For whatever reason, it's showing up at a lot of different positions at critical moments."

Can Jeff Lebby fix the early downs without Kamario Taylor?

Lebby's answer starts on first and second down, where the simple gains keep failing to arrive.

"There's all these plays inside the game where you don't ever get to third down because on second down you just make the layup and gain 12 (yards) instead of two," Lebby said.

Lebby also tied the slide to who is missing from the huddle, sounding like a coach who knows the fix and lacks the pieces to run it.

"We have been in third down after third down after third down," Lebby said. "Our normal down efficiency has not been what it needs to be, and when you don't have some of the pieces that we're used to having, it makes it really hard to overcome those things. It's the normal down, the early down success that has to show up for us."