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Keys to victory for Mississippi State football vs Arizona State

Here's what Mississippi State football must do to leave Tempe with a win over the Arizona State Sun Devils.

By Andrew Miller

Wyoming v Arizona State
Wyoming v Arizona State / Bruce Yeung/GettyImages
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Mississippi State football gets a big Week 2 test in the desert tonight with Arizona State. Here are three keys to victory for the Bulldogs...

Get the Sun Devil crowd out of the game early

After a dominant win over Wyoming, a raucous crowd is expected for Arizona State. This will be their biggest home game in at least three years. It will be a difficult environment to enter after a long road trip for a Bulldog team that's still gelling together. State's best bet for controlling this game is to get the ASU crowd out of it early. The Sun Devils want to play aggressive on defense, and that should mean State will have chances for explosive plays. If the Bulldogs can connect on a shot down field early and quickly put points on the board, that would set the tone and likely quiet the atmosphere.

Protect the football

Last week ASU got three turnovers against Wyoming, returning two of them for scores. As mentioned, they want to play aggressive on defense to force offenses into those mistakes. Against EKU, MSU put the ball on the ground three times. They were fortunate to recover all of those fumbles, but it's unlikely they'll be that lucky again. MSU has to protect the football in this one. They cannot give ASU extra chances and extra points because of their own mistakes.

Force ASU into passing situations

The Sun Devils want to build off their run game offensively. They've got a good stable of RBs, and with a young but mobile QB in Sam Leavitt, their philosophy will be to lean on the ground game to set up easy completions for Leavitt off play-action. For State, they need to limit that run game on early downs to force ASU into 3rd & Long and clear passing situations. Leavitt is talented, but like most young QBs, he's not yet shown he can pick apart a defense with the dropback passing game. State's defense allowed EKU to gain decent yardage on the ground on early downs last week. They can't do that against ASU. If ASU gets their ground game going, everything opens up for their offense.

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