After a 17-day layoff, the Mississippi State University Bulldogs lost to the South Carolina Gamecocks Thursday night 16-14 in a hard-fought battle. The game started out quickly after an emotional pregame show. Gov. Ronnie Musgrove spoke, then a fan yelled “Go to hell, Bin Laden, go to hell” in a moment of silence. The USC and MSU football teams met around an American flag as fans sang “God Bless America.”
MSU received the ball first and drove 67 yards for a touchdown.
The scoring drive, anchored primarily by senior tailback Dicenzo Miller, was capped off by a two-yard Dontae Walker rush with 9:36 left in the first quarter.
Miller sprained his ankle in the first drive of the game, but played through it.
“I just kept fighting through the whole game,” Miller said. “I’m not going to let an ankle sprain keep me out of the game.”
MSU continued to move the ball on offense, accumulating 186 yards in the first half. However, they did not manage to score any more points in the half.
“It’s very simple,” MSU Head Coach Jackie Sherrill said. “We did not make some adjustments.”
The MSU defense had trouble stopping the USC ground game in the first half, allowing 114 yards rushing and 10 points.
The Gamecocks’ first-half points came from a 35-yard rush by junior fullback Andrew Pinnock and a 35-yard field goal byDaniel Weaver.
“‘We didn’t do a very good job up front,” Sherrill said.
“When they ran, we were like ‘what are they running?'” defensive tackle Dorsett Davis said.
The third quarter went much the same as the first half. The Gamecocks scored two field goals and held the Bulldogs scoreless. USC outgained MSU 111 to 38 yards in the quarter.
After breaking the MSU record for most pass attempts without an interception in the first half of Thursday’s game, MSU quarterback Wayne Madkin threw an interception in the Bulldogs’ first offensive series of the second half.
“We started off pretty good,” Madkin said. “We just didn’t get it done.”
Despite rotating the entire defensive line, the MSU defense gave up 238 yards rushing while only allowing 60 passing yards.
Neither team had much offensive production through the first half of the fourth quarter.
MSU scored a late touchdown, but it was too little too late for the Bulldogs. After pulling to within two points, MSU failed to recover an onside kick. South Carolina snapped the ball once and kneeled it to run the clock out for the two point win.
“Our mind wasn’t really on it (the game),” MSU fullback Justin Griffith said. “Our mind was on what was going on in the world.