Well Bulldog fans, Mississippi State will go back to Starkville with a victory, and at the end of the day, this means they accomplished their most important objective of the day. However, the win did not come easily, and the Mississippi State performance in their 34-16 victory over Southern Miss in Hattiesburg.
Let's start with question marks from the contest:
1) Mississippi State looked to lack crispness in the matchup against Southern Miss. Dak missed a few passes high. Fred Ross hands were questionable for much of the contest. Mississippi State had patches of games where things did not look good. Let's hope those were game one issues.
2) It would have been nice to see De'Runnya Wilson be more involved in the passing game. He had several nice blocks to open up large running plays, but it would have been better to see his plays happening through the air. They finally made a big play with each other with about six minutes to play.
3) Mississippi State cannot afford the sluggish start they showed this week against LSU. Mississippi State had to weather a storm against Southern Miss, and they did. However, that storm gained strength because of the play of the Bulldogs early. A fumble at the goal line, a muffed punt, and not recovering an onside kick made this game much tougher than necessary.
However, Mississippi State did have some high spots as well.
1) The Mississippi State defensive line made many big plays throughout the night. More often than not, when Mississippi State's defense needed a play made, the line was able to do it. How about some credit to Nick Mullens. The Southern Miss quarterback took several hard hits and stuck in the game.
2) All in all, Prescott had decent numbers, but not what Bulldog fans have come to expect out of him. The last drive did a lot to pad his stats. He connected with Wilson on a long pass and ran for a score.
3) Field goals and punting did not look scary. Let's hope that continues.