Mississippi State’s Offensive Fight Shines: What Went Right Against Arizona State

There wasn’t many things the Bulldogs were doing right until the second half and nearly pulled off the biggest comeback in school history

Mississippi State Bulldogs wide receiver Jordan Mosley celebrates a catch against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Mountain America Stadium. / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

TEMPE, Ariz. – After Mississippi State’s season-opening win against Eastern Kentucky, coach Jeff Lebby talked about the lessons his team can learn through winning.

It was a dominant win, but Lebby knew it wasn’t a perfect game and there were things the Bulldogs could’ve done better. He won’t have any issues finding things from Mississippi State’s 30-23 loss to Arizona State, though.

The final score doesn’t accurately represent how much of a dominant win it was for the Sun Devils, but there were some things that did go right for Mississippi State.

The things that went wrong were covered here. The following highlights the things that went right.

Mississippi State’s Offense: What went right?

The comeback. It would’ve been easy for Blake Shapen and the rest of the offense to roll over and accept the fact Arizona State was the better team. They had every reason to give up looking at a 27-point deficit midway through the third quarter. They couldn’t run the ball, players were scrambling to line up properly and Shapen rarely had a clean pocket to stand in. But the Bulldogs didn’t quit. They scored 20 points in the final 17 minutes to make things a lot more interesting than it should have.

Kevin Coleman makes a man miss and takes it to the house!#SHOWTIME | #HailState pic.twitter.com/do4Om7Nirs

— Mississippi State Football (@HailStateFB) September 8, 2024

Mississippi State’s Defense: What Went Right?

Nothing. Mississippi State’s defense did manage to get a few stops and held the Sun Devils to just three points in the second half. But it’s hard to make that a “what went right” for the defense after giving up 346 rushing yards, including 262 to one player, and failing to stop Arizona State on the final drive of the game.

Mississippi State’s Special Teams: What Went Right?

No bad snaps. There weren’t many major mistakes last week, but one of them was a bad snap on a field goal attempt. It doesn’t appear the snap caused Kyle Ferrie to miss a PAT. Whatever caused that bad snap against EKU appears to be fixed now. (Honorable mention to Mississippi State’s punt block unit that nearly blocked a fourth quarter punt that would’ve changed the entire game.)

Read More:

Mississippi State Showed Fight in Loss to Arizona State

Mississippi State Crumbles in the Trenches: What Went Wrong Against Arizona State?

Mississippi State Loses to Arizona State: Bulldogs Can't Overcome Bad First Half