ATHENS, Ga. — The Sanford Stadium crowd roared as Mississippi State running back Kylin Hill was taken to the ground a matter of feet from the goal line.
The only motivation was to finish the game without allowing a touchdown.
Georgia (4-0, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) completed that job Saturday night in a thorough 31-3 victory of MSU (3-1, 1-1 SEC). It was the first time MSU was held without a touchdown since last year’s Alabama game on Nov. 12, capping MSU’s least impressive offensive performance to date.
“I don’t think we really executed at a high level today, in any phase of the game,” MSU coach Dan Mullen said. “In all three phases, at the wrong times, we didn’t execute.”
The 280 yards of total offense, 177 rushing and 103 passing, was the first time MSU was held to below 300 since the 2016 Auburn game on Oct. 8.
When Mullen mentioned inopportune times to execute poorly, it’s possible none mattered more than first down. MSU averaged a meager 2.9 yards on the 27 plays it ran on first down. It was the obvious cause to the effect that was an average third down to go distance of 6.1, leading MSU to a season-low 37.5 percent third-down conversion rate (6-16).
When it comes to the first down struggles, left tackle Martinas Rankin credited the 92,476 in Sanford Stadium.
“We just really had to come out and adjust to a different environment, and we have to continue to get better at that because next week is going to be on the road,” he said.
Mullen saw a different culprit.
“We have to execute a little cleaner,” Mullen said. “We had some shots but missed some protections; we had guys open and missed the protection. We had guys 1-on-1 and I don’t think we won one 50-50 ball all day, and you got to win some of those.
“We tried different things, but again, I don’t think we executed. I think you’re going to watch the film and see nine guys doing the right things and one or two guys making a mistake. You can’t do that against a team as good as Georgia.”
MSU particularly struggled on the down early in the game: MSU’s averaged fewer than one yard per play on first down through its first nine such plays. MSU’s first offensive play was a six-yard loss and it took three more first-down plays to get into positive yardage in the situation.
It can be no coincidence that as soon as MSU created an noticeable gain on first down — late in the second quarter, an 11-yard toss from quarterback Nick Fitzgerald to wide receiver Keith Mixon — it led to MSU’s long scoring drive. It was capped with a 26-yard field goal by Jace Christmann.
Even that was a missed opportunity. At the time Georgia’s lead was only 14-0 and the field goal came with 74 seconds left in the half, meaning it could have given MSU only a one-possession deficit at the midway point.
“It was tough right there at the end of the first half, you’d like to get a touchdown out of that drive,” Mullen said. “After a couple of mental mistakes to start the game, I think our guys settled in in that midpoint of the first half and kind of missed opportunities.”
Fitzgerald, held to the second-lowest passing total in his starting career of 83 yards, saw the same things.
In a sense it serves as a testament to the things MSU was doing well before Saturday. When MSU had all 11 on the field executing properly, MSU was averaging 493 yards per game and 47.7 points per game, the latter ranking best in the conference and No. 9 in the nation. It also serves as the destination point for the coming week’s preparation for a trip to Auburn.
“We couldn’t get everybody on the same page, we couldn’t get everybody working together,” Fitzgerald said. “It kind of caught us in practice, having to redo a lot of plays, and it rolled over to the game.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter, @Brett_Hudson
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 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.