Takeaways after Mississippi State football made Florida look unstoppable

A bad start to Jeff Lebby's debut season continued today. Mississippi State football lost 45-28 in Starkville to the Florida Gators, falling to 1-3 on the year and 0-1 in the SEC. It was another frustrating game to watch. Here's some takeaways from the performance...

There is no hope for the Mississippi State defense

There's an old saying that "if you have two quarterbacks, you don't have one." And previously, that was true when it came to the Gators. Well today State's defense made Florida look like they had two legitimate quarterbacks. Graham Mertz went 19-21 for 201 yards and four total TDs. DJ Lagway was 7-7 for 76 yards. Both ran effectively too. The Gators totaled 503 yards. They went 6-9 on 3rd down. It was another horrific defensive display, only made worse when State's only good defensive player, Isaac Smith, went down with injury. There is no reason for optimism. This is an awful defense, and that's not changing this season.

Maybe, just maybe, the Bulldogs found something on offense

Most expected bad defense from MSU. On the flip side, most expected good offense. Well the last two weeks, there's been a lot of bad offense too. And State definitely still saw some of that today. Otherwise they wouldn't have gotten down 28-7. But they did show some signs of life offensively. State had 480 yards and went 11-20 on 3rd down. The Bulldogs finally got their run game going with a season-best 240 yards, and that kept them moving the chains. It still wasn't great, and Florida's defense is obviously bad. But perhaps they can build off this.

State fans need to beginning mentally preparing themselves for what's in store in the coming weeks

Last week after State's disastrous showing against Toledo, I said that it was hard to not see things continue to get worse for the Bulldogs. Today's performance further solidified that. If a Florida team that's been terrible on both side of the ball all year led by a lame duck coach can come on the road and run past you with ease, you're simply an awful team. We already had that figured out, but this is another data point. And strap-in State fans, it's only going to get uglier with Texas and Georgia looming. I cannot begin to imagine what those teams are about to do to State. I am not looking forward to it.