STARKVILLE — The last time the Mississippi State football team was in this situation, the first clue of what was to come came on Monday.
Last time MSU was coming off a convincing win over a Southeastern Conference foe, 37-7 over LSU, MSU was not at its best in the week of practice leading up to the 31-3 loss at Georgia. A month later, MSU sets out to avoid a similar fate.
After last week’s 45-7 win over Kentucky, MSU will take to the road to meet Texas A&M (5-2, 3-1 SEC) at 6:15 p.m. Saturday at Kyle Field (ESPN) — in theory after a better week of practice.
“We’re not going to change our routine, we’re just going to change out mind-set and mentality of how we attack the week,” MSU coach Dan Mullen said. “We have to have an edge to us and really work on improvement.
“Our scout team has to be better this week. Our intensity in individuals (drills) has to be better so we can fix things. The little attention to detail where being two feet off didn’t cost us last time, but you see the video and this is why it could have cost us.”
If the week of practice before the trip to College Station goes better, the results could show early.
In MSU’s two road losses this season, opponents (Georgia and Auburn) outscored MSU in the first quarter by a combined 31-3: 14-0 by Georgia and 17-3 by Auburn. Mullen attributed those struggles to defensive breakdowns; quarterback Nick Fitzgerald was quick to take his part of the blame, too.
“It’s consistency of play,” Fitzgerald said. “We’ve been able more or less to consistently move the ball down the field when we’ve been right, everyone’s doing their job, everyone’s doing their one-eleventh. On the road, we’ve been out of character: a lot of penalties, a lot of false starts, not really handling the environment well.”
Aggies coming for Fitzgerald
The unstoppable force has been the Texas A&M pass rush, leading the conference with 28 sacks, including averaging 5.25 per game against SEC teams. The immovable object has been the pocket for Fitzgerald, who has only been sacked twice this season. On Saturday, they meet.
In the Aggie defense, Mullen sees the most athletic defense MSU has faced this season.
“They have great athletes, they attack, they translate really well from run to pass,” Mullen said. “They get teams behind the chains, they get into a pass rush mind-set and they come after you.”
Honors for Calhoun, Sweat
In the SEC’s weekly honors, two MSU linemen were recognized. Defensive lineman Montez Sweat won Defensive Lineman of the Week and right guard Deion Calhoun won Offensive Lineman of the Week.
Sweat put up a career-best 2.5 tackles for a loss in seven total tackles against Kentucky, in addition to 1.5 sacks. A performance of that caliber was only a matter of time for him
“I think if you continue to come, you continue to keep fighting, those things (statistics) eventually balance out,” defensive coordinator Todd Grantham said. “In that game, it became more of a true dropback game and a guy like (Sweat) was able to use his ability.”
Calhoun was credited with three knockdowns and a 93 percent grade by the coaching staff, the best of all MSU offensive linemen for the Kentucky game. Behind Calhoun and company, MSU ran for 282 yards.
Kickoff set for UMass
MSU’s next home game will kick off at 11 a.m. on SEC Network. UMass — which collected its first win of the season last week after beating winless Georgia Southern — will visit MSU on Nov. 4.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter, @Brett_Hudson
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