Saturday afternoon, the Mississippi State football team handled Western Michigan. Now we’ve got some questions.
The Mississippi State football team got a 41-28 win Saturday, which looks fine until you consider that Western Michigan actually provided a concerning challenge for Zach Arnett’s Mississippi State Bulldogs.
And so, now we’ve got some questions for the Bulldogs and where they stand right now.
Can Kevin Barbay’s offense sustain this production in SEC play?
While it was far from perfect, the Mississippi State Bulldogs’ offense was able to generate yards and put up points and Miss. State got a 41-28 win over Western Michigan. The Bulldogs need to be more consistent on offense, but they have shown the ability to put up points.
The only problem is they put up points against a MAC team on Saturday. Oh! And it looked like some notable contributors (including quarterback Will Rogers) got dinged up against the Broncos. That’s not great for MSU!
Seth Davis was solid as Woody Marks seemed pretty far from being at 100 percent and the running game generated some solid yards.
But will we see MSU actually replicate this sort of offense in SEC games? When facing the LSU Tigers and Alabama Crimson Tide, MSU’s offense sputtered. The offensive line rarely gave Rogers enough time and the running game wasn’t central enough to offset that.
So what will future SEC games look like for this offense?
Can Matt Brock and Zach Arnett salvage this mess of a defense vs. SEC offenses?
Mississippi State’s defense definitely had issues against Western Michigan’s passing attack and the Broncos aren’t even particularly great at throwing the ball.
That doesn’t bode well as the Bulldogs will be facing off against the Arkansas Razorbacks (on the road), Auburn Tigers (on the road), Kentucky Wildcats (in Starkville), and Texas A&M Aggies (again, on the road) following the Bulldogs’ bye week this weekend.
Western Michigan’s third string quarterback, Hayden Wolff, threw for 262 yards and three touchdowns against MSU as Kenneth Womack caught 12 passes for 113 yards.
They’re not even a great passing team and MSU had problems!
How will the Mississippi State football team handle its next stretch of SEC games?
Mississippi State is 3-3 overall, but the Bulldogs are sitting at 0-3 against SEC teams. Now, to be fair, two of those three SEC games were against Alabama and LSU. But, well, neither the Crimson Tide or the Tigers appear to be as great or dominant as they have been in years past (at least not right now, that is).
Mississippi State got some much needed momentum with a win over Western Michigan. Regardless of how you feel about this win, it’s still a win that this team had to get.
Now Zach Arnett and the Bulldogs need to find a way to carry that momentum over as MSU gets set to face Arkansas, Auburn, Kentucky, and Texas A&M with three of those four games happening away from Davis Wade Stadium.
This bye week is big for MSU.