STARKVILLE — The same Florida offense that averaged six rushes of 10 yards or more was held to three by Mississippi State on Saturday. It averaged a pedestrian 3.5 yards per carry and never had a pass longer than 20 yards.
The only knock against the No. 23 MSU defense’s performance was it wasn’t enough on this given Saturday.
An offense in crisis will be the talking point from MSU’s 13-6 loss to Florida (4-1, 2-1 Southeastern Conference), but lost in the shuffle is a defensive performance that was undeniably good enough in almost any other circumstances.
“I thought we did a pretty good job stopping the run,” MSU coach Joe Moorhead said. “We didn’t necessarily break. For the most part, I thought they did a good job of getting off the field on third down and forcing field goals in the red zone.”
The Gators did miss more than they hit on third down, converting five of 14 opportunities. Defensive end Gerri Green thought the unit performed well, even if it left a couple of plays to be made; one in particular will haunt defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons.
The Macon native may never forget the trick play Florida used to score a touchdown, a double pass.
“All I could think about after that play was against Georgia last year,” Simmons said. “Eyes. We had bad eyes against that and I kind of figured that’s what made him do that play. We have to fix those issues.”
Schexnayder at punter
Moorhead said after the loss to Kentucky that he was searching for more distance from punters and would open competition to find it. The result, at least on Saturday, was a switch from Tucker Day to Kody Schexnayder.
Schexnayder punted five times to Day’s one after four games of Day punting 12 times to Schexnayder’s one. Over those 12 punts through four games, Day averaged 38.8 yards per punt, downing four inside the 20-yard line and taking one for 50 yards or more; in five punts against Florida, Schexnayder averaged 36.2 yards, getting one downed inside the 20. Day’s one punt went 45 yards.
Been here before
The circumstances — namely, most of the opposing coaching staff — made the loss to Florida different from most, but even in that element, MSU feels it has been in this situation before and come out from it.
“This sucks, obviously, two weeks in a row, but last year we went to Georgia and Auburn and got our tails handed to us two weeks in a row,” quarterback Nick Fitzgerald said. “We came back and fought back the rest of the season. We obviously have the means to do it, we can’t get down on ourselves, we have to learn from this film and get better.
“All it is is execution things, little things here and there and we’ll be fine.”
One notable difference from that situation to this one: last year’s team was benefitted by a well-placed bye week. After it lost to Georgia 31-3 and to Auburn 49-10, it had a week off before two home games against Kentucky and a BYU team that was ultimately 4-9. This team doesn’t have that luxury, with Auburn coming to Starkville next week and a trip to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, two weeks after that.
Still, the Bulldogs believe the approach to the turnaround is the same.
“All you can do it pick everybody up, come in tomorrow and work harder,” wide receiver Deddrick Thomas said. “We all a family. We came as a team, we win as a team and we lose as a team. When your brother falls down, you help pick him back up.”
Simmons added, “Adversity’s striking — two losses back-to-back, that’s a lot of adversity hitting us right now — but with the guys I know we have on this team, we’re going to bounce back from this adversity and we’re going to respond.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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