Welcome to the New Identity of Mississippi State
Sep 26, 2015; Auburn, AL, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs receiver De
Running the ball down a team’s throat. Having multiple backs capable of running for over 1,000 yards in a season.
Don’t expect that this year. Mississippi State is well on pace for proving all the pundits wrong about where they will finish in the SEC. One thing they might not be wrong about is the Bulldogs ability to replace Josh Robinson.
The Bulldogs continued their woes in the running game in their 17-9 win over Auburn. The starting running back Ashton Shumpert ran the ball 5 times for 5 yards. At some point, Dan Mullen has to go in another direction. His backup, Brandon Holloway ran for 42 yards on 5 carries, and is averaging over 7 yards a carry. While Holloway is not a typical Mullen running back, the production is speaking for itself.
Lost in the frustration of the running game is just how good of a passing game the Bulldogs have developed. Dak Prescott threw the ball 41 times against Auburn and completed 29 of those passes. He has now completed 66.9% of his passes and thrown 7 touchdowns. More importantly, he has yet to throw an interception.
And there is more to this than simply Dak Prescott. The Bulldogs offensive line has taken a lot of heat, but they are doing a really good job in pass blocking. They certainly could do better run blocking, but Dak Prescott has had time to throw and find open receivers. The offensive line is very comfortable protecting Dak in the pocket.
The play of the receivers has been outstanding as well. The Bulldogs have multiple wepaons for Prescott to throw to in the passing game. The 29 passes Dak Prescott completed were to 8 different receivers.
And De’Runnya Wilson is proving to be an extremely difficult matchup as well. He hasn’t racked up a ton of yards, mainly due to what I just talked about, but whenever Dak Prescott needs to move the chains, he usually targets Wilson.
Mississippi State is a pass first team right now, and I don’t have a problem with this. Whatever it takes to move the ball, then let’s do that. Sure it is not the way Mississippi State has operated through the years, but to continue to try to establish a nonexistent running game is the definition of insanity.
This isn’t perfect, and I am willing to admit that a change in approach will present issues. The defense will be on the field more often because the offense can move the ball quicker down the field when they are on the field.
Another issue is the ability to score in the red zone. Finding space for the receivers to operate inside the 20 isn’t easy.
And last, milking the clock is also difficult. This was evident in the game against Auburn. Late in the game, the Bulldogs needed to run the ball to wind the clock down, and they simply couldn’t do it.
So is a pass first mentality perfect? No. Far from it. But it is how we move the ball best right now. Maybe a change at running back would help, but I’m not confident it will. What I am confident in is the guy throwing passes, and the guys catching those passes. Let’s air it out next week in College Station.
Next: Mississippi State Beats Auburn for 2nd Consecutive Year