It’s Auburn Week, so we have to Revisit 2008
Oct 4, 2014; Starkville, MS, USA; A general view of Davis Wade Stadium during the game between the the Texas A&M Aggies and the Mississippi State Bulldogs. The Bulldogs defeated the Aggies 48-31. Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports
There are a lot of memorable games in the Mississippi State and Auburn series. Auburn is a good team that might be on the cusp of equaling their bitter rival on the field under Gus Malzahn. Mississippi State seems to have found another gear in their sixth season under Dan Mullen. The two will battle for a leg up in the SEC West this weekend as the number 2 and number 3 teams in the country. Unfortunately, one of the most memorable games in the series also involved the numbers 2 and 3. It’s the notorious 2008 game.
I don’t really want to relive that game, but it is still mentioned whenever two teams get off to awful starts and put on anemic performances in any SEC game. It was referenced during the Florida-Tennessee game this past weekend. It was bad. It was frustrating. I pray that it never happens again.
How bad was it? There were 431 yards of offense… combined. Auburn moved the ball a little bit throughout the game, and I do mean little. Auburn had 316 yards of offense. Auburn quarterback Chris Todd threw for just 154 yards and had a QBR rating of 12.1. The rushing game wasn’t much better. The Tigers ran the ball 45 times for just 161 yards. A decent number of yards, but they only averaged 3.6 yards per carry. The problem was they pretty much shot themselves in the foot repeatedly. They committed 12 penalties and had three turnovers. Auburn only converted 3 times on third down in 16 attempts. Despite this ineptitude by the Auburn Tigers, the Bulldogs did shockingly less than the Tigers did.
Mississippi State had 116 yards of TOTAL offense. Wes Carroll threw for a measly 78 yards and had an abysmal QBR of 5.5. The ground game was even worse. We ran the ball 30 times for just 38 yards. We didn’t convert a single 3rd down conversion the entire game in 14 attempts. Despite the lack of an offense, the Bulldogs could have won the game if they simply could have made a field goal. And they actually had an opportunity thanks to Auburn turnovers. But just like everything else in this game, the Bulldogs couldn’t convert.
Perhaps the most Croom thing ever happened in this game. The Tigers were up 3-0 thanks to a first half field goal. The Bulldogs were showing no threat to score. However, after the Tigers were pinned deep in their own territory, an Auburn offensive lineman would commit a holding penalty to give Mississippi State a safety and their lone 2 points of the game.
Do you know how bad it feels to know your team is only down 3 points at one time and then 1 point another, and you still know your team is going to lose? That’s what that night was like. It also cemented that the Louisiana Tech loss in the first game of the year wasn’t a fluke. We were just bad.
The 2008 season was terrible for both teams. State finished 4-8, and after getting trounced by Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl, Sylvester Croom would be replaced. Tommy Tuberville only won five games that year, and he would be replaced in favor of Gene Chizik. Both fan bases saw the game as writing on the wall of what was to come the rest of the season.
If you were lucky enough to have something else to do that night, an important dinner, visiting a loved one, or even in a coma, then consider yourself blessed. The pain is still hard to deal with. No matter how good or bad the game between the 2nd and 3rd ranked teams is this Saturday, it will never be as bad as that fateful September night.