LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Dan Mullen didn’t need a statistic sheet to tell him how he felt Saturday after his Mississippi State football team lost to the No. 6 University of Arkansas 44-17 at War Memorial Stadium.
MSU’s third-year coach knew what he wanted to say.
“That’s probably collectively as bad as we’ve played I think since I’ve been the head coach, and that falls on my shoulders,” Mullen said as he walked in the postgame press conference. “We need to make sure we have a better performance out there on the field.”
MSU (5-6, 1-6 Southeastern Conference) failed to earn a first down in the third quarter, and, at one point, had the same number of three-and-out drives as first downs.
The 27-point margin was the second largest blowout for MSU under Mullen. Only a 31-3 loss to the University of Alabama in 2009 at Davis Wade Stadium was worse.
When asked if he felt like if one play could’ve flipped the momentum and gotten MSU’s offense back on track, Mullen shook his head and said he didn’t see any life on that side of the football.
“We weren’t executing well at all (because) we come out and have one-on-one coverage but the throw just wasn’t even close,” Mullen said. “They run a similar play and get a touchdown in the back of the end zone and we have Chad Bumphis open the same way and overthrow it.”
Saturday night marked the fourth-straight game in the SEC that MSU failed to top the 300 yards of offense. The Bulldogs got 78 yards of their 211 in the fourth quarter when the result was already decided.
“When you play as bad as we were in this game and as bad as we ever have since I got here, that’s all on me,” Mullen said. “That’s me not having this team ready the way they needed to be.”
After starting quarterback Tyler Russell struggled in a 7-of-15, 55-yard performance, Mullen wasted no time in his opening statement naming Russell the starter for his team’s game against the University of Mississippi at 6:30 p.m. Saturday (ESPNU) at Davis Wade Stadium. By doing so, Mullen wanted to end speculation about the depth chart and to nullify weeks of talk that the starter is determined by the player’s performance in practice the week leading up to the game.
“Tyler Russell will be the starting quarterback for us next week,” Mullen said. “I expect Chris (Relf) to play next week (and) maybe Dylan (Favre) as well. We’ll see how that goes in practice.”
Mullen tried to flip the momentum by going for it on fourth-and inches inside his 29-yard-line, but the draw handoff to senior tailback Vick Ballard went for a loss. MSU is 7 of 13 on fourth downs this season, but none of them have been in Bulldog territory.
Mullen said the key drive came after defensive tackle Fletcher Cox blocked a 32-yard field goal attempt by Zach Hocker with the Bulldogs trailing 14-10 with less than four minutes to go in the first half.
MSU had two incomplete passes and another three-and-out that forced punter Baker Swedenburg to make his third of seven kicks.
Arkansas (10-1, 6-1) used just 14 offensive plays to score 10 points and build MSU’s second-largest halftime deficit (24-10) since it trailed 21-3 in a loss at Georgia on Oct. 1.
“I told the offense, you have to go down and score right here and then we’ll own the rest of this game,” Mullen said. “That’s the second time this year we’ve given up points right before half like that. Those are huge momentum swings.”
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