As the Bulldogs lost 24-31 to the Houston Cougars, turnovers marred yet another career day for senior running back Anthony Dixon. On 21 carries, Dixon rushed for 134 yards and two touchdowns.
Dixon now has 13 100-plus yard rushing games, tying him with Jerious Norwood for the school record. Dixon also increased his career rushing total to 3,164 yards, just 48 shy of Norwood’s school record of 3,212.
Dixon said the mounting accolades are tough to enjoy as the Bulldogs continue to lose.
“I set out this year to play tough and lead my team to victory,” Dixon said. “It’s just not happening right now. It’s positives to take with me, but I can’t really enjoy it like I want to.”
MSU flourished as an entire team on the ground, rushing for a total of 330 yards, the most since gaining 340 against Kentucky in 2004.
Senior running back Christian Ducre rushed nine times for 87 yards, an impressive 9.7 yards per carry, senior quarterback Tyson Lee rushed for a career-high 68 yards and senior running back Arnil Stallworth chipped in 24 yards on only three carries.
Turnovers are becoming the Dawgs’ Achilles heel after two fumbles and two interceptions by Lee against the Cougars.
MSU coach Dan Mullen said the defense did not play as well as he would have liked.
Turnovers, particularly at the end of long drives, ultimately cost the Bulldogs the game.
“If you turn the ball over four times – three in the red zone – you are not going to win the game,” he said. “If you get down to the red zone, you have to come away with touchdowns. In the key moments of the game, we just made critical mistakes.”
Lee said the two fumbles were his fault as he decided to keep the ball instead of handing it off on draw plays.
“I was trying to pull the ball back on those two plays,” he said. “I was trying to get a better grip on the ball, and I just lost it and put it on the ground.”
The Bulldog defense allowed Houston quarterback Case Keenum to pass for 434 yards, but MSU made the big defensive plays they were looking for.
Senior linebacker Jamar Chaney recorded his first career interception in the third quarter and with 5:07 left in the first quarter, and sophomore defensive back Charles Mitchell intercepted a Keenum pass and returned it 71 yards for a touchdown, the first of three Bulldog touchdowns.
Chaney said the interceptions were important, but the defense allowed too many yards.
“With that kind of offense you have to have that bend, but don’t break mentality,” he said. “I think we did some good things. The worst thing we did was let them get yards after the catch. We did not tackle well in the open field.”
Junior linebacker Chris White, who tied with Chaney for a team-high nine tackles on Saturday, said touchdowns and big plays are what hurt the MSU defense.
“We knew they were going to score some points; there are too many weapons in that offense,” he said.
“We just wanted to limit the big plays today, and we did not do that. I feel like we [the defense] played decent, but they made some big plays and those hurt us.”
Turnovers and defensive play certainly contributed to the loss, but fans and players alike pointed to key offensive plays called back by the referees.
In the third quarter, Stallworth was penalized for holding on what would have been a touchdown run for Dixon. The next play was the second of Lee’s fumbles.
Dixon said he thought it was a legal block.
“I saw it. I thought it was clean. I thought it was a clean cut block, and I just made my read off of that,” he said. “Once I looked and I saw the referee running up to the head official, I knew that was bad news.”
In the third quarter, Lee completed a 25 yard pass to Leon Berry on fourth down from the Houston 29 yard line, but the play was called back because officials said Lee was past the line of scrimmage, making it an illegal forward pass and giving Houston possession of the ball. The call was not challenged at the time, but both Lee and Mullen said, looking back, the call by the Conference USA officiating crew looked to be incorrect.
“It falls on my shoulders for not challenging that call,” Mullen said.