10 random thoughts after Mississippi State's 41-21 loss to No. 5 Georgia

Saturday was not a good day for Mississippi State's football team.

In addition to a 41-21 loss to No. 5 Georgia, the Bulldogs have a whirlwind of questions about its quarterback situation, it's offensive line, defense and hopes of becoming bowl-eligible.

All of these thoughts, plus a few more floated through this writer's head and now we share them with you.

Random Thought #1

The biggest question everyone will be asking is will Kamario Taylor start next week against Missouri? Afterall, the freshman quarterback did score all three touchdowns for Mississippi State.

Don’t expect to know that answer before kickoff next Saturday.

Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby usually has the same responses to possible injuries after the game (he doesn’t know, which is fair because press conferences usually happen within 20-30 minutes after the game ends) and on Monday’s usually says the Student-Athlete Availability Report will “do the talking.”

There have been exceptions, like when he announced Blake Steen and Will Whitson had suffered season-ending injuries on the Monday after the Arizona State game.

So, unless Blake Shapen suffered a serious injury when he got hit from behind when the left tackle whiffed on a pass block, Lebby is likely to let the availability reports guide us.

It’d be a smart play because preparing for a Shapen-led offense is going to be different than preparing for Taylor-led offense.

Random Thought #2

That being said, there are some concerns with this type of gamesmanship

Anyone who has watched a sporting game has seen an advertisement of some kind for sports gambling and most have also seen the consequences to manipulating sports gambling.

It hasn’t impacted college football, yet, and the best approach for teams is the Julius Caesar-style approach.

When asked by a Roman court why he divorced his first wife without actual evidence of adultery by his wife, Caesar answered, “Caesar’s wife must be above suspension.”

(P.S. That’s actually a fascinating story involving a super-religious, female-only ceremony and a cross-dressing male who said he was there to meet with Caesar’s wife and then obtained some significant power later that proved helpful to Caesar.)

How that applies to Mississippi State is that if it knows Shapen has a season-ending injury or an injury that’ll keep him out of Saturday’s game against Missouri, it’s best to announce that sooner rather than later.

Random Thought #3

The 72 rushing yards Texas gained has been proven to be a fluke. The Bulldogs can’t stop the run.

Georgia, who had averaged 184 rushing yards per game before Saturday, ran for 303 yards and averaged 6.9 yards per carry. Nate Frazier had 181 yards on just 12 carries and a touchdown.

Seeing that, Missouri running back Ahmad Hardy should be licking his chops at the chance to go against Mississippi State.

Random Thought #4

Mississippi State panicked on Georgia’s last drive of the second half.

When Georgia did the 11-man substation swap, Mississippi State did the right thing by calling a timeout and regrouping.

No way Georgia does it again, right?

Yes way and what happened didn’t need to.

When an offense makes a substitution, the defense is given a chance to make a substitution, too. And I’ve never seen or heard of a defense being penalized or being out-of-position because it’s substitution was too slow.

Mississippi State could’ve taken its time making substitutions, which would’ve given it time to call out a new play or adjust assignments.

Instead, Jaray Bledsoe falls victim to a hard count on fourth down and Georgia scores a touchdown to go up 24-7.

Random Thought #5

Georgia’s defensive gameplan was fairly obvious: don’t get beat deep and let Mississippi State try to run the ball.

It worked. Other than Brenen Thompson’s 57-yard reception in the second half (when the winner was already determined) there wasn’t any long throws. In fact, there were no receiving touchdowns. The only scores were Taylor’s three rushing touchdowns.

Random Thought #6

I don’t know what Jahron Manning could’ve done differently to avoid that targeting penalty. Let him complete the catch?

Random Thought #7

Mississippi State had only five penalties for 35 yards in the loss, which was less than Georgia’s six for 50 yards.

The difference is a) the timing of the penalties and b) one team was able to take advantage of the penalties and the other wasn’t.

Random Thought #8

The current state of the Mississippi State offensive line wouldn’t be as concerning, in a big picture sense, if there hadn’t been a big push after spring practices to get bigger and better on the offensive line.

It just gave Georgia nearly half of its season’s sack total, six TFLs and possibly ended Shapen’s collegiate career with a blindside hit defenders dream of making.

It’s only slightly better than last year and all factors considered (there was a transfer portal window before spring practices), it’s a very troubling issue.

Random Thought #9

Big picture thought: Lebby is a very good coach.

Go rewatch Mississippi State’s first drive. That drive was a thing of beauty and had only two negative plays (a sack and tackle for a loss), which is great for Mississippi State.

Most football fans know an offense usually has a set number of plays scripted to start a game. Lebby had the perfect opening script to score a touchdown.

Serious thought should be given to what he can do with an offensive line that can keep the SEC team with least amount of sacks from generating a lot of pressure.

Random Thought #10

Writing this thought last because I’ve convinced myself fully that Taylor needs to be the starting quarterback next week.

Taylor was responsible for all the points (except PATs) Mississippi State scored against a team that’ll likely be in the College Football Playoff. Was he perfect? No, far from it. That incomplete pass to Anthony Evans III was a definite eyebrow-raiser.

But at this point, Mississippi State has just two chances to reach bowl eligibility and if Ole Miss doesn’t lose to Florida before the Egg Bowl, the Rebels will be coming to Starkville knowing a win gets them into the CFP.

Also, there was even a sign in the stands saying Taylor should start and the fanbase clearly wants to see Taylor start.

Just go ahead and announce it Monday.