STARKVILLE — Slowing down quarterback Kenny Hill was a daunting task for the No. 12 Mississippi State defense entering its game against No. 6 Texas A&M.
The sophomore quarterback entered the game with a Southeastern Conference-leading 1,745 yards and 17 touchdowns.
Against the Bulldogs, he never had a chance.
MSU’s defense forced three turnovers, a season-high for Texas A&M, and sacked Hill four times, while linebacker Richie Brown, a sophomore from Long Beach, had all three interceptions of Hill. The first came in the second quarter to set up a touchdown. The last two came in the second half when MSU pulled away.
Brown’s performance stood out on a day MSU brought Hill and the Aggies back down to Earth.
“Maybe I had two in a game in high school once, so I’ve gotten close,” Brown said. “But I’ve never had three in one game.”
Brown’s three interceptions tied a school record and helped the defense set a tone against Hill, who never looked the same after opening the game with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Josh Reynolds.
“When you have great coverage, you have great pressure,” Brown said. “And when you have great pressure, you have great coverage. The secondary did well, so the defensive line could do good as well. It was a whole team effort.”
Hill threw a touchdown pass in the first two minutes. He threw two more in the final two minutes after the game was out of hand. In between, he threw three interceptions. He finished 37 of 62 for 365 yards. Before the late touchdowns, Texas A&M trailed 48-17.
“Great effort by our defense,” MSU coach Dan Mullen said. “They had 365 yards, but sometimes statistics lie. You can’t look at those stats and say, ‘Well, they gave up a lot of yards, so the defense didn’t play well.’ Our defense was outstanding.”
Defensive back Will Redmond, a junior, led MSU with 10 tackles. Linebacker Benardrick McKinney added nine.
Plenty of targets
Less than 10 minutes before the 11 a.m. kickoff, MSU announced senior wide receiver Jameon Lewis, the team’s leading pass catcher, would miss the game with a right leg injury.
It didn’t matter.
Without Lewis, a number of receivers stepped up for quarterback Dak Prescott, who was 15 of 21 for 259 yards and two scores.
Redshirt freshman Gabe Myles, a Starkville High School product, started in place of Lewis and caught three passes. He added an 11-yard pass to Prescott. Sophomore Fred Brown added three catches for 69 yards and his first career touchdown. Freshman Jamoral Graham had two catches for 26 yards.
“Everybody looks and says, ‘Well, why are you rotating so many players?’, and that’s the answer,” Mullen said. “You never know when your number will be called. But our guys know they always have to be ready. Today, Jameon Lewis woke up and he couldn’t walk. It’s something he injured two weeks ago, and on Thursday, it popped back up on him. We thought he could go, but today it was obvious he couldn’t. But guys did a great job of stepping up.”
No Day? No problem
MSU played without starting center Dillon Day, who was suspended one game for his actions during in a 34-29 win two weeks ago at LSU. Day’s absence — he leads the team with 38 career starts — was supposed to leave a void in the middle of the offensive line.
It didn’t.
Senior guard Ben Beckwith moved over to take Day’s spot and junior Devon Desper started in Beckwith’s spot, as MSU’s offensive line didn’t miss a beat. The Bulldogs rushed for 314 yards two weeks after putting up 302 on LSU.
“After the first snap, the pressure kind of eased off after I knew the quarterback got the ball,” Beckwith said. “We gave up a few pressures and a sack here and there, but as a group we bounced back and never really let them get in our head.”
Way out there
Starting tailback Josh Robinson (107 yards) and Prescott (77) did most of the damage on the ground, but MSU also had production elsewhere.
Sophomore tailback Brandon Holloway, a converted wide receiver, rushed for a career-high 76 yards on five carries. He had a 51-yard scamper to the Texas A&M 7-yard line, a run that set up Prescott’s third touchdown.
“It felt great getting out there,” Holloway said. “The line blocked. That could have been anybody running through that hole. It was a great feeling, though.”
Not perfect
Perhaps one of the biggest takeaways from the win was the fact the Bulldogs didn’t play flawlessly. MSU turned the ball over twice, on a muffed punt by freshman Jamoral Graham and a fumble by Robinson, and missed a number of tackles. Still, the game wasn’t close.
“We made a couple of errors,” Mullen said. “But we did a lot of things that are really important and that you need to do to win.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat
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