Allow me to be frank concerning the Auburn game. Mississippi State’s anemic offense flatlined on Scott Field in front of a national audience against Auburn.
The War Tiger Eagles, or whatever they call themselves these days, handed us multiple opportunities to seize control of the game, but we flat out rejected them each time. We should be 2-1 entering this week’s game at Georgia Tech.
The Bulldogs managed only 38 net rushing yards and 78 net passing yards, with six first downs. Rarely are 116 yards of total offense enough to win a football game. It proved correct again this past Bulldog Bash Hangover Day. Let us not forget Auburn technically scored our only points.
As a fan, our performance Saturday left me with a few questions.
First off, where was Tyson Lee when Wesley Carroll’s arm went cold? Coach Sylvester Croom felt the need to rotate quarterbacks during our loss against Louisiana Tech, but when Carroll began stringing together incompletions, Tyson Lee was nowhere to be found. Lee completed 10 of 15 passes against Louisiana Tech and all three throws against Southeastern Louisiana. Carroll won the starting job this spring; he’s our guy, but if our passing game falls off the table, one would think we need to bring in the new slinger.
My next question regards the play calling during fourth down attempts, specifically the fourth and 15 play near the end of the game. Are you serious? After failing to convert two previous fourth downs (not to mention failing to convert all of their third down attempts), the offense took the field and yet again missed the mark with almost four minutes left in the game.
Coupling Blake McAdams performance (I’ll get to him later) and our stingy defense with the fact that we still had timeouts remaining, led me to incoherently display my disapproval. Then again, maybe if we had punted, we would not have recovered an ensuing fumble and then squandered the opportunity with an interception.
MSU’s defense played their hearts out, holding the ninth-ranked Tigers to only a field goal.
State played a hard-nosed game, bending but never breaking; our defense kept us in contention until Auburn lined up in victory formation to run out the clock.
I would personally like to thank the defense for showing some brass on the field. I would also like to thank Blake McAdams for a fantastic punting game and the one solo tackle he made, padding his stats.
Until our offense walks amongst the living again, we are going to continue to rely solely on our defense. Just like we did last year.
I really only have one question left: Will our performance against Auburn be the wakeup call we need to get going or the knockout punch that sends us back to another subpar football season? My fingers are crossed, but I am not holding my breath.