2015 Mississippi State Football Rewind: Texas A&M

Oct 3, 2015; College Station, TX, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs wide receiver Fred Ross (8) runs the ball against the defense of Texas A&M Aggies defensive back Armani Watts (right) during the second half at Kyle Field. Texas A&M won 30-17. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports

Now that the season is over, we take a look back at each game and how it played out.

The Setup

Texas A&M was undefeated and the Bulldogs had just the one loss. Both teams were ranked, but both teams were trying to figure out just how good they both were. There was a lot to prove.

Mississippi State wanted to prove what everyone was saying about them in the preseason simply wasn’t true. This team felt like they were better than what most everyone had written about them, but despite having only one loss due to a missed 51 yard field goal, the Bulldogs were still struggling to find respect across the country.

Texas A&M wanted to proved they weren’t the same team as last season. There were a lot of similarities between the 2014 Aggies and the 2015 Aggies. Both teams beat a highly ranked team to start the season that soon started to show the team the Aggies beat wasn’t quite as good as we originally thought. Both Aggies teams then beat up some cupcakes. And finally, both Aggies teams showed some serious cracks against Arkansas.

Key Stats and Final Score

• Mississippi State Yards
  • Passing: 210
  • Rushing: 196
• Texas A&M Yards
  • Passing: 322
  • Rushing: 194
• Mississippi State Stand Out Performances
  • Dak Prescott: 20/34, 210 Passing Yards, 18 Rushes, 96 Yards, 1 Touchdown
  • Fred Ross: 11 Receptions, 103 yards
• Texas A&M Stand Out Performances
  • Kyle Allen: 25/41, 322 Passing Yards, 2 Touchdowns
  • Tra Carson: 26 carries, 110 Yards, 1 Touchdown
• Final Score: Texas A&M 30, Mississippi State 17

What we thought at the time

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MALIK DEAR IS OUR SAVIOR!!

Okay, that might be exaggerating just a little bit, but it isn’t by much. Malik Dear had one carry that he took to the house, and everyone on Twitter began to formulate an offense based solely on his running ability. Meanwhile, we were all forgetting Malik Dear is actually a slot receiver.

Mississippi State got off to a disastrous start. The Aggies scored a touchdown on theri opening drive on a 4th and goal play. The Bulldogs had a chance to answer, but Dak Prescott misfired on a wide open receiver and had to settle for a field goal. The Aggies scored again on their next drive and it was already 14-3. The Aggies and Bulldogs would trade a few scores and the Bulldogs found themselves down 24-10. Things looked bad.

Mississippi State then shot itself in the foot on the first two possessions of the second half. On the opening drive, Dak Prescott found De’Runnya Wilson for 36 yards, but Wilson would fumble the ball and allow the Aggies to kick a field goal. On the very next possession, Mississippi State would put together a beautiful drive, but it ended with an Aeris Williams fumble at the Aggies 11. The Aggies tacked on another field goal and the Bulldogs added another touchdown.

There were two issues in this game. The first was the offensive line could not block the elite pass rush of Myles Garrett and Daeshon Hall. Thye only had two sacks, but they were harassing Prescott into bad throws throughout the night. The offensive line which cause so many problems against LSU reared it ugly head again.

The other issue was the fumbles. When you can’t find consistency on offense, you can’t afford to turn the ball over. The Bulldogs did it twice and gave up great scoring chances in the process.

What we should have thought now the season is over

I commented at one point during this game that Kyle Allen was Joe Montana in the first half and Ryan Leaf in the second. Kyle Allen’s game fell apart, and most people think it started in the Alabama game that followed, but it actually started in the second half against the Bulldogs. Allen completed 19-25 pass attempts in the first half, but only 6-16 in the second half.

Manny Diaz figured something out in this game at half time. It carried over from this game into Allen’s game against Alabama and went nuclear against Ole Miss. This added to the frustration with this game, and was a microcosm of the year as a whole.

Mississippi State took too long to figure other teams out. They often had opponents jump out to leads and didn’t always recover. It hurt them big time in this game.

We also should have known after this game the offensive line wasn’t going to be able to block a good pass rush. It wasn’t as obvious because Prescott was only sacked twice, but there were lots of clues that shoulf have been a warning sign when we played Alabama and Ole Miss.