Miscues, a missing running game and dropped passes corraled Mississippi State’s offense Saturday afternoon in the Bulldogs’ last scrimmage before the team’s Sept. 4 home opener with Tulane.
“We did everything we could do to lose a ballgame today,” said head coach Sylvester Croom after witnessing the barrage of penalty flags during the Dawg’s scrimmage.
“We did a poor job getting the plays in, but that’s my fault. Too many delay-of-game penalties. Too many illegal formations. Too many pre-snap penalties,” Croom explained. “Those are all the things that can get you beat. And we definitely would have gotten beat today if we played anybody.”
Senior punter Jared Cook began the scrimmage with some excellent punts, including a couple over 50 yards. The Columbus, Ga., native punted six times for an average of 41.3 yards.
On the offense’s eighth series Keith Andrews drilled a 37-yard field goal to put the first points on the board for the struggling Dawg offense.
Andrews made five more field goals ranging from 27 to 36 yards.
Sophomore quarterback Omarr Conner led the offense with 171 yards passing, two touchdowns and completed 18 of 30 attempts. Although Conner had no net rushing yards, due to sacks, he made several runs. One came on a crucial fourth down that moved the sticks for the offense.
“I think we did a good job as a whole,” Conner said. “At times we didn’t execute like we’re supposed to.”
It was indeed a rough day in the rushing department for State.
The Bulldog backfield totaled 68 yards and as a team averaged 1.8 yards a carry.
Starting running back Jerious Norwood didn’t stay in very long due to the risk of injury, but while he was in he rushed for 19 yards on six carries.
In the West Coast offense Norwood may get more yards through the air rather than the ground. He caught three passes for 30 yards Saturday afternoon.
There are several areas of concern in the Bulldogs offense, but the worst falls on the patched up offensive line. State’s backfield had little success running up the middle.
The O-line also allowed six sacks. Projected starters Will Rogers and Johnny Wadley were both held from the scrimmage due to injuries.
“Truthfully, I don’t think it was all that good of a day for us
offensively,” center Chris McNeil said. “We made a lot of dumb mistakes.”
The Dawg’s two tight ends Eric Butler and Dezmond Sherrod led in receptions and yards. Butler caught four passes for 41 yards and a touchdown.
Sherrod picked up 32 yards on four receptions. But still Croom was not happy with the tight end situation.
“We got some guys there that have the ability to play, but they
didn’t make any plays,” Croom said.
Although the defense dominated the scrimmage, Croom hardly complimented the unit’s performance.
“We made some nice hits, but I didn’t think our pursuit to the ball was as good as it has been at practice,” Croom said. “The way we played offensively I don’t know if we even tested them well enough. I know we made some mistakes in the secondary that caused some passes to be open, but when we had them open we didn’t hit them on offense.”
Freshman defensive lineman Avery Hannibal continued to make his presence known. The Georgia native recorded two sacks.