Offensive woes return as Mississippi State falls to Auburn

Bulldogs drop to 2-7 overall this season

STARKVILLE, Miss. – Mississippi State was barking at the front door of a win in each of its last two games. Offensive strides were being made after the struggles of October and the first half of November. Then came Saturday night when after two steps forward at Georgia and Ole Miss, there was a giant step back against Auburn.

The Bulldogs dropped a 24-10 decision to the Tigers at Davis Wade Stadium. For the fifth time this season – but first time in the last three games – MSU failed to crack the 300-yard mark in total offense. State mustered only 240 yards, showing that for all the offensive strides of late, there are still plenty of kinks to work out.

"We've got to make the plays that are expected of us," State wide receiver Austin Williams said. "It's just some small plays that we have to make and consistently make and keep on moving down the field."

The Bulldogs struggled to advance the football and notch first downs all night long. State was just 4-of-16 on third-down conversion attempts. On a couple of those third downs, MSU quarterback Will Rogers threw interceptions. 

State's offense was particularly woeful in the first half. The Bulldogs managed only 78 offensive yards over the first two quarters of action.

Still, Mississippi State remained very much in the game throughout. That's because the Tiger offense didn't fare much better than MSU's as the Bulldogs again put forth a strong defensive effort.

Through three quarters, MSU actually out-gained Auburn 179-178. Entering the fourth period, State trailed just 9-3 with Tiger kicker Anders Carlson and MSU kicker Brandon Ruiz accounting for the game's only points. Carlson hit field goals in each of the first three quarters. Ruiz nailed one for the Bulldogs in the second quarter.

Finally though, the Tigers were able to break through consistently against the MSU defense in the fourth quarter. In fact, Auburn totaled close to half of their total yardage in this game in the fourth quarter alone (165 out of 343 yards).

Leading the charge for Auburn was running back Tank Bigsby. He rushed for 192 yards in the contest. Bigsby had four runs of 15 yards or more in the fourth quarter alone.

State entered this weekend fourth in the Southeastern Conference in rushing defense. Bigsby put a hurting on that.

"It's just a hat-tip to them," MSU linebacker Erroll Thompson said of Bigsby and Auburn finding success on the ground. "They did a lot of great things and schemed up a lot of great things."

And while Bigsby certainly hurt the Bulldogs, perhaps the most painful part of all for State was seeing the offense slip back into severe struggles.

MSU was sacked six times and tackled in the backfield for a loss eight times. The Bulldogs simply couldn't seem to find much rhythm. 

State did get a jolt in the fourth quarter on a 65-yard kickoff return by freshman Lideatrick Griffin that set up a 29-yard touchdown drive. At the time, it cut State's deficit to 16-10 with 8:24 to play. Auburn immediately answered though with a touchdown drive of its own to put the game away, leaving the Bulldogs to go back to the drawing board another week to try and get its offense clicking the way head coach Mike Leach offenses typically have throughout his long coaching career.

"There isn't (panic)," Leach said. "I've seen steady improvement. Improvement I've been quite proud of with these guys...We're haphazard at times and that sort of thing, but we've got a lot of youth out there. They keep improving and continue to get better."

The Bulldogs will get one last regular season chance to show that improvement next weekend. Mississippi State hosts Missouri at 2:30 p.m. on December 19.

Bulldog bits

  • Mississippi State defensive end Marquiss Spencer was injured and carted off the field in the fourth quarter. The senior was hurt making a tackle that was later deemed a targeting penalty following a review. Spencer was still on the field for several minutes, moving little if at all, before being removed. Leach said postgame things were positive regarding Spencer's status. Leach said Spencer was moving around at the hospital.
  • Mississippi State wide receiver Jaden Walley had multiple accomplishments on Saturday night. His 100 yards receiving made him the first freshman in MSU history to have three 100-yard-or-more receiving games in the same season. He also set the MSU freshman record for receiving yardage in a single season, breaking Mardye McDole's mark set in 1977. McDole had 510 yards as a freshman. Walley now has 562. Walley also became the first State receiver to crack the 500-yard mark for a season since both Fred Ross and Donald Gray did it back in 2016.
  • Mississippi State linebacker Erroll Thompson collected 12 tackles on Saturday to go over 300 for his Bulldog career. He is the first MSU player with 300 or more tackles since Mario Haggan, who played for the Bulldogs from 1999 through 2002. Thompson now has 303 career tackles.

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