STARKVILLE — No more moral victories. Mike Leach gets to talk about an actual victory this week, and boy did his team earn it.
After Missouri had gotten some praise for its progress under first-year coach Eli Drinkwitz, Leach’s Bulldogs took the Tigers to the woodshed in a 51-32 rout Saturday at Davis Wade Stadium in the regular season finale.
It was a nice way to end what was a tumultuous first year under the pirate, except of course there’s probably a bowl game in the near future for MSU.
As always, for those that are new to Bulldog Bullets, The Commercial Dispatch will bring you an instant reaction blog of Mississippi State football games posted immediately after the final gun filled with short observations and commentary.
To the Bulldog Bullets:
– Ah, so that’s what the air raid is supposed to look like. The Bulldogs had almost as many points scored as they did available scholarship players.
– Joking aside, hard to say Saturday wasn’t the best overall team performance by MSU in 2020. A season-high 51 points. The defense was forcing turnovers and the offense was gaining easy chunks of intermediate yardage consistently. Sure, the Bulldogs were the beneficiary of a couple abysmal gaffes by Missouri, but those are the breaks.
– Mississippi State had more than 100 rushing yards for the first time all year. I had to double check it wasn’t some kind of glitch with the stats program.
– In its last three games, Missouri has given up 48, 49 and 51 points. Tigers have plenty of problems defensively. The 51 points allowed was the most by a Mizzou opponent since a 53-28 Tigers’ loss to Georgia in 2017.
– Not to put a damper on the mood, but a three-win team going to a bowl game to continue the school-record bowl streak should raise a little bit of an eyebrow. I know, I know, no win requirement this year and all.
– Erroll Thompson, the heart and soul of the MSU defense, gets ejected in his final game at Davis Wade Stadium on the second play of the game after getting called for targeting. Brutal blow for the senior.
– Not too often you see a long snapper touchdown. Nobody can ever take it away from you, Paul Blackwell.
– Looks like it took a little too long for Eli Drinkwitz to realize the Bulldogs knew the Tigers were running off the right tackle every other play.
– Pretty impressive effort for Will Rogers after throwing for 295 yards and three touchdowns. After a seven-game audition for the 2021 starting job, Rogers will have to fend off Southern Miss transfer Jack Abraham and highly-touted incoming freshman Sawyer Robertson if he wants to retain the gig.
– For the second week in a row, Geor’quarius Spivey makes a costly drop in the red zone.
– What a drive to open the second half. Took five minutes off the clock and delivered a knockout blow to the Tigers by scoring a touchdown to go up 24 points.
– Jaden Walley. He gets more impressive week in and week out.
– What a day from defensive back Emmanuel Forbes. Two picks, one of which he returned for a touchdown.
– MSU’s backup quarterback, K.J. Costello, was picked off by Missouri’s backup quarterback, Shawn Robinson, after he agreed to help out at defensive back for the Tigers. What a sequence.
– Transfer portal news: former fan favorite bearded quarterback Garrett Shrader is heading to Syracuse.
– Bowl projections are meaningless and dumb and often wrong yet I’ll make one anyway: MSU plays in the Gasparilla Bowl on Dec. 26 in Tampa Bay.
Hodge is the former sports editor for The Dispatch.
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