Mississippi State vs. Missouri: Five Takeaways

The beast is back

Missouri's offensive line will be having nightmares of Chris Jones for weeks. Jones consistently shed blockers and lived in the backfield all game. He finished with two tackles for loss and a sack and had opportunities to bring Drew Lock down two more times. They need him to finish those plays but it's encouraging to see Jones dominate games again. He's played with such a high motor lately.

Dak reaches more milestones

It was a memorable night for Dak Prescott in more ways than one. On top of throwing for 303 yards and four touchdowns and adding another 47 yards on the ground, he eclipsed the 10,000-yard mark for total career yards, passing Eli Manning. He also became just the sixth QB in SEC history to reach 100 total touchdowns in a career. The craziest thing is that out of those six players, Dan Mullen has coached three of them -- he coached Tim Tebow and Chris Leak as offensive coordinator at Florida.

You can't say enough about what Dak means to the success of MSU. Matt Wyatt tweeted out a crazy stat after the game: Missouri sacked Dak three times and pressured him another eight, but he still managed to finish with a 67% completion percentage, toss four touchdowns, and avoid throwing any interceptions. Missouri's defensive line made MSU's line look sloppy at times, and games like that are when having a fifth year senior quarterback comes in handy.

Third quarter domination

Leading 14-13 at halftime, MSU put together a 17-point third quarter to jump out to a 31-13 lead to seal the deal. A long pass down the sideline from Dak to De'Runnya on MSU's first drive was capped off by a Bear TD on a six-yard slant over the middle.

After a pressured Lock threw an easy interception to Kivon Coman on the next drive, Westin Graves drilled a 35-yard field goal to make it 24-13. MSU's defense came up with another stop, and MSU's best drive of the game ensued. They went 81 yards in nine plays and Fred Brown finished it off with a touchdown reception in the corner of the end zone.

Secondary continues to produce without Redmond

You can't say enough about the play of MSU's secondary the last few games. I thought Redmond going down would finish that group, especially considering Market was already out for the year. But they've responded and the young players are playing like veterans.

Kivon Coman, Brandon Bryant, and Jamal Peters get better every week with more reps. Tolando Cleveland has played lights out after a horrible start to the season. This group was dominant again vs. Missouri, limiting Lock to 11-for-26 passing for 107 yards and forcing two interceptions.

Wide receivers step up on a rainy night

I expected the torrential rain would affect MSU's offense more than Missouri's because of the passing game, but Fred Ross and De'Runnya Wilson were not phased one bit. Ross finished with 11 receptions to Wilson's four, but they combined for 217 yards and three TD's. Wilson caught two of those touchdowns and now leads the SEC in touchdown receptions. Ross also leads the conference in receptions in SEC games. They're as good of a one-two punch as you will find.

This was huge with Malik Dear injured and Gabe Myles still not 100 percent. Hopefully they get healthy before the Alabama game because they will need all hands on deck. When this unit is healthy Dak just has endless weapons at his disposal, talk about a nightmare for defenses.