Mississippi State football: Beating Auburn would help redeem Joe Moorhead
By Ethan Lee
After two horrible losses, a notable win would help some Mississippi State football fans place their faith back in Joe Moorhead
There’s no guarantee that the Mississippi State football team will win this weekend. If anything, given how the Bulldogs have played the past two weeks and the lack of adjustments from Joe Moorhead and his coaching staff between losses, there’s something to indicate that the Bulldogs will probably lose this weekend.
The No. 8 Auburn Tigers are arriving in Starkville and that’s not exactly a great thing right now for MSU. In the past two weeks, the Bulldogs’ offense has been rather offensive to watch. The Mississippi State football team has been inept when it comes to scoring and the Bulldogs have lost to Florida and Kentucky because of it.
This past Saturday’s game against the Florida Gators was a must win for the Mississippi State football team. The Bulldogs clearly lost. And that means that even more fans have lost their faith in Moorhead, his coaching staff, his offense, and ultimately the direction that this program is currently going in.
While many first year head coaches are struggling, few inherited a program ready to win right now. Moorhead, as a first year head coach, brought back a team that won 9 games a season ago that is loaded with experience and talent. Yet, the Bulldogs currently sit at 3-2.
The schedule is only going to get rougher. Now, one of the best defenses in the country gets to take a crack at Moorhead’s struggling offense.
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For Moorhead to start winning back fans, the Mississippi State football team will need to win games that they aren’t supposed to. The Bulldogs have certainly lost two games in a row that they weren’t supposed to. Moorhead needs to do something to regain the trust that fans once placed in him.
No. 8 Auburn presents a unique opportunity for that.
The Tigers, as of late, haven’t been playing all that well themselves. It should be noted that they’re still playing better than the Mississippi State Bulldogs, but they haven’t been anywhere near as explosive on offense as they should be this season. Unfortunately, that’s something that State fans can certainly empathize with. State’s defense should be able to keep the Tigers from scoring at will in this game.
The Tigers’ offense is only averaging 376.2 yards per game. MSU has one of the best defensive lines in the country. If the Bulldogs can get after Jarrett Stidham and keep Auburn’s offense off the field, then State might just have a chance to keep this game close.
The trick is finding opportunities for the Mississippi State football team to score. Those opportunities haven’t been all that abundant as of late.
For this season to be salvaged and for Moorhead’s name to be redeemed some, the offense absolutely has to come alive against the Auburn Tigers. There’s no guarantee that it will. However, MSU needs Moorhead to find a way to get this offense to score. And Moorhead certainly needs to get back in the good graces of Mississippi State football fans.
Next. MSU should consider making a quarterback change. dark
The Bulldogs need wins. Moorhead needs to make sure that this fanbase is behind him again. The game against Auburn doesn’t look like it will go MSU’s way. Moorhead needs to do something to make sure that it does.
All stats via sports-reference.com