Mississippi State offense again stifled in loss at Kentucky
Make it two weeks in a row that Mississippi State's Air Raid struggled to get off the ground.
One week after the Bulldogs put up only 14 points in a loss to Arkansas, MSU's only score came via a safety on Saturday as State fell 24-2 to Kentucky. It was one of the most unproductive nights in the career of Bulldogs head coach Mike Leach as his team was held without a touchdown for the first time in his 18-plus seasons as a head coach.
"I have a lot of ideas," Leach said as to why MSU couldn't get things going offensively. "The biggest one is the University of Kentucky. The second biggest one is that we didn't play together at all. You can really say all things. We've got to find a way to clean that up. Their three guys up front can beat our five. Our receivers did not consistently catch the ball. We were able to get open, but we didn't consistently catch the ball. We turned the ball over, which was the byproduct of the quarterback not being in the right place. Long story short, offensively we aren't coaching very well right now. I mean we have to coach better. If you look at this game, nearly every problem that we had was self-inflicted. With a lot of respect to Kentucky, one self-inflicted wound after the next. I've been to plenty of games where we never dropped any balls. I don't know how many balls we dropped, but I lost count. The turnovers - some were byproducts of dumb turnovers. Others were byproducts of somebody not being in the right place, or our guy not moving as fast as their guy or getting pressure. A number of them, the problem was throwing the ball. We've got to become a better offense."
The Bulldogs (1-2) mustered just 295 yards as a team. Even worse, Mississippi State repeatedly shot itself in the foot with six turnovers. Quarterback K.J. Costello accounted for four of those. He threw four picks, raising his season total to nine through just three games. Three of Costello's interceptions this season have been returned for opposing-team touchdowns. Kentucky (1-2) had one pick-six on Saturday night, and nearly had another as one interception was returned to the MSU two-yard line. The Wildcats then cashed in with a touchdown one play later. It was a disappointing night all around for Costello, even as he went 36-of-55 through the air for 232 yards.
"I think it is a series of overcorrections," Leach said of Costello's performance. "Early in the game, we were getting ready to march down the field and we would drop several balls. We would jump offsides. Because we are not even a team that has been penalized much this year, up until this game, I think he would get frustrated and try to do too much. And then as he tried to do too much, I think it blew up on him several times. He never really got into a rhythm. We didn't consistently protect him."
Costello's struggles eventually led Leach to give backup quarterback and true freshman Will Rogers his first-ever collegiate action in the game's second half. And while Rogers completed nine of his 15 passes for 43 yards, he, too, threw a couple of interceptions as well.
The turnovers essentially handed the Wildcats all the points they'd need. It was a good thing for Kentucky, too, because defensively, Mississippi State put up yet another impressive performance. MSU limited Kentucky to only 157 total offensive yards. Of those, 51 came on one long rush by Wildcats quarterback Terry Wilson. The Bulldogs did nearly all they could do on that side of the ball. However it was far from enough.
Ironically, it was that very defense that was stifling Kentucky on Saturday night that many thought would be Mississippi State's undoing as a team when this season began. Instead, the last two weeks, the defensive group has proven to be MSU's biggest strength. All the while, the Air Raid simply hasn't taken off.
"We've got a new system, some youth and inexperience," Leach said. "We've just got to stick together and coach our way through it."
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