Mississippi State vs. Alabama Reaction

Mississippi State’s long 2019 continues with another loss. This time it comes at the hands of the Alabama Crimson Tide. The Bulldogs are now 4-6 overall with a 2-5 conference record. The only chance MSU has at making a bowl game for the 10th consecutive year is to win its last two games against Abilene Christian and Ole Miss. The opportunity is there, but the chance of the streak being broken is not unrealistic. After Saturday’s game, this is what you should take away from the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

Negatives

Before the coin flip, I was talking to the friends I was sitting with saying “we’re getting the ball first no matter what. Alabama will defer and we will receive.” Well. I was wrong. MSU chose to defer and tried to catch the Tide off-guard and try to pooch kick the ball to get the ball first that way. It did not work. If you were going to try that, you should have just received it to begin with and try to score first that way instead of doing it this way, but that’s just my opinion. The offense looked pretty good on the one scoring drive the Bulldogs had. Stevens was reading the defense very well and the Tide was getting gashed on the ground. Both Kylin Hill and Stevens had runs for 20-plus yards on this drive and it was capitalized by a 1-yard touchdown run from Hill. Outside of this drive, the offense did next to nothing. Maybe the score could’ve been a little closer if the rest of the game was similar to this drive.

Positives

After an interception on the first play from offense, Stevens settled in and did not turn the ball over again. He finished the game running for 96 yards on 10 carries. The offense as a whole finished running the ball for 5.1 yards per carry. Nick Gibson added another solid performance to his resume by finishing the day with 56 yards on nine attempts.

This game went similar to how people predicted. Personally, I thought the offense could’ve been more competitive, but I don’t see how any team in the country can slow down this offense for 60 minutes. Mississippi State will have a full week to game plan for Abilene Christian and a short four days to prepare for the Egg Bowl. These games have to be won for the Bulldogs to continue their bowl game streak. It can be done, but it will not be easy. I have faith that MSU can do it and build momentum have for the 2020 season. Go Dawgs and Hail State!