Mississippi State Throttles Texas A&M with Suffocating Defensive Performance

The Mississippi St. Bulldogs came into their road game against the Texas A&M Aggies with questions surrounding their ability to win games on the road. The Bulldogs answered those questions with an emphatic yes.

Dan Mullen and his Bulldogs used a consistent running game and a dominant defensive effort to wallop the Aggies 35-14 in Kyle Field. The Aggies only had 285 yards of total offense, about half of which came in garbage time during the 4th quarter.

The Bulldogs forced three turnovers and harassed Texas A&M quarterbacks into bad throws all night long. The Aggies completed 16-41 passes and had three interceptions. Whenever the Aggies tried something offensively, the Bulldogs were there to shut it down.

What the Mississippi State offense lacked in big, explosive plays, it made up in consistency. The Bulldogs pounded the Aggie defense on the ground for 228 yards rushing and 4.4 yards per carry. Nick Fitzgerald led the way with 105 yards on 18 carries and one touchdown. He also had a solid game passing, completing 12 of 21 passes for 141 yards to go along with 2 touchdown passes and 1 interception.

But the night belonged to the defense. The Aggies had no answer for Todd Grantham and his defensive scheme all night long, a scheme which the players ran to near perfection for much of the night. At the half, Texas A&M only had 33 yards of total offense.

The Bulldogs will head back to Starkville for their next two games. UMass will come to Starkville a week from today to take on the Bulldogs at 11:00 a.m. The game will be televised on the SEC Network.