NASHVILLE — In an instant, it was over.
Just five plays after Louisville receiver Devante Peete corralled a wide-open 24-yard touchdown reception courtesy of a coverage breakdown by Mississippi State freshman cornerback Jarrian Jones, senior quarterback Tommy Stevens took off running.
Spinning off an initial tackler as he desperately tried to convert a third-and-22, Stevens was simultaneously smacked from behind by Louisville defensive lineman Gary McCrae. Scooping up the ensuing loose ball, Cardinals defensive back Khane Pass scooted down the sideline for the 23rd of Louisville’s 31 unanswered points in Monday’s 38-28 win over the Bulldogs in the 2019 Music City Bowl.
“I’ve got to take better care of the ball,” Stevens said postgame as he fought back tears. “Obviously a big play in the game.”
On paper, Monday’s matchup favored the Bulldogs. Junior running back Kylin Hill — who led the Southeastern Conference with 1,347 yards entering the contest — was set to face a Louisville defense that ranked among the nation’s worst units against the run. But instead of exploiting the Cardinals’ porous rush defense, Hill concluded his day with 3 yards on seven carries after he suffered a lower-body injury on the first play from scrimmage that limited his productivity.
Stevens was similarly ineffective. After guiding the Bulldogs to scoring drives of 99 and 80 yards in the game’s early going, the former Penn State signal caller capped off his tumultuous time in Starkville with a 17-of-26, 221-yard passing effort — though 61 of those yards came in the final three minutes of the game with the Bulldogs down three possessions.
Defensively, MSU looked the part of a team that had lost four starting defensive backs to a combination of injuries and NFL Draft decisions over the past month and a half.
With a patchwork secondary, Louisville quarterback Micale Cunningham torched the Bulldogs for 279 yards and two touchdowns through the air and another 81 yards on the ground — the former of which eclipsed Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson’s passing numbers in the 2017 meeting between the Bulldogs and Cardinals in the Gator Bowl.
Junior linebacker Erroll Thompson was also a non-factor after appearing on the game’s first play before finishing the game in street clothes along the MSU sideline due to an injury he exacerbated while lifting during holiday break.
“That definitely made the margin of error in the pass rush game,” junior defensive end Kobe Jones said of missing so many pieces defensively. “It eventually took a toll on us but, like I said, no excuses — we’ve got to ride with the guys we’ve got.”
With the loss, the Bulldogs now enter the offseason with far more questions than answers. Moorhead concludes his second season in Starkville with another bowl game loss and drops to 0-5 in games his team has had multiple weeks to prepare for.
Further troubling, the offense — a unit that was expected to take a step forward given Stevens’ deep understanding of Moorhead’s system dating back to their days in Happy Valley — finishes the year as the nation’s 68th-best group, just three spots better than last season’s squad.
Despite that, as Moorhead sat in the postgame press conference room in the underbelly of Nissan Stadium flanked by Stevens and fellow seniors Jaquarius Landrews and Darryl Williams, the second-year head coach remained up-beat about his team’s performance in 2019.
“Head football coaches, sometimes at the end of your career, you think you’re going to write a book and talk about your career and each season as a chapter, and this season was a book in and of itself,” he said in reference to the litany of suspensions and injuries MSU dealt with this year. “Certainly 6-7 was not the outcome we desired, but to get bowl eligible, to win an Egg Bowl and to have this opportunity to play in a bowl game, to me is a credit to these seniors, a credit this staff and a credit to these leaders that we were able to battle through a ton of adversity this season.”
Dawg notes
Several MSU players — including senior running back Nick Gibson — were suspended for Monday’s first quarter due to an internal issue that occurred before the Bulldogs arrived in Nashville.
Moorhead did not disclose what caused the suspensions, and an MSU spokesperson told The Dispatch the matter was handled internally.
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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