STARKVILLE — Welcome back folks. It’s time for another edition of Portnoy’s Playbook.
During our week apart, the Mississippi State football team was, in theory, preparing for a road trip to Tennessee. But Saturday, the Bulldogs looked discombobulated, out of sync, and downright unprepared to play against the far inferior (on paper, at least) Volunteers.
“It’s tough to win a game week-to-week — doesn’t matter who it is,” freshman quarterback Garrett Shrader said postgame. “I guess we kind of came out thinking we were more ready than we were and we didn’t execute how we planned to.”
As was the case for much of the game, the defining play of the afternoon came on a miscommunication from the MSU defense.
Trailing by three with under three minutes remaining, the Bulldogs promptly allowed Tennessee to pick up three first downs — culminating in a 39-yard touchdown pass from Jarrett Guarantano to Tyler Byrd with 2:35 left to put the Volunteers up by 10.
With MSU lined up in their patented 4-2-5 defense, the Tennessee offense put trips to the left with Byrd, Ramel Keyton and Jerrod Means, while running back Ty Chandler stood in the backfield alongside Guarantano.
Upon the snap, Byrd, Means and Keyton ran short curl routes of three, five and seven yards outside the left hash marks.
In the backfield, Guarantano faked a handoff to Chandler, forcing senior safety Jaquarius Landrews to crash toward the quarterback and freeze on the play.
With Landrews pinched too tight, Gurantano flipped the ball past him to Byrd just beyond the line of scrimmage. With the field now split, MSU boasted four defenders on the left side — Landrews, junior safety C.J. Morgan, senior nickelback Brian Cole and freshman cornerback Martin Emerson.
Tasked with keeping outside contain, Cole, like Landrews, pinched inside, leaving the sideline open. With one blocker in front, Emerson was bumped by Means before missing on a sprawling attempt at a shoelace tackle. Morgan, too, had an angle on Byrd early in the play, but went upfield and collided with Means.
“It would have never have gotten to Martin if I did my job and held contain,” Cole said postgame.
Seeking a desperation tackle as Byrd hit the open field, Morgan and senior safety Maurice Smitherman gave chase down the sideline.
Scampering down the field, neither Morgan nor Smitherman could get a hand on the Tennessee ball carrier — giving the Volunteers their second touchdown of the day and, ultimately, the back-breaking play of the afternoon.
“When they threw those hitches I thought I was going to be able to get to (Byrd),” Cole said. “I got washed down and then he just went right on outside and that was it — it just sealed it.”
In all, the touchdown concluded a nine-play, 91-yard drive that left MSU in a desperation scramble down the stretch.
Shrader Gave the Bulldogs a shot at a last-ditch comeback effort to come within seven when he took the MSU offense down to the Tennessee 18 yard line. But as had been the case much of the day, the Bulldogs misfired when it mattered most as junior kicker Jace Christmann shanked a 36-yard field goal with 16 seconds left to grant Tennessee the victory.
“I don’t know if we were worn down, but we didn’t make the plays necessary to win the game,” junior linebacker Erroll Thompson said. “It is what it is. We’ve just got to improve.”
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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