Mississippi State head coach Jeff Lebby had plenty to look at on Sunday when reviewing his team’s win over Northern Illinois. The Huskies fell far behind in the end, but had plenty of chances to make the game more interesting in the second half. The Bulldogs had to overcome their own mistakes to get to 4-0, but in doing so learned a bit more about themselves.
Here are some of the standouts from the win on Saturday.
Standout Stat: MSU penalties, 11 for 103 yards
The biggest negative for MSU on offense was once again the penalties. The Bulldogs saw a few offensive plays negated by holds, and the special teams unit had a bad day all around with five penalties and a shanked punt.
“There’s things happening from a non-playing standpoint,” Lebby said. “We have the third-and-4 where we don’t have enough on the line of scrimmage, that’s just bad football. That’s the attention to detail. We had the three holds, I thought one of them was here and there, but the other two were no doubt. We were in good body position, we got to let go and not hold. We got huge runs on those plays where it’s not just a 10-yard penalty, it’s understanding what it’s doing to us situationally and how it’s taking chunk runs off the board.”
Lebby emphasized the importance of cleaning up, especially with the schedule intensifying now. It’s not the sort of position the Bulldogs want to be in when they’re playing against guys who will play on Sundays.
“We were able to overcome,” Lebby said,” but we don’t want to have to overcome.”
Standout Stat: MSU rushing offense, 292 yards and 6 yards per carry
The Bulldogs are a team that can pound the rock once again.
As a team, MSU picked up 292 yards on the ground against the Huskies, averaging 6 yards per carry as a team with eight different ball carriers. Fluff Bothwell has emerged as the workhorse back and posted his first game over the century mark.
Despite the penalties, the offensive line showed growth in the ground game and got a push against a stout NIU front seven.
“I think it’s a cohesion thing,” center Canon Boone said of the improvement in the run game. “We kind of dialed in with guys that can help us big on the field, getting reps with certain groups that are going to play, and also a bit more confident in the run schemes. Getting more comfortable with that, and also, our running backs are incredible. We could be completely wrong up front and still gain three, four, five yards.”
Isaac Smith
The leading tackler for the Bulldogs and the entire SEC has not missed a beat as a junior so far. He leads the team in total tackles with 24, but has just two solo tackles, a positive show of the defense’s ability to track the play and gang up on opposing players.
He had six tackles on Saturday, and in addition to his work in the run game, Smith came up with a big play at safety to fuel a second-half shutout of the visitors. He snagged his first career interception on a shot to the end zone by NIU quarterback Josh Holst, tracking it across the field and getting a foot down on the leaping effort to secure the ball and give the offense possession with a touchback.
“It’s crazy because earlier that week in practice, we had a play like that, a slot fade. The quarterback is going to his No. 1 guy, it’s just me back there reading his eyes and going to make a play on the ball. It felt good. I’ve been here for three years, and that moment in the stadium in front of my family and friends was so fun.”
Blake Shapen
The MSU quarterback wasn’t happy with his own performance on Saturday, going 12-20 for just 160 yards and one touchdown in the passing game. He missed on three deep balls with players open as well, though he made up for it in the second half with bombs to Anthony Evans and Jordan Mosley, respectively, to set up scoring drives in the red zone.
Shapen was blunt with his personal evaluation, but he also shared the words of his head coach that helped pick him up afterwards.
“After the game, Coach Lebby is walking out. I look at him like, ‘I didn’t play my best game,’ and he said, ‘The good thing is that we won 38-10 and you didn’t play your best game,’” Shapen said. “Obviously, winning the game is the most important thing you want to do, but being able to take things from that and move forward, and knowing last year we were on the wrong side a lot of the time. There are things we need to clean up, but we’re playing really good football.”
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