5 takeaways from No. 1 Brandon's 21-7 win over No. 3 Madison Central

It was a long night for the Jaguar offense, but a big night for Tyson Robinson

Brandon tailback Tyson Robinson (7) celebrates after scoring a touchdown against Madison Central in a 21-7 win for the Bulldogs on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024 at Brandon, Miss. / Tyler Cleveland

The top-ranked Brandon Bulldogs shook off some rain and a slow offensive night to dispatch Madison Central 21-7 in their home opener Friday night.

Here are five big takeaways from Friday night's game.

1. The Bulldogs are for real

You learn a lot about a team when they are playing at their best, but you learn a lot more when they don’t play up to their full potential and still find a way to win.

That’s exactly what we saw from the top-ranked Bulldogs Friday night. The offense looked solid early, with a 10-play, 80-yard touchdown drive on their second possession of the game, but scored just one touchdown in the second half and none in the fourth quarter.

What saved their bacon Friday night — aside from a dominant defensive performance (more on that later) — was doing the little things right. They did not turn the ball over, avoided costly pre-snap penalties for most of the night and remained solid in the kicking game.

“We’re a young team that is getting better with each week,” Brandon coach Sam Williams said. “I can laugh about it now, but I won’t be laughing watching film of our fourth quarter offense, because it was bad. But I’m proud of the effort we played with tonight and glad to get the win.”

MORE: Mississippi high school football Top 25 scoreboard (Sept. 6 scores)

2. This Brandon defense is getting better

After struggling to stop the run against Picayune in the season opener, the Brandon defense did a real number on Madison Central in Week 2.

They held the Jaguars to one touchdown, which came at the start of the fourth quarter after the Bulldogs had already taken a 21-0 lead.

They did it by stacking the box and daring Madison Central to throw the football, and it felt like the Jaguars stayed in 3rd-and-long situations all night.

Junior Preston Ashley and sophomore Key McQueen are as good as any defensive back duo in the state.

3. Madison Central’s mistakes were costly

There were two huge momentum swings in the game, and both of them went against the Jaguars.

The first mistake came late in the second quarter, after the Jaguar offense had worked to kill the clock to go into the halftime break with a 7-0 deficit. The long-snapper snapped the ball about 10 yards over the punter’s head, which gave the Bulldogs the ball inside the Madison Central 10-yard line with less than a minute to go in the half.

Brandon’s Tyson Robinson punched in the second of his three touchdown runs two plays later, giving the Bulldogs a two-touchdown advantage.

The second came in the third quarter, when quarterback Jaiden Johnson, trying to make a play, threw into double coverage and ended up getting picked off by Trey McQueen on the tip drill.

Madison Central was driving near mid-field to tie the game, and one play later they were back on defense in their own territory.

“We did a lot of things that were uncharacteristic for our football team,” Collum’s said. “The botched punt and the turnover, that’s killer. You look at that scoreboard, there isn’t a whole lot of difference between the two teams, and those plays were huge.”

4. Tyson Robinson can flat out play

One obvious point of emphasis for Madison was to try to slow down Brandon’s potent running game, particularly sophomore sensation Tyson Robinson.

And they did that for much of Friday night. Robinson, who holds offers from half of the Top 25 teams in college football, didn’t bust any lengthy runs and had to fight tooth and nail for every yard.

But that’s exactly what the sophomore did, and he made the most of his chances, scoring all three of Brandon’s touchdowns.

“It feels good to beat them,” Robinson said. “Especially after they had beaten us the last couple of times and in the (2022) state championship game. That’s a real big rivalry we’ve got, and I’m glad we won. We’re 2-0, but really we’re 1-0. We want to go 1-0 every week.”

5. Back to the Big Blue drawing board

Despite the loss, Madison Central accomplished a lot of what they wanted to do in this game, particularly on defense.

Not only did the Jaguars slow down the potent Brandon running game, they did a nice job on the Bulldogs’ perimeter passing game that eats a lot of teams alive.

The offense for Madison was a completely different story. The Jags couldn’t get any kind of push against Brandon’s front four, and that led to a long night for tailbacks Glen Singleton and Mykel Hogue.

“We just couldn’t get anything going against them in the run game in the first half,” Madison Central coach Toby Collum’s said. “And that really limits what we can do, because we kind of rely on that. Hats off to Brandon. They had a great scheme and we got whipped up front.”