College Station, Texas – Deep in enemy territory, the Bulldogs of Mississippi State had few highlights as Texas A&M dominated both sides of the ball, proving to be too much for Mississippi State with an end game score of 30-17.
Kyle Allen led the game with 322 passing yards and two touchdowns and never let up against the injury ridden defense of Mississippi State. The Aggies’ run game did not falter at all either, finishing the game with 194 total rushing yards led by Tra Carson with 110 yards and a touchdown.
For the Bulldogs, Dak Prescott led both passing and rushing categories as he went 20/34 with 210 yards passing without throwing touchdown. Rushing wise, he had 96 yards and a touchdown.
Freshman Malik Dear was second in rushing with one attempt for a 52 yard touchdown that kept Mississippi State in the game. Fred Ross seemed to be the go-to man through the air as he finished with 11 catches for 103 yards.
The Bulldogs could not get anything started, trailing from the first possession of the game and never could seem to get the sputtering offense started well enough to catch up.
“All the little things you have to do to win a game we didn’t do them tonight and you’re not going to win that way,” Head coach Dan Mullen said. “It’s just not going to happen.”
The Aggies had no problem starting the scoring off, as they traveled down the field on their first possession with ease. To cap off the drive, Allen tossed a one yard touchdown pass to Ricky Seals-Jones. A Taylor Bertolet PAT gave the Aggies the 7-0 lead.
The Bulldogs responded immediately, driving all the way down the field but stalling out and having to kick a field goal. Westin Graves drained the 38 yard field goal, and cut the lead to 7-3 in the Aggies favor.
After cutting the lead to four points, the Mississippi State defense could not stop Allen and the Aggie offense as they drove down the field and scored a touchdown. Allen completed a pass to Damion Ratley who took the ball 29 yards for the touchdown. Bertolet made the PAT to increase the score to 14-3.
After forcing a quick punt, the Aggies drove down the field and kicked a field goal. Bertolet made an outstanding field goal attempt, a 55 yard kick that gave the Texas A&M a 17- lead.
With all the momentum in the Aggies favor, Mississippi State seemed to not be able to get anything started on offense. Then true freshman Malik Dear took the handoff from Prescott and traveled 52 yards for the touchdown. Graves kicked in the PAT to cut the lead to 17-10.
The rest of the half went back and forth, until the Aggies made a drive at the end of the half. Carson took the handoff and ran the ball up the middle into the end-zone for a one yard touchdown rush with 20 seconds left in the second quarter. Bertolet gave the Aggies the 24-10 lead going into halftime with a PAT.
In the third quarter, there was not much scoring, with the only score coming off a Bertolet 24 yard field goal. Texas A&M went up 27-10.
Prescott and the Bulldogs demonstrated a little comeback, but could not do much. Prescott took a five yard quarterback keeper and ran in a touchdown run. Graves kicked in the PAT to cut the lead to 27-17. After a few turnovers, the Aggies scored with 5:23 left in the game to secure the win for Texas A&M. Bertolet kicked a 30 yard field goal to extend the lead to 30-17.
That was the last score for either team, as the Bulldogs could not get anything else started. MSU had two turnovers, which seemed crucial when trying to come back into the game.
There was not many highlights from the game, but Prescott had another outstanding performance individually. After passing for 210 yards and rushing for another 96, it’s a pity that we cannot get any help from our other playmakers. Besides Dear’s 52 yard touchdown run, we cannot seem to get the big play to work.
Prescott played well, but did not get very good pass protection and did not seem comfortable as he has been the whole season. He did miss a few big passes, but was pressured all night long. His 18 game streak of throwing a touchdown pass was broken, but he still holds the longest active streak of pass attempts without throwing an interception with 225.
The Bulldogs have yet to score more than 19 points in any SEC game this season, and I blame it mostly on the lack of a run game. Out of all for running backs in the rotation, they totaled 45 yards on 14 carries. The lack of a run game besides Prescott and wide receivers taking the ball, has been pitiful.
On the defensive side of the ball, the run defense seemed to do well. The Aggies ended up with a high amount of rushing yards, but they were forced to work for every yard. On the other hand, the pass defense was horrendous. We could not seem to get any pressure on Allen at any point of the night.
To win in the SEC, Manny Diaz will have to muster up some sort of way to get more pressure on the quarterbacks we will face, and Mullen will have to get some sort of running game established. Without those two components, Mississippi State will continue to fall short in a season where the SEC West is loaded down with talent.
The Bulldogs return home for a stretch of games starting with Troy this upcoming weekend. Kickoff will be at 3 p.m. and the game will be airing on the SEC Network.
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Our View: High and low points of the Bulldog vs. Aggie game
Taylor Rayburn
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October 4, 2015
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