STARKVILLE — The great coach Vince Lombardi once said that football is a game of inches.

Mississippi State’s primetime tilt against Arizona on Saturday night was decided by a matter of millimeters.

With the Bulldogs leading by seven in overtime and the Wildcats facing a fourth-and-10 to stay alive, Arizona quarterback Jayden de Laura retreated more than 20 yards behind the line of scrimmage before turning upfield down the left sideline, and was initially ruled to have just crossed the line to gain. But after a lengthy review, the officials determined that linebacker DeShawn Page and safety Marcus Banks had brought de Laura down just short.

MSU escaped, 31-24. At the end of the day, the Bulldogs are 2-0 heading into the Southeastern Conference opener against LSU.

“Frankly, I don’t think we had good enough plans. I didn’t have a good enough game plan,” head coach Zach Arnett said. “The players overcame my coaching in this game, and so they earned it. I’m incredibly proud of the resiliency of this football team.”

Early on it seemed MSU might be on its way to a laugher. A year after de Laura threw three interceptions in a Bulldogs win in Tucson, Arizona’s signal-caller matched that total in the first quarter alone Saturday.

State took the opening kickoff and used its offensive line and running game to drive nearly to the goal line before Arnett opted to go for a fourth-and-goal at the 4. Quarterback Will Rogers connected with receiver Justin Robinson on a swing pass, but Robinson fumbled out of the end zone as he was hit, giving the Wildcats the ball on their own 20.

Linebacker Nathaniel “Bookie” Watson came up with the first big defensive play after Banks broke up a pass over the middle and tipped the ball up in the air. Watson, who also picked off de Laura in Tucson last September, came down with it for his second career interception.

The Bulldogs turned Watson’s pick into the game’s first touchdown when Rogers threw a screen pass to receiver Lideatrick “Tulu” Griffin, who used his breakaway speed to find the end zone from 23 yards out.

“We preach getting the ball out and giving the ball back to our offense,” Watson said. “I’ll be on (the safeties) hard in practice because I know what they’re capable of back there. I just want them to keep doing what they’re doing.”

With Arizona (1-1) facing a quick third-and-long on its next drive, it was linebacker Jett Johnson’s turn to join the pick club. The sixth-year from Tupelo read de Laura’s eyes perfectly and stepped in front of Wildcats receiver Jacob Cowing for the takeaway, running it back inside the 10.

Running back Jo’quavious “Woody” Marks, who rushed for more than 100 yards for the second consecutive game, was in the end zone two plays later and MSU had a 14-0 lead.

“One of the best things we can do as a veteran group is eradicate the bad thoughts of the last bad play and make a good play,” Johnson said. “We did a good job of that tonight.”

On the visitors’ next third down, de Laura launched a deep ball that found the hands of safety Shawn Preston Jr., who had come over to help cornerback Esaias Furdge cover Cowing. But the Bulldogs’ offense, after taking advantage of a short field twice to build the lead, couldn’t do much the rest of the half, going three-and-out after the Preston interception and later stalling just outside the red zone, where freshman kicker Kyle Ferrie missed a 41-yard field goal attempt wide right.

Meanwhile, de Laura began settling into a rhythm, finding receiver Tetairoa McMillan for 55 yards in the final minute of the first half before sneaking into the end zone on the next play to make it a one-score game at the break.

“(De Laura) is extremely mobile. He’s really good at buying time,” Arnett said. “If a guy gets free, he’s really good at finding him. We’ve got to go back and evaluate as coaches and figure out where the breakdowns were.”

MSU responded with a near-perfect start to the second half, forcing a three-and-out behind the sticks and getting a 25-yard punt return from sophomore Zavion Thomas, in his first game back from an ankle injury sustained in fall camp. After three straight runs by Marks got the Bulldogs inside the 20, Rogers found a streaking Griffin in the end zone to restore State’s 14-point lead.

And then the offense went cold again while de Laura and the Wildcats remained hot. The junior from Hawaii picked apart the Bulldogs’ defense, and Arizona’s tackles prevented MSU from getting much penetration. A touchdown pass to Cowing made it 21-14, and another to McMillan in the fourth quarter tied the game.

Offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay went back to the Rogers-Griffin connection for a chunk play to start the next possession, eventually leading to a 36-yard Ferrie field goal. But after Johnson nabbed his second interception of the night, this one off a deflection by cornerback DeCarlos Nicholson, the Bulldogs went three-and-out, giving the Wildcats time to drive down the field and send the game to overtime on a 36-yard field goal by Tyler Loop.

Rogers attempted just 17 passes, his fewest since his collegiate debut against Kentucky in 2020, though he did complete 13 of them for 162 yards and three touchdowns.

“There were a couple things I had to change at the line of scrimmage,” Rogers said. “We came out of the gate and we were gashing them a little bit. But toward the end, I told (Barbay and Arnett) that I wanted the ball and I wanted to go do what I do.”

He did just that as MSU got the ball first in overtime. A holding call pushed the Bulldogs back to the 35, but after a short pass to Marks on first down, Rogers found running back Jeffery Pittman, a transfer from Hinds Community College, on a bubble screen. Pittman bounced off a tackler at the line of scrimmage and raced all the way to the goal line, where he upended a safety for the score.

Then, following three straight de Laura incompletions — including nifty breakups by safety Chris Keys and cornerback Decamerion Richardson — de Laura just missed extending the game on his wild scramble.

“Winning ain’t easy,” Arnett said. “I told the players, I could not be more proud of the way they came out and attacked from the opening kick. There was every opportunity to quit or to throw in the towel.”