Six Takeaways: Mississippi State’s missed chances and mounting concerns

Letting Saturday’s game between Mississippi State and Missouri fester and ferment overnight wasn’t a good idea.

The more and more thought put into why the Bulldogs lost 49-27, the worse it gets.

It was a bad game for Mississippi State and the wheels haven’t totally fallen off, but the lug nuts fell off and the air pressure is starting to get low.

So, let’s get into it. Here are my six not-so random thoughts for this week.

Random Thought #1

Nothing we saw in the game was very surprising.

Ahmad Hardy running for 300 yards? A little bit excessive, but Missouri already had a top 10 rushing offense.

The Tigers getting five sacks? That was more expectations meeting reality than it was surprising.

A quarterback being Mississippi State’s leading rusher? Maybe it’s surprising that it was Blake Shapen and not Kamario Taylor.

Drive-killing penalties? Of course that was going to happen.

The fact that none of this was shocking to watch as it happened is a problem because Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby was specifically asked about them last Monday and, well, not much changed.

Random Thought #2

I’m not a football genius and I’ve never seen Mississippi State’s playbook. So, I don’t know if every run play has a passing option or quarterback-keeper option. I don’t know what players are the reads for the options because there’s not a yellow “R” above the defender (like in EA College Football 26).

So, I’ll say the following delicately. Whatever plays were being called during the stretch of time in the second quarter that resulted in seven consecutive quarterback runs were a mistake.

Missouri had just gifted the Bulldogs with a first-and-goal from the four-yard line after two personal foul calls including a targeting penalty that saw a second defender ejected from the game. Trailing 14-10, this was a golden opportunity to take the lead.

A touchdown makes it 17-14 and puts some pressure on Missouri’s true freshman quarterback. Instead, here’s what happened:

Shapen loses a yard on first down;
Taylor enters the game, gains two yards;
Taylor loses two yards;
Missouri is called for facemask penalty, new set of downs at the two-yard line;
Taylor loses two yards;
Mississippi State is called for delay of game;
Taylor leaves, Shapen enters and loses two yards; and
Shapen throws an incomplete pass.

What happened next is inconsequential to this. But at some point, you have to try something different. It wasn’t until the second third-and-goal that the Bulldogs tried something that wasn’t a quarterback run.

Not all of those QB runs were designed runs. Some were based on what the Tigers’ defense was doing, which seemed to be to force the quarterback to keep the ball.

It’s hard to say this is when the Bulldogs lost the game because even if they score a touchdown, the defense had shown no ability to stop Missouri’s offense.

But if Lebby has lost the fan base, and reading some of the message boards that may have happened, then this is when they left.

Random Thought #3

Not to beat a dead horse, but I just don’t get it. I understand the thinking and if it had worked none of us would say a word about it. But it wasn’t working and the Bulldogs kept doing it.

Here’s what Lebby said after the game about having so many quarterback runs:

“I felt like it gave us some answers the way their defense is structured and they play with a heavy box. So having the ability to play 11-on-11 was something that was necessary. Depending on what the C-gap did, that was going to dictate whether we were handing the ball or pulling the ball. That way we had the ability to have hats in the run game.”

Again, I understand that thinking. But is it possible Missouri told its C-gap defender to react in a way that the quarterback keeps the ball?

Random Thought #4

The cherry on top of this terrible sundae for Mississippi State is what happened when Kyle Ferrie lined up to kick a 42-yard field goal.

The snap was low, bounced off the knee of the holder, Missouri picked the ball and ran it all the way to the Bulldogs’ 21-yard line

At this point, Missouri had all the momentum and the writing on the wall was clear.

Random Thought #5

The Bulldogs’ touchdown drive at the end of the first quarter had some fun moments.

Having both Shapen and Taylor in the backfield at the same time was a new look and it provided a spark to a struggling offense.

The play where Taylor took the snap, handed it off to Shapen who threw to Brenen Thompson for a big gain was fun.

You have to wonder what other creative plays Lebby has drawn up with both Shapen and Taylor on the field…and also wonder why wait until now to pull those plays out.

Random Thought #6

We’re already past 800 words, so we’ll end this with just six random thoughts because I don't want to get into talk about changes that need to be made in the offseason. So we'll conclude this last thought with the Egg Bowl in two weeks.

It could be an epic Black Friday morning in Starkville. No. 7 Ole Miss will be playing a spot in the College Football Playoff and the Bulldogs will be playing for bowl eligibility.

And at least one of the two head coaches has been known to provide some bulletin board material. Emotions will be running high.

But if you’re looking for an early prediction, I’ll just point out that Ole Miss running back Kewan Lacy just ran for 224 yards, three touchdowns and averaged 7.2 yards per carry against Florida.

He also leads the SEC in rushing touchdowns (19) and is second in rushing yards (1,136).