Disaster in Starkville as Toledo bludgeons Mississippi State

Well, that was bad.

Mississippi State football just got demolished at home 41-17 to Toledo.

That's the Toledo Rockets of the MAC, a Group of 5 team. A good Group of 5 team, but a Group of 5 team nonetheless. And they whipped Mississippi State up and down the field on both sides of the ball in a dejected Davis Wade Stadium.

The Rockets led 28-3 at the half, more than doubling the Bulldogs in first half yardage. They quickly tacked-on another score after the break to go up 35-3 before coasting the rest of the way to one of the biggest wins in their program's history.

Mississippi State football was inferior to a MAC team

State couldn't block the Toledo defense. Their receivers couldn't get open. They couldn't tackle Toledo. They couldn't cover Toledo's receivers.

If you didn't know any better, you'd think Toledo was the SEC team while the Bulldogs were from the MAC. Heck, State almost looked like a middling FCS program tonight.

It was no fluke. There was no bad luck. There is no amount of blaming officials or injuries to explain it. Toledo was the vastly superior team to Mississippi State.

The Bulldog defense is an untalented as it has maybe ever been. Coleman Hutzler adjusted his scheme after last week's debacle in Tempe, but it didn't matter. They still couldn't get pass rush, they were only marginally better against the run, and they were terrible in pass coverage. And the tackling issues that Jeff Lebby declared to be the root of their defensive woes were still present. This is a defense filled with players who aren't SEC-caliber being led by a bad defensive coaching staff.

The offense was just as much of a disaster, and it starts with the offensive line. State still could not run the football. And that lack of a run threat made it really easy for Toledo to blanket the Bulldog WRs in the passing game. This made it impossible for Blake Shapen to quickly get rid of the football, and that's where their issues in pass protection were exploited. Shapen was sacked five times.

This was an all around embarrassment for the program.

It's hard to see things not getting worse for the Bulldogs

After going 1-2 through three non-conference games, it's impossible to see how things don't get worse for State going forward with SEC play set to begin. Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri, and Ole Miss all look like they're going to wax MSU.

Arkansas played poorly today against UAB, but given how well they can run the football, good luck stopping them. Florida is a mess of its own under Billy Napier, but why would I have any faith in State at this point? Heck, UMass played Toledo far more competitively than State did! We can't even mark that up as a win.

Maybe something changes. Maybe a switch is flipped. But based on what we've seen so far, we're in for an abysmal year watching Mississippi State football. They don't have talent, and they may not have coaching. It's about to get ugly.