Bulldogs Hammered in Athens

From the opening play, things looked grim for the Mississippi St. Bulldogs football team. The start of the game began with a 5 yard loss on a screen play and it never got better. After a three and out by Mississippi State, Georgia ran a flea flicker on their opening play for a touchdown and there was no looking back.

After a week in which Mississippi State physically dominated both lines of scrimmage for an impressive win, Georgia did the exact same thing to the Bulldogs. Mississippi State could not get any push on either side of the ball, and it resulted in an extremely lopsided loss for the Bulldogs.

For a team that thrives on its ability to run the football, the Bulldogs never could get any traction in their running game. Mississippi State accumulated 177 yards on the ground, but over 75 came during the fourth quarter when the game was already well out of reach.

Without the ability to run the football as consistently as they would have liked, Mississippi State was forced to pass the ball much more predictably than Dan Mullen would have liked. This led to Nick Fitzgerald having one of his worst games of the season. He completed just 14 of 29 passes with two interceptions and ran for only 47 yards.

The final score was 31-3 and it felt like it was much worse than the score indicated. Mississippi State will try to rebound on the road next week when they travel to Auburn to play the Tigers in Jordan-Hare Stadium. The game will start at 6 p.m. and air on ESPN.