Good, Bad, and Ugly from Mississippi State’s win over BYU

As tempting as it is to give my formal opinion on the great Nick Fitzgerald debate, I shall personally be waiting one more week (aka post Kentucky) to give my thoughts on the Mississippi St. Bulldogs QB1 right now. As for now, Saturday we played a football game against BYU. It wasn’t pretty but hey, win number 4 is in the books. Let’s take a look shall we.

The Good

• Our running game that has been missing for the last few weeks was clicking against the inferior BYU team. While this was not shocking, it is always good to see us running the ball well and with multiple bodies. The line of succession of Aeris Williams (junior), Nick “No Shoes” Gibson (sophomore), and Kylin Hill (freshman) should keep MSU fans very secure in who will be pounding the ball between the tackles over the next few years.
• Brandon Bryant had a good game on Saturday and recorded a solid pick to cap it off. Our issues in the secondary are abundant but, for the most part, stem from the fact we blow coverages and allow big plays down the middle. We need Bryant who has the range and speed to play centerfield to play better if this issue is going to be fixed. Let McLaurin and Abram’s get downhill and help in the run game. The best Bryant is using his 4.2 speed to break up deep passes. He is still just a junior and can figure it out, I hope.
• Jamal Couch caught a long TD. All aboard this hype train now as it leaves the station. Couch… Guidry…Heath…Mixon….D. Thomas…2018…..just sayin.

The Bad

• THE DROPS. This is beginning to get ridiculous. I mean do we not have a drill throughout the week where our receivers just run routes and focus on catching the ball? Nicky Fitz has his own struggles to deal with at QB so he really doesn’t have time to be worrying about his receivers dropping and juggling catchable balls throughout the game.
• DUMB PENALTIES. We had 60 yards of penalties….come on man. Leo Lewis received a personal foul for a late hit on a dropped pass that was easily 5 seconds after the guy dropped the pass. DUMB. This kind of 15 yard penalty could really hurt us against a team that can take advantage and in a tighter game. DAN WAS LIVID and tore into Lewis on the sideline in one of his annual “makes his visor crooked” tirades.

The Ugly

I had originally planned on using the Ugly as my platform for my Nick Fitzgerald discussion (spoiler if it’s in the ugly it wasn’t going to be complimentary). However, as previously stated, I am forgoing this and giving it ONE more game.

With that said my ugly for this week is…our win this week. This was just an ugly game filled with laziness and mistakes that better teams will make us pay for. We all hoped that we would see a revitalized MSU team take the field Saturday after 2 duds laid on the road and a bye week, and instead, we got half asleep Dawgs who just so happed to be playing a half dead BYU team. The result was an effort that the loyal MSU fans were not proud of and did not give us any further comfort going forward. Our remaining schedule is very handy for the Bulldogs. Home games against UK, UMASS, Bama, and the Black Bears (#mymascot) along with road games against A&M and Ark, present at least 4 if not 5 winnable games. Perform like we did on Saturday, we’ll be lucky to win more than 2. Step it up Dawgs. Leaders lead. Be better.