On Sept. 12, the Bulldog defense was rocked for 49 points by the potent Auburn Tiger offense. Saturday, the Vanderbilt Commodores only managed to score 3 points, and even those came after a turnover on the 6-yard line.
The Tigers torched the Bulldogs for 589 total yards; the Bulldogs held the Commodores to only 157 yards.
Auburn ran all over the Bulldogs, amassing 390 yards on the ground, as the Bulldogs stuck with the same 3-4 defense for most of the game.
Vanderbilt managed a measly 33 yards rushing on largely the same defensive personnel. The schemes didn’t change too much, but the safety blitz of Zach Smith was particularly effective, especially when he stuffed Kennard Reeves on 3rd and goal from the 1-yard line and prevented the Commodores from taking the lead.
All in all, the Bulldogs put in an outstanding defensive effort for the second year in a row against the Commodores, allowing the team to win despite some familiar offensive struggles.
Offensive woes
The Bulldog offense obviously played well enough to win, but it just wasn’t firing on all cylinders for most of the game. Vanderbilt’s defense, definitely not one of the SEC’s most talented, held the Bulldogs to four three-and-outs and forced eight punts.
Even when the Bulldogs were able to put together a drive, for the first 55 minutes of the game, they couldn’t put it into the end zone. What was worse was the meltdown at the end of the second quarter, when Tyson Lee was sacked, letting the clock run out. Had he managed to throw the ball away on the last play, the Bulldogs could have at least attempted a 50-yard field goal.
On the bright side, Anthony Dixon passed the century mark for the 10th time in his career, rushing for 123 yards. He is now only 394 yards away from breaking Jerious Norwood’s school rushing record.
Another striking fact to me is that we ran the ball 56 times while only attempting 18 passes. That computes to rushing the ball slightly more than 75 percent of the time.
This stat really says a lot about Dan Mullen. He may want to run a pass-happy spread offense, but he knows our team’s strength is our running backs. And unlike some other coaches, he will change his strategy to fit our team rather than trying to force the team to run his offense.
Special teams
Bulldog special teams continued its renaissance Saturday. Leon Berry, who would have had a touchdown return on the opening kickoff had it not been called back on a holding penalty that didn’t affect the play, shone on punt returns, including a 35-yard return that set up, well, nothing (only that drive right before the half).
Sean Brauchle was perfect on field goals again, but the most striking aspect had to be the punting game. Heath Hutchins punted eight times for an average of 40.1 yards, and the Commodores got zero return yards out of them. Outstanding job by the punt coverage team.
Looking ahead
A loss in this game would have likely put dreams of a bowl game out of reach for the Bulldogs. Though they still have a rough road to get there, it is at least conceivable that the Bulldogs could find four more wins on the schedule.
Looking ahead to next week, the No. 7 LSU Tigers come into Starkville, hot after destroying Louisiana-Lafayette Saturday.
Vanderbilt hung with the Tigers closely for most of the game on Sept. 12 in Baton Rouge, so maybe MSU has a shot to pull off the upset.
On the other hand, the Tigers’ road win at Washington looks very impressive all of a sudden after the Huskies shocked No. 3 USC Saturday.
Of course, the transitive property doesn’t apply in football anyway, so none of those games really matter.
If all three phases come out playing at their full potential, the Bulldogs ought to make it interesting.
However, if any one of them does not, look for a blowout. LSU is much too good to allow us to even get close if the offense plays like it did against Vanderbilt or if the defense plays like it did against Auburn.
Also worth pointing out is that Vanderbilt is the only SEC team which MSU owns a winning record against. The Bulldogs are now 12-7-2 against the Commodores all-time, winning 11 of the last 14.