STARKVILLE — With a defense that has played as poorly as Mississippi State’s has for most of this season, the offense cannot afford to waste many scoring chances.
The Bulldogs had a golden opportunity to cut into a 17-point deficit in the second quarter Saturday against Arkansas. MSU started with good field position thanks to a 42-yard kickoff return by Davon Booth, and freshman running back Xavier Gayten, seeing his most significant action in a Bulldogs uniform, picked up 27 yards on two plays to help move the ball into the red zone. Soon, MSU was in business with a first-and-goal on the Razorbacks’ 2-yard line.
Booth tried the middle of the Arkansas defense on both first and second down, to no avail. On third down, quarterback Michael Van Buren faked a jet sweep handoff to Kelly Akharaiyi, then rolled to his right and hit tight end Seydou Traore with a quick pass. Traore had the end zone in his sights but was tripped up at the last moment by Hudson Clark and ruled just short.
Kevin Coleman, the Bulldogs’ leading receiver, was lined up with nobody across from him as MSU readied to snap the ball on fourth down, but the officials stopped the game to review the previous play and were unable to find clear evidence that Traore had scored.
So on fourth-and-goal about a foot from the end zone, backup quarterback Chris Parson took the shotgun snap and tried to take it in himself, but the Razorbacks snuffed out the play immediately. Eric Gregory reached him first, with Bradley Shaw finishing Parson off for a loss and a turnover on downs. The Bulldogs would go on to lose 58-25, extending their skid to seven straight defeats.
“We have to be able to punch it in when we’re at second-and-goal at the 1,” MSU head coach Jeff Lebby said. “I felt good about running the football. Looking back, in the moment, we maybe had the ability to throw it a couple times and create some isolation. So I’ll go back and forth with myself on that.”
Nobody accounts for tight end on short-yardage play
Arkansas opened up that big early lead by moving the ball at will in the opening quarter. The Bulldogs (1-7, 0-5 Southeastern Conference) did manage to hold the Razorbacks (5-3, 3-2) to a field goal on their second drive, and although Arkansas drove swiftly into the red zone on its next possession, linebackers Ty Cooper and Stone Blanton stopped running back Braylen Russell short of the first down line to bring up a fourth-and-1 at the MSU 14.
All 11 Bulldogs defenders sold out to stop the run as the Razorbacks lined up in the I-formation with Russell as the tailback, three tight ends flanking the offensive line and no receivers out wide. But quarterback Taylen Green faked a handoff to Russell and hid the ball behind his back while tight end Luke Hasz snuck behind the entire defense. Nobody was within the same area code as Hasz, and Green found him for the easiest touchdown of his life.
The play epitomized the worst performance yet in a season full of bad days for defensive coordinator Coleman Hutzler’s unit, which allowed 359 yards on the ground and 673 yards in all. Getting to the quarterback has been virtually impossible — MSU is dead last in the country by a wide margin in sack rate at just 1.64 percent.
“We have to find a way to get our guys to play at a better speed, at a better physicality, at a higher level,” Lebby said. “We have to get every single ounce out of them that we possibly can.”
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