STARKVILLE — Although excited to get a win, Mississippi State linebacker DeAndre Ward wasn’t as happy as he could be.
Playing a Football Championship Series team is supposed to be easy for most Football Bowl Subdivision teams. Most FCS schools don’t have the talent to compete with FBS schools, especially ones in the Southeastern Conference.
But that wasn’t the case for Ward and the Bulldogs. MSU’s defense was gashed for 627 yards and needed a late stand to hold off Samford 56-41 Saturday at Davis Wade Stadium.
“It’s very frustrating, but at the same time we won the game,” Ward said. “We’ll go in and make corrections because we know that we’re close. We’re going to watch the film and there’s going to be plays we know we can correct. We just have to get better.”
Samford (6-2), which is ranked No. 19 in the FCS Coaches poll, ran 104 plays, 23 more than MSU (3-5).
After Westin Graves missed a 24-yard field goal wide left, Samford took over at its 20 yard line trailing 49-41 with 8 minutes, 56 seconds remaining. MSU forced quarterback Devlin Hodges to throw three incompletions and Samford had to punt.
MSU used a 1-yard touchdown by quarterback Nick Fitzgerald on the next drive to put the game away.
“It’s consistent effort. It’s consistently straining to the ball and finishing plays,” Ward said. “We’re so close. We’ve just got to finish plays. We’re in position, but you’ve got to keep finishing, keep straining, and keep working hard.”
Hodges was 42 of 69 for 468 yards and three touchdowns. He threw three interceptions and was sacked three times. However, he helped Samford stay close with MSU. Trailing 49-26 late in the third quarter, he led two scoring drives to pull Samford to 49-41. Hodges hit Kelvin McKnight for a 7-yard touchdown and then handed off to Roland Adams for a 2-yard touchdown. After the Adams touchdown, he started a reverse that led to TaDarryl Marshall rushing in for the two-point conversion.
MSU coach Dan Mullen was disappointed by several things on defense.
“We had way too many missed tackles. That was really disappointing in the back end,” Mullen said. “We knew they were a good offense, a super high-tempo offense, going to throw the ball all over the place. We’ve got to clean up some of our tackling. We’ve got to be able to get off the field on third downs.”
Samford was 9 of 23 on third downs and 4 of 5 on fourth downs.
Mullen said he had quick conversations with the defensive players when they came off the field because he had to get back to calling the plays for the offense. He reminded the players and the coaches what was expected of them and told them to make the necessary adjustments.
Ward scored his first career touchdown when he returned an interception 35 yards to put MSU ahead 49-26. He said his last touchdown came as a senior at Wetumpka (Ala.) High School.
“We knew they had to get to the sticks, so we just dropped,” Ward said. “The D-line did a great job of getting pressure and he just made a bad throw, high throw. Dude tipped it and I caught it. My teammates did a great job blocking me to the end zone.”
In the last five games, MSU has given up 35 or more points four times. Mullen said that is concerning because there isn’t one thing he can point to. He said he and his coaches have tried unsuccessfully to simplify things.
“You have missed assignments, you have a guy going the wrong way, a guy not getting off of a block, or a guy missing a tackle,” Mullen said.
Under first-year defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon and a new defensive coaching staff, the adjustments have taken time, but Ward said MSU has to be better if it wants to compete in SEC Western Division. MSU finishes the season with four-straight SEC West foes.
“It’s just going out there playing defense and not letting them score on any drive,” Ward said.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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