Mississippi State football struggles in deflating loss to Alabama Crimson Tide

Zach Arnett and the Mississippi State football team were handed their third straight loss as they were crushed by the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Saturday evening’s game against the Alabama Crimson Tide was frustrating for Mississippi State football fans. The Bulldogs dropped to 2-3 on the season and are winless in SEC play while the Crimson Tide improved to 4-1 and 2-0.

Mississippi State’s offense couldn’t sustain any sort of momentum despite showing a few, brief bright spots here and there. And unfortunately for Miss. State football fans a multitude of mistakes ultimately doomed the Bulldogs once again.

Also unfortunately, the Bulldogs’ offense was remarkably inconsistent against a stout Alabama Crimson Tide defense. Quarterback Will Rogers had a particularly rough outing as he completed just 15 of his 27 pass attempts for 107 yards and one touchdown (which came off of a brilliantly timed screen pass in the red zone). But Rogers struggled and tossed three interceptions.

And on top of that, Rogers’ offensive line struggled to protect him as he ended up getting sacked four times and, despite using his feet to gain solid yardage on a couple occasions, MSU’s starting quarterback only had a half dozen net rushing yards.

Mississippi State football: Bulldogs humbled by blowout loss against Crimson Tide

To add to the offense’s woes, it appeared that Woody Marks was banged up in the Bulldogs’ game. He had multiple long runs and thrived while on the field, but it’s worth wondering if Marks is fully healthy and if he’s going to be MSU’s starter at running back next week against Western Michigan given how he came off the field and was walking gingerly on a couple occasions.

But it wasn’t just the offense that played poorly. MSU’s defense had no real solution for slowing Jalen Milroe or the Crimson Tide. While Alabama only gained 357 yards of offense, Milroe was able to extend plays, connect with his receivers, and gash MSU’s defense time and time again.

Key takeaways from MSU’s loss to Alabama

Those turnovers were costly.

At one point in the first half, the Bulldogs were trailing by seven points and seemed to have a brief bit of momentum as Mike Wright ran for a score to cut things to 17-10. Alabama responded to Wright’s touchdown with a quick score to set things at 24-10. And then an errant pass and a pick and a touchdown for the Crimson Tide resulted in MSU being down 31-10 heading into halftime.

Now, Mississippi State’s bowl hopes are in jeopardy.

The Bulldogs are 0-3 against SEC teams and 2-3 overall. And unfortunately, the schedule doesn’t get any easier any time soon. MSU desperately needs to get some noteworthy wins in October to get this season back on track.