Ranking the Mississippi State Football Performances of 2013: No. 9-Alcorn State

While the Mississippi State Bulldogs dominated the Alcorn State Braves in the home opener of the 2013 season, anything less than domination would have been a dissappointment for Bulldog fans.  Games such as this are often the toughest to evaluate, but with everything else being either a win or a loss to an SEC opponent, this game falls on the lower end of the performances of the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

Offensive Performance: 3 out of 5 stars

Yes, the Bulldogs picked up 51 points in the contest, the first start by Dak Prescott.  However, anything less than this would have been considered a below average performance by Mississippi State.  The simple fact is that Alcorn State was completely mismatched in this contest, and offered no resistance to the Bulldogs.

Among the interesting things to take away from this game was the emergence, then near-disappearance of Ashton Shumpert.

Defensive Performance: 3 out of 5 stars

The Alcorn State Braves made very little happen in this game, picking up only six first downs and scoring late in the game.

The defense forced three turnovers, and they held the Braves to 163 yards of total offense.  Again, these numbers are not amazing, but only what was to be expected from this contest.

Special Teams Performance: 3 out of 5 stars

Brandon Holloway nearly returned a kickoff for a touchdown.  Other than that, not much happened on special teams.  Devon Bell made his only field goal attempt, and he forced touchbacks on five of his seven kickoffs.

Individual Peformances 3 out of 5 stars

This game showed that Prescott could play quarterback and start for Mississippi State if needed.  Had he struggled in this start, it would have been interesting to see how the season would have unfolded.  Additionally, Shumpert caught the eye of Bulldog fans with this performance, leading to much grumbling that he did not play more.

Quality of Opponent: 1 out of 5 stars

No way around it...the Braves are a bought and paid for tomato can.

Final Average Rating: 2.6 stars