For the first time since late September, second-year head coach Dan Mullen’s Bulldog team felt the sting of defeat Saturday night, falling to the Alabama Crimson Tide 30-10 in Tuscaloosa.
Giving up big plays had become a rarity for the Bulldog defense during the six-game winning streak, but Alabama touchdowns of 45, 78 and 56 yards put Mississippi State (7-3, 3-3) in a hole it could not escape.
“That wasn’t the football we’ve been playing the last six weeks,” Mullen said.
While the Bulldog defense struggled to stop Alabama playmakers Julio Jones, Mark Ingram and Marquis Maze, the Bulldog offense was not able to find a big play of its own when it needed one.
The longest offensive play of the game was a 33-yard completion from Tyler Russell to Arceto Clark with the game already out of hand, and seven penalties and five sacks allowed put the Bulldogs in many unfavorable down-and-distance situations.
The Crimson Tide also stifled the Bulldog rushing attack, which had rushed for over 200 yards in five consecutive games.
Senior offensive lineman Derek Sherrod said the offense was unable to gain any momentum, even when linebacker Chris White intercepted a Greg McElroy pass to give MSU the ball at the Alabama 42 in the third quarter. The following drive was a three and out that went -5 yards before the Bulldogs punted the ball back to the Crimson Tide. The Bulldogs had the ball for 9:36 of the third quarter but were unable to put any points on the board.
“Basically, we just couldn’t get the momentum going,” Sherrod said. “Chris created a lot of momentum with the interception, but we just couldn’t feed off of it. We just have to come together as an offense and make something out of those turnovers.”
The Bulldogs and the Crimson Tide exchanged field goals to open the game, and Alabama took a 6-3 lead after Cade Foster hit a 45-yard field goal in the first quarter. From there, the big plays started to roll in for the Tide.
Greg McElroy found Maze on a screen pass, and the junior broke loose for a 45-yard touchdown. Later in the second quarter, Ingram, the defending Heisman Trophy winner, eluded Bulldog defenders on a pass from McElroy and sprinted for a 78-yard touchdown to put the Crimson Tide up 20-3 at the half.
In the third quarter, Alabama picked right back up where it left off when Jones took an end-around 56 yards for a touchdown to put the Tide up 27-3. The big plays were something defensive coordinator Manny Diaz said his defense cannot give up.
“Ten-yard, 12-yard completions, we can deal with that, but we can’t deal with one-play drives and five-yard passes that turn into 50-yard touchdowns,” Diaz said.
Alabama added another field goal in the fourth quarter, and MSU’s lone touchdown of the game came on a 27-yard touchdown from Russell to Chad Bumphis for a final score of 30-10 in favor of Alabama.
The loss caused the Bulldogs to fall to No. 22 in both the AP and USA Today Coaches’ Top 25 polls and leaves MSU in fifth place in the SEC West. However, a win over Arkansas on Saturday would put the Bulldogs in fourth place.
With the passing of defensive end Nick Bell during the bye week, there was a lot of emotion on the Bulldog sideline. Safety Charles Mitchell honored Bell by wearing Bell’s number 36 on his jersey.
However, the Bulldogs were unable to take the emotion of losing a friend and translate it into success on the field.
“We had a lot of emotions coming into this game,” Sherrod said. “We wanted it really bad, but our performance did not reflect that.”
Playing on the road in a matchup of top 20 teams is new territory for a program that has had one winning season in the last decade.
Even though the Bulldogs beat Florida in The Swamp this season, Mullen said his team still needs to learn how to win in tough environments.
“This program, with the direction that we’re going in, we’re gonna be playing in a lot more big games in the future,” Mullen said. “These are places you have to learn to come and win.”
Mississippi State will look to improve its bowl game prospects when the Dawgs face Arkansas on Saturday for senior night at Davis Wade Stadium.