STARKVILLE — Mississippi State football coach Dan Mullen believed his team was in position to get off to a fast start against Auburn.
When Kivon Coman intercepted a Sean White pass on the Tigers’ first possession Saturday, MSU took over at the Auburn 19-yard line.
Quarterback Nick Fitzgerald rushed for 3 yards on first down, threw an incomplete pass to Donald Gray on second down, and hit Gray for a 2-yard pass on third down. An offsides penalty on Auburn on third down kept the drive alive. However, Fitzgerald’s pass to Fred Ross fell incomplete. Westin Graves then missed a 28-yard field goal.
The possession was a snapshot of everything that went wrong in a game that MSU went on to lose 38-14.
At 2-3, MSU is 21 of 68 on third down (13th in the Southeastern Conference) and 19 of 25 in the red zone (12th). Mullen knows both of those things will have to improve at 9:15 p.m. Friday (ESPN) if MSU wants to beat BYU (3-3) at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo, Utah, and if it wants to get its season back on track.
“Are we protecting the quarterback the right way? Are we making the right calls in the right situations? Are we getting looks we expect to see? If not, why are people playing us a certain way on third down? There have been a wide range of things going on,” Mullen said. “A lot of it comes down to execution. There are a lot of moving parts.”
Of MSU’s 19 scores in the red zone, 12 have been touchdowns. Against Auburn, MSU was 1 of 3 in the red zone and 6 of 16 on third downs.
Auburn’s Stephen Roberts intercepted Fitzgerald on fourth-and-7 from the Auburn 13 in the fourth quarter. On the next offensive possession, Fitzgerald hit Ross for an 8-yard touchdown with 10 minutes, 14 seconds remaining.
“It’s a lot to do with execution,” Fitzgerald said. “We had a good game plan going in. We have great plays against what we see. It just takes everybody doing their 1/11th. That’s something we’re struggling with down in the red zone, everybody doing their 1/11th.”
In his first year as the starter, Fitzgerald is 74 of 129 for 784 yards. He has seven touchdowns and two interceptions.
Ross had four catches for 29 yards against Auburn, but he had several drops and two muffed punts. He called it the “worst” game of his career. When he watched the replay Monday, he was shocked and said he didn’t look like himself.
Ross said red zone offense is something the Bulldogs work on every day in practice.
“It’s just about execution, whether that be us making the catch in the red zone, us making a throw, or us missing a block,” Ross said. “The line could hold up everyone, the throw could be perfect, and if I drop it, none of that matters. I could get open and the lineman could come through and hit Nick and the ball could come out crazy. It just takes all 11.”
BYU is allowing opponents to score 83 percent of the time in the red zone (15 of 18). The Cougars have allowed 12 touchdowns and three field goals. Opponents are converting third downs 41 percent of the time (32 of 78).
Under the leadership of quarterback Dak Prescott the last two seasons, MSU was 166 of 371 (45 percent) on third downs and 98 of 114 in the red zone, with 77 touchdowns.
Mullen said MSU has had a number of problems in the red zone from misreads and missed blocks to poor protection and dropped passes.
“If 11 guys do their job every play, you have a chance to be successful,” Mullen said. “If 10 do their job the right way and one makes a mistake or goes the wrong way or doesn’t use good technique or one of those things, your chances of success drop dramatically.”
Mullen said one issue would be easy to fix. He said multiple issues make it tougher for the coaches to devise a practice regimen to correct the mistakes.
“It’s that clean execution of everything that we do, so we’ve got to execute better,” Mullen said.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.