COLLEGE STATION, Texas — With coach Joe Moorhead as its conductor, the Mississippi State football team’s train wreck of a season finally went off the rails.
Following two weeks of impassioned pleas, tearful tales and a notion that last week’s loss to No. 2 LSU offered a glimmer of hope in what has been a hopeless season in Starkville, Moorhead’s squad presented itself as the same old doomed Dawgs of games past during Saturday’s 49-30 loss to Texas A&M in College Station.
“We knew going into the game we’d been decimated by injury, were going to have a bunch of young guys and replacements in there having to play significant and pivotal roles,” Moorhead said. “But at the end of the day, we didn’t get the thing done.”
In what has become the cliched narrative of the 2019 season, it was a slow start on the road that buried the Bulldogs for what felt like the 187th time this year.
While freshman quarterback Garrett Shrader has flashed game-changing ability in spurts, the Charlotte, North Carolina native was wildly inefficient in the early stages of Saturday’s contest. After MSU earned just two first downs on its first three drives of the game, Shrader was a combined 0-of-6 with an interception and a passer rating of -33.3.
“They had some blitz packages that we hadn’t seen and some free safety and strong safety blitzes I wasn’t ready for,” Shrader said postgame “But I missed some things early and my eyes were in the wrong spots and didn’t give us a chance really to throw the ball or set the protection when they did bring some extra guys. So I had to get the ball out quick and just didn’t convert there early.”
Junior running back Kylin Hill, who enjoyed a relative return to form with a 21-carry, 150-yard effort, was also stymied in the game’s early going — struggling to just eight yards in the first quarter.
In all, the Bulldogs finished the first 15 minutes of action with 24 yards of total offense.
“I’ve got to look at the tape to significantly identify what it was, but certainly it wasn’t the fast start that we needed,” Moorhead said.
Conversely, Texas A&M quarterback Kellen Mond looked the part of former Aggie signal-caller and Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel as he routinely shredded a barely pieced together MSU secondary that played without starting cornerbacks Maurice Smitherman and Cameron Dantzler due to injury.
With freshmen Martin Emerson and Jarrian Jones in Smitherman and Dantzler’s places, Mond finished the day 17-of-23 for 234 yards and three touchdowns while his 73.9 percent completion percentage the best of his career.
As Texas A&M receivers danced through the MSU secondary untouched, it was a combination of slants and crossing routes that gave the Bulldogs fits. With MSU playing heavily outside coverage, Mond was able to consistently find open targets over the middle.
“When somebody is banged up, it’s a next man up mentality,” Emerson said. “We all practice hard, work hard, and feel like we were ready for the moment. I feel like I could’ve played better. Got to make plays when it comes to me, but we’ll bounce back.”
Adding to the patterned nature this season has boasted, the Bulldog offense came alive — albeit in a limited sense — in the second half.
MSU totaled eight of its 13 chunk plays in the second 30 minutes, while Shrader was far more effective — completing 9 of his 15 passes and two touchdowns, compared to his first half 4-of-15, one touchdown, one interception effort.
Graduate transfer Isaiah Zuber also notched the first two touchdown receptions of his MSU career on scores of 14 and 38 yards in the third and fourth quarter, respectively.
“We really simplified the game plan and went back to our base stuff,” Shrader said of what helped the offense in the second half.
Speaking with reporters postgame, senior safety Landrews conceded MSU’s four straight losses have begun to wear on the locker room. A defeated Moorhead voiced similar sentiments minutes prior.
“This isn’t where we want to be and this isn’t what we’re about,” he said. “We’ve just got to keep plugging away.”
With four games left in a season that turned sideways in a matter of three games, the harsh realities of mediocrity have begun to set in. Whether it be injuries, suspensions, lack of effort or inconsistency, MSU isn’t where it wants to be — and it may be too late to get there.
Dawg Notes
Eight MSU players were withheld from Saturday’s game for varying reasons.
Senior defensive tackle Lee Autry, junior linebacker Willie Gay Jr., sophomore safety Marcus Murphy and freshman left tackle Kwatrivous Johnson were all suspended for violating team rules.
On the injury front, senior right tackle Greg Eiland (lower body), junior right guard Stewart Reese (lower body) and cornerbacks Cameron Dantzler (upper body) and Maurice Smitherman (lower body) all missed the game.
Moorhead told reporters Monday that Smitherman will miss the remainder of the season.
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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