Mississippi State was defeated by the Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday evening in Tuscaloosa. The score was 30-10.
I don't even know where to begin on this one. I've been saying all the way up to kickoff that I was extremely worried about this game. I knew the Tide would be tough, I knew it would be considered an upset if we won. But I don't think anyone expected the Bulldogs to play like crap.
MSU struggled on all three phases of the game. Our defense hasn't looked that bad in quite some time. They looked as if they'd completely forgotten how to tackle. Dan Mullen called out the offensive line after the game saying that they "played their worst game in a long time". There were some good balls thrown by both quarterbacks, but there were too darn many dropped passes. I keep telling myself it's a young secondary and next year will be better. I hope I'm not kidding myself. Special teams gave us very little to cheer about as well. Alabama's Marquis Maze returned a kickoff all the way for a TD late in the second quarter. Yeah, I know the officials called it back, but they might as well have let him have it since the Bulldogs allowed Mark Ingram to run the ball in for six points on the very next play.
Dan Mullen admitted after the game that it had been a very emotional bye week, but stopped short of blaming that for the loss. It was just a sloppy game and the Tide were clearly the better team last night.
On a positive note, we are still ranked in the AP and Coaches polls. Mississippi State is sitting at #22 on both polls. It'll be interesting to see where we are in the BCS rankings later this evening.
Next up for the Bulldogs is a game at home against Arkansas. A lot of hog fans are already calling it a win for them after last nights bad performance by MSU. I hope they continue to think that way because it'll make it that much sweeter if the Bulldogs beat them.
Arkansas is coming off a win against UTEP and I can't deny the fact that they are playing great football right now. However, the Bulldogs have faced explosive offenses before this season and they know what they have to do to shut them down. The million dollar question though is will they perform the way we all know that they can? If they play Arkansas the way they played 'Bama last night, we will not win.
Hopefully last night was a wake up call. I'd love to see the Bulldogs close out the regular season with a 9-3 record.