They had their chances, and they had their opportunities. But they let them slip away-all of them.
Costly turnovers and mental miscues at untimely moments in the game kept Mississippi State from upsetting the Auburn Tigers, a team the Bulldogs haven’t beaten in five years. “We played dumb football,” head coach Sylvester Croom said after the game. “We lost because of penalties and fumbles. Until we eliminate that (penalties and turnovers), we have no chance to be a winning football team.”
Seven first half penalties, three turnovers, and an injured Jerious Norwood resulted in a misleading 28-0 loss to Auburn (1-1, 1-0) in front of 81,921 orange-clad Tiger fans at Jordan-Hare Stadium, a place MSU hasn’t won in since 1999.
Auburn got its first shutout of a conference opponent since beating Alabama 9-0 in 2000.
MSU’s running back Jerious Norwood sustained a shoulder bruise in the Bulldog’s opening series and was held to 39 yards on 10 carries.
“On the second or third play of the game, I fell on it and I played through it,” Norwood said. “I wanted to keep playing but after a while the pain was just too great. I just have to get stronger for next week.”
The Bulldogs proved they could move the football against a caliber team like Auburn. Mississippi State was inside the Auburn 35-yard line four times in the first three quarters-three times in the first half-but penalties, sacks and turnovers shifted the Bulldogs into reverse and kept them from scoring any points.
“There isn’t any moral victories for me,” a devastated, red-eyed Sylvester Croom said shortly after the game. “There’s no such thing. You either win or you lose, and we got our butt beat today.”
MSU couldn’t sustain a drive long enough to score, and the Auburn defense bent but didn’t break, holding State to 81 rushing yards on 38 attempts and hurrying quarterback Omarr Conner on a consistent basis. State had one net rushing yard at halftime on 13 attempts but only trailed 14-0.
“Every time we got something going we had some kind of stupid penalty,” Croom said of his team’s multiple stalled drives. “We blew a great opportunity. When you go in there and play as bad as we played in the first half and you come off the field (at halftime) at 14-0, then you go out the second half offensively and you don’t do anything, that’s very disappointing.”
After allowing Auburn two early touchdowns in the first 20 minutes of the game, Mississippi State’s defense buckled down in the second half, holding the Tigers to 114 total yards in the final two quarters. But State’s west coast offense never materialized as it did versus Murray State. The protection wasn’t there and the running game didn’t formulate until it was too late.
“The feeling was more like we got them in the spot we wanted to get them,” defensive end Willie Evans said of the defense’s feeling going into halftime. “We were fired up (in the second half). We expected the offense to go out and get us a little lift.”
But that lift never came from State’s lackluster offense, which only gained 207 yards on the afternoon.
“I just tried to keep my poise,” said State quarterback Omarr Conner, who was at the controls of an offense that made progress and moved the ball but also created self-inflicted problems. “Sometimes in the game I lost my poise. The receivers are open. I just have to get them the ball.”
Conner completed 10 of 19 attempts for 116 yards but threw a costly interception after State had driven the ball into AU territory, one of the many blown opportunities in a game that was not out of reach for State.
On the opening drive of the second half, Mississippi State played smash-mouth football, as they amassed 50 yards on nine plays-seven of which were on the ground-down to the Tiger 31-yard line.
“I told them we were going to go straight at them,” Croom said, referring to the halftime talk he gave his team. “We ran the football in the second half, doing the things we want to do, and we just turn the football over.”
A play later, Conner, half-way tackled and falling forward, lobbed a wobbling spiral toward the middle of the field where it was intercepted by Auburn defensive back Eric Brock.
“I should have held it,” Conner said of the interception. “Instead of me just eating it, I threw it.”
After the Tigers’ first touchdown, Mississippi State’s Derek Pegues returned the kickoff 50 yards to the AU 38. Three plays later Conner hit Butler on a 24-yard strike, giving the Bulldogs a first down only 14 yards away from pay dirt. A series of unfortunate events ensued-events that basically summed up the afternoon.
A first-down false start penalty, a second-down eight-yard loss on a sack and then a grounding penalty crushed the Bulldogs’ chances of scoring. To accompany the agony, Keith Andrews’ 47-yard field goal attempt hit the cross bar.
“It feels like we really beat ourselves today,” MSU receiver Keon Humphries said afterward.
With the score still 14-0 and a quarter and a half to play, State receiver Tee Milons fumbled inside his own five-yard line. The ball popped out the opposite way, rolling into the end zone until the Tiger’s Will Herring jumped on it, creating an explosive roar from the Auburn student section and making the score 21-0.
The Tigers added another touchdown under three minutes to play after back up running back Brandon Thornton fumbled.
On their second drive of the game, AU took advantage of a busted secondary assignment by MSU to strike first. Quarterback Brandon Cox easily found tight end Cole Bennet all alone at the 10-yard line where he rumbled into the end zone for a 33-yard touchdown reception.
Cox, after throwing four interceptions last weekend in Auburn’s 23-14 home loss to Georgia Tech, completed 12 of 18 attempts for 202 yards and two touchdowns. Though on three occasions, Bulldog defenders had Cox’s pass in their hands, poised for an interception, but all three times they dropped the ball, again, ruined opportunities.
“Brandon (Cox) had an OK game. It wasn’t a real good mental game for us on offense,” Auburn head coach Tommy Tubberville said. “I was impressed with Mississippi State’s defense. They weren’t going to let us run the ball. They are much better than they were last year. Sylvester (Croom) is doing a fine job.”
The Tigers used a brutal rushing attack to march 69 yards for their second touchdown. Auburn rushed the ball nine times for 52 yards on the 13-play drive, which ended in a five-yard touchdown pass from Cox to senior receiver Devin Aromashodu.
Those were the only substantial drives the Tigers had.