Arkansas at Mississippi State: Thoughts at the half

A quick look at the first two quarters between the Bulldogs and Razorbacks

Mississippi State and Arkansas just headed to halftime with the score 14-7 in favor of the Razorbacks. Here are a few quick thoughts and notes from the first two quarters as, a week after pulling off an upset, MSU is now looking to avoid one.

Will Rogers is still nowhere to be seen. For the second straight week, it appears Mississippi State's QB-2 is unavailable. In warm-ups, the only two Bulldog signal callers to get loose were starter K.J. Costello as well as Jalen Mayden. So again it looks like, if needed, Mayden is the backup. For the record, no official reasoning has been given for Rogers' absence the last two weeks. It's unlikely an official reasoning will be given. Make of that what you will.

LaQuinston Sharp started at left guard. He was in there in place of last week's starter Greg Eiland. Not sure if it's injury related or performance related, but it bears noting Mississippi State switched things up. Eiland did warm up though (with the second team) and appears good to go if needed.

Kylin Hill is mad (and maybe hurt). State's star running back took a big hit on MSU's first offensive series and left the game. He hasn't returned. It's unclear what exactly was being checked out, but given the lick Hill took, it's possible it could've been head-injury related. When heading to the injury tent, it appeared Hill didn't want to go in, but eventually did after slamming a bottle down in anger. Hill later stood or sat by himself on the sideline for much of the rest of the first quarter. Eventually, he went to the locker room and hasn't been back to the sideline. We'll see whether or not he's able to return to action in the second half.

Hill's absence opened some opportunities for youngsters. Dillon Johnson in particular came up big for State a couple times. The true freshman running back got carries on 4th-and-short two different times to help MSU pick up big first downs on the way to State's first touchdown. In all, Johnson rushed four times for 21 yards in the first half (5.3 yards per carry). Fellow true freshman back Jo'Quavious Marks rushed five times for 19 yards himself. Marks also had five catches for 22 yards. Johnson caught four balls for 14 yards receiving.

Overall though, the MSU offense is finding the going pretty tough. The Air Raid isn't flying at quite the level it was a week ago. After averaging 8.3 yards per play last week at LSU, the Bulldogs averaged only 4.6 yards per play in the first half against the Razorbacks. Arkansas, for the most part, seems to have chosen to send minimal pass rush while dropping seven or eight into coverage and it's working to slow down the Dogs. 

The Arkansas scheme has also hurt K.J. Costello again as the turnover bug has bitten him again. There's no better way to set the stage for an upset than to have critical turnovers and Costello has had a couple. For the second straight game, he's allowed an opponent to score their first touchdown via a pick-six. He later threw another interception as the Bulldogs tried to drive and tie the game late in the second quarter. That's now six turnovers in six quarters for Costello as a Bulldog (four picks and two fumbles lost).

On the other side of the ball, there has been good and bad for the MSU defense. First the good – the group only allowed seven points (remember the other seven came on the Arkansas interception return). However the Bulldogs did allow one Arkansas touchdown on an ugly mistake that left Hogs wide receiver DeVion Warren wide open and they nearly allowed another on the Arkansas drive before that as the Razorbacks drove nearly the entire length of the field before State's defense stopped them, in large part due to a huge third-down tackle and fourth-down fumble recovery by safety Londyn Craft. The other three Arkansas drives though (not counting the end-of-half kneel) were all four or less plays for 11 or less yards. Overall, a totally acceptable performance. So.....

The bottom line is the offense has to get going for State to avoid the upset. Specifically, MSU needs big plays. The Bulldogs won at LSU in large part because they had 15 pass plays of 20 yards or more, including eight in the first half. MSU only had three such plays in the first half against Arkansas. Odds are, if the Bulldogs can turn things around in this one, it'll take a few more of those chunk plays. Can State adjust to the Arkansas coverage to get them? Guess we'll soon find out.

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