Starkville, Miss. • In a 35-10 victory, Mississippi State’s offense produced five touchdown drives of 70 yards or longer.
BYU’s offensive players can only wonder how that feels.
Considering the Cougars’ offensive struggles this season, nothing was unusual about a 176-yard effort against a Southeastern Conference opponent. The surprise was that BYU’s defense allowed those long scoring drives Saturday at Davis Wade Stadium.
Bulldogs on the march<br>Mississippi State’s touchdown drives vs. BYU:<br>First quarter – 10 plays, 89 yards.<br>Second quarter – Eight plays, 74 yards; 12 plays, 75 yards.<br>Third quarter – Seven plays, 75 yards.<br>Fourth quarter – 12 plays, 70 yards.
“We were just getting gashed,” said BYU coach Kalani Sitake, a longtime defensive coordinator, who didn’t enjoy watching Mississippi State shred his defense for 306 rushing yards.
Sitake believed the Cougars would match up better on the line of scrimmage, having played the Bulldogs to a 14-14 tie in regulation (and winning 28-21 in double overtime) last October. “That’s the biggest disappointment,” he said.
The Bulldogs acted more like an SEC team this time.
“BYU is a team we talked about being very physical on both lines of scrimmage,” said Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen, who coached Utah’s quarterbacks in 2003-04. “We were able to control the line of scrimmage on offense and wear them down.”
If not for two interceptions by Dayan Ghanwoloku in BYU territory, the Cougars may given up more than 35 points. BYU’s defense forced three-and-out sequences three times, but once the Bulldogs got going, they usually didn’t stop short of the end zone.
The decisive stretch of the game came on three consecutive Mississippi State possessions in the second and third quarters. After an exchange of turnovers, the Bulldogs started a drive at their 26-yard line and took control. Mississippi State went 74 and 75 yards for touchdowns before halftime, then opened the second half with a 75-yard TD march.
The second and third scores in that span kept Sitake from concluding the BYU offense’s issues contributed significantly to the defense’s problems. The Cougars had sustained a drive long enough to kick a field goal, before the defense allowed the long march just before halftime that gave MSU a 21-3 lead.
After the halftime break, the Bulldogs delivered another scoring drive. The Bulldogs registered 35 first downs, while going 8 of 13 in third-down conversions.
BYU’s defense will have to “find creative ways to get out of drives,” Sitake said, “because it’s not working.”
Ghanwoloku blamed the Cougar defenders’ habit of “thinking too much, trying to do other people’s jobs” for breakdowns that enabled MSU to keep the ball.
Unlike the Cougars’ inefficiency with running back Austin Kafentzis taking direct snaps, MSU thrived with Nick Fitzgerald as a running quarterback. “When you know what’s coming and you can’t stop it, that’s pretty discouraging,” Sitake said.