STARKVILLE — No. 16 Mississippi State’s otherwise steady ship sank Saturday at Davis Wade Stadium as the Bulldogs fell to Southeastern Conference bottom-feeder Arkansas 21-14.
One week after sailing its frigate into southern Louisiana and pillaging then-No. 6 LSU’s national title celebration, MSU and its air raid offense looked more the part of a tugboat in its slow and listless performance.
After anointing himself the second-coming of 2019 Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow in Baton Rouge, former Stanford signal-caller K.J. Costello’s mortality shone against an Arkansas team that had lost 20-straight SEC games entering Saturday.
Gone was the sharpness that saw Costello break the single-game MSU and conference passing records in Baton Rouge. Instead, it was replaced with his second pick-six in as many weeks, a second interception on a forced pass along the Arkansas sideline and a devastating third giveaway on a simple underthrow deep in Arkansas territory.
With the SEC’s reigning leading rusher and Columbus native Kylin Hill sidelined after he was injured on his first carry of the contest, the Bulldogs’ limited first half rushing attack relied on the freshman tandem of Jo’quavious Marks and Dillon Johnson. After just 16 total rushes in last week’s upset over LSU, Marks and Johnson combined for 40 yards on nine carries in the opening 30 minutes and finished the night with 76 yards on 19 attempts.
With stars of the week past Osirus Mitchell and JaVonta Payton largely bottled up, Johnson gave MSU three extra leases on life with a trifecta of fourth down conversions — the last of which was a six-yard touchdown to cut the Arkansas lead to seven.
Costello too, showed flashes of the brilliance he offered to the nation seven days ago. With just under four minutes remaining in the first quarter he rolled to his left and flipped a touch base to a full-stretch Payton in the back left corner of the end zone for MSU’s lone passing touchdown of the night.
But on a crisp evening in Starkville, the Razorback defense cooled Leach’s aerial onslaught that was long on opportunities but shorter on execution.
Twice MSU was stopped on fourth down in the red zone during the fourth quarter. After converting 50 percent of their third downs in the bayou, the Bulldogs were limited to just 4 of 11 in their own confines. A muffed punt by freshman wide receiver Jaden Walley also gifted away a final chance for the Bulldogs to pull even.
Rather than play the man-to-man press coverage that saw LSU get torched for 623 passing yards last week, Arkansas defensive coordinator and former Missouri head coach Barry Odom rushed three for much of the night, content to let eight defensive backs and linebackers cover MSU’s receivers.
In all, Odom’s scheme allowed Costello ample space underneath but little opportunity over the top as he completed 43 of 59 throws but earned just 7.3 yards per completion.
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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