STARKVILLE — It looked for a quarter like Mississippi State would somehow sink even lower than it already has this season.
Facing a Massachusetts team that has spent most of the last decade wandering through the FBS abyss, the Bulldogs lost nine yards on their first two drives, while the Minutemen gained 113 and took an early 10-point lead. But MSU settled down and found its offensive rhythm, taking a multi-score lead by halftime en route to a 45-20 win Saturday at Davis Wade Stadium.
The Bulldogs (2-7) were hardly perfect — far from it. Pass protection remains a major issue, with freshman quarterback Michael Van Buren taking three sacks in the first half and getting hit hard after several other throws. The defense struggled to get off blocks, especially early on, and UMass (2-7) rushed for 113 yards in the first half.
But Van Buren rebounded from a 2-for-7 start and accounted for all three of his team’s first-half touchdowns, two of them on designed runs and one on a play-action pass to a wide-open tight end Seydou Traore. The MSU running game took some time to get going, but Johnnie Daniels found a hole for a 35-yard pickup that jump-started a 97-yard touchdown drive.
That drive started with an interception by cornerback Brylan Lanier, who took advantage of an overthrown pass from Minutemen quarterback Taisun Phommachanh. The Bulldogs then forced punts the next three times its defense was on the field, including a three-and-out to start the second half.
Defensive penalties hurt UMass throughout the game — the Minutemen were twice called for roughing the passer and also had a pass interference in the end zone, a facemask and an illegal hands to the face called against them.
Daniels sprinted right through the teeth of the UMass defense for a 36-yard touchdown run on MSU’s first drive of the second half to extend the Bulldogs’ lead to 18. With third-string quarterback AJ Hairston in the game for the Minutemen, UMass drove into MSU territory on its next possession before a sack by Kai McClendon and Deonte Anderson forced another punt. It was the Bulldogs’ first sack since Sept. 28 at Texas.
Davon Booth added a 30-yard rushing touchdown later in the third quarter to make it 35 unanswered points for MSU. Freshman Xavier Gayten put the exclamation mark on the victory in the fourth with a 72-yard burst to the end zone for the first touchdown of his collegiate career.
Takeaways
1. The Bulldogs were able to shake off a slow start. MSU’s offense has taken some time to get going in several games this year, leading to previous non-conference losses against Arizona State and Toledo. After each team’s first two drives Saturday, the Bulldogs were staring a potential 1-11 season right in the face. But they didn’t panic and turned things around on both sides of the ball, doing what a power conference team is supposed to do against UMass.
2. These players haven’t given up. MSU has been aching for a second win ever since it became clear that this was a lost season, and made progress against Texas, Georgia and Texas A&M before taking a significant step back last week against Arkansas. The Bulldogs are still competing and playing hard, and they were able to sing the fight song after the clock hit zeros for the first time in more than two months.
3. The final three-game stretch still looks incredibly daunting. MSU visits No. 7 Tennessee next week, then hosts No. 25 Missouri after a bye before facing No. 19 Ole Miss in Oxford for the Egg Bowl. The Bulldogs haven’t finished winless in Southeastern Conference play since 2002, but it would take nearly everything going right for MSU to avoid that fate this fall.
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