Solving the Bulldogs’ 2nd Half & End of Half Problems

Oct 12, 2013; Starkville, MS, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Dan Mullen pleads his case to a referee about a call during the game against the Bowling Green Falcons at Davis Wade Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

Things have been very positive during the offseason for Mississippi State. There has been a lot of talk about how much of a dark horse candidate Dak Prescott is for the Heisman, the chance for Mississippi State to have one of its best seasons ever, and the 2015 recruiting class is shaping up to be the best one that Dan Mullen has signed in his time at the university. Lost in all of the optimism has been two nagging problems that never really went away: closing out the first half and scoring points in the 2nd half.

I’m not trying to be a Debbie Downer, but Mississippi State lost a number of games last year or made games closer than they should have been because they couldn’t do much offensively during the second half of games. They also had a bad habit of giving up touchdowns or failing to score when they needed to right before the half was over. So how bad was it?

Closing Out the First Half

This became one of the most frustrating parts of the season last year. Mississippi State seemed to make mistake after mistake right before the 1st half that inevitably cost them games. In their 6 losses last year, here is what happened right before half time:

• Against Oklahoma State, Mississippi State gave up a touchdown with 2:16 to play. The kickoff was returned to the OSU 34 and Mississippi State proceeded to lose 9 yards and go 3 and out.
• The best was against Auburn. The Bulldogs scored the last points of the half and held the Tigers out of the end zone for the rest of the game until they scored the game winner right before time expired.
• The worst might have been against LSU. With just over two minutes to play in the first half, Tyler Russel threw a pass to wide open Jameon Lewis on third down. I don’t remember if Tyler threw it behind Jameon or if Jameon dropped it, but it was incomplete and the Bulldogs had to punt. LSU then took the ball from their own 30 and drove the length of the field to go up 28-23 and would never trail again.
• Against South Carolina, the Bulldogs received a punt with 2:30 left to play and a chance to take the lead before half, and went three and out.
• On second thought, maybe Texas A&M was the worst. The Bulldogs scored a touchdown with fifty-four seconds left in the first half that cut the lead to 16-14. Johnny Manziel responded with a thirty-eight second touchdown drive to put the Aggies back up by 9 before half time.
• The Alabama game featured a comedy of errors before the half. The Bulldogs had a 5:30 drive that took the ball from their own 20 to the Alabama 7 and missed a field goal. Alabama would take over and throw an interception and give the ball to the Bulldogs at the Alabama 40. Mississippi State would then go no where and go three and out. Alabama received the ball at their own 22 with just under three minutes to play, and score a touchdown with twenty seconds on the clock and extend their lead to 10-0.

That list doesn’t include the Ole Miss game which we won. Right before half time, we were up 7-0. Mississippi State forced the Rebels to punt with under a minute to play and got the ball inside their own 10 with 26 ticks left on the clock and looked to avoid a disastrous first half ending. The Bulldogs went backwards five yards on some very conservative quarterback draws which led to a blocked punt that the Rebels recovered to knot the game up at 7. If that play doesn’t happen, maybe #Wallacing doesn’t become the defining image of the 2013 Egg Bowl.

Was it bad before half time? Oh yeah. That will have to get better in 2014.

2nd Half Woes

The only thing worse than the performance of the Bulldogs at the end of the first half was how they came out in the second half. This was what the Bulldogs did in every game after half time, win or lose.

• Against Oklahoma State, scored 0 points and was outscored 14-0
• Against Alcorn State, scored 14 points and outscored the Braves14-7
• Against Auburn, scored 7 points and outscored 10-7
• Against Troy, scored 17 points and outscored the Trojans 17-0
• Against LSU, scored 3 points and was outscored 31-3
• Against Bowling Green, scored 0 points and was outscored 7-0
• Against Kentucky, scored 7 points and was outscored 12-7
• Against South Carolina, scored 6points and was outscored 17-6
• Against Texas A&M, scored 27 points and was outscored 28-27
• Against Alabama, scored 7 points and was outscored 10-7
• Against Arkansas, scored 14 points and outscored the Razorbacks 14-7
• Against Ole Miss, scored 10 points and outscored the Rebels 10-3
• Against Rice, scored 17 points and outscored the Owls 17-0

All total, the Bulldogs averaged right under 10 points a game in the second half, which only accounted for about one third of their points. That number was really inflated by the Texas A&M, Troy, Rice, and Alcorn State games. We were outscored by seventeen points in the second half, but if you take out the Rice and Troy game, that number flies up to 51 points.

The team got better in the second half after the South Carolina game, so that is encouraging. They didn’t score a bunch of points, with the lone exception being the game against the Aggies. They did do a better job of not letting the game get away from them in the second half though. They also accomplished something else that is encouraging, and that was win their first and second games when trailing entering the fourth quarter since Dan Mullen took over at Mississippi State. They trailed 17-10 entering the fourth quarter against Arkansas and 10-7 against Ole Miss. So there is room to believe that these problems might be in the past. If State is going to have the dream year that we believe they are capable of, then they are going to have to continue that improvement in 2014.