Story of the day for the MSU Defense
If you were nothing more than a casual sports fan, or maybe a national sports writer who only had time to check the scores from Saturday, you might miss something when you just skim by the 38-13 final from Starkville. In fact, you would miss the entire story. To put it simply, Mississippi State got crushed, demolished, and absolutely dominated by Texas A&M.
A quick glimpse into the stats you might have missed: 36 First Downs, 361 yds Rushing, 332 yds Passing, 693 total yds on 97 plays, 9/16 on 3rd Downs, 2- 4th Down conversions, 2- 100 yd rushers, 2- WRs with 95+ yds receiving, 3 players with 120+ total yds (and another with 97 yds). Like I said…crushed, demolished, and absolutely dominated.
Though the margin of victory was only 25, I don’t know if MSU has ever been beaten this bad, despite the score. Throw in Croom’s 45-0 loss to LSU at Davis Wade. Throw in all the others from recent seasons or as far back as you can remember, but a Bulldog team has never gotten whipped this bad at home, from an effort, passion, and pride standpoint. Now, this is by far the worst loss in the Mullen era, and one in which Dan took ‘ALL’ of the blame upon himself, but I couldn’t disagree more. And, that’s where I am choosing to go with this article today…#1 Effort, Passion, or Pride, and #2 needed staff changes.
#1 Effort, Passion, or Pride- What happened to the Bulldog Oath? “I Will Give Relentless Effort.” I know I sure as heck didn’t see it. I can understand falling behind 14-0 against a quick strike Offense such as A&M’s, but you make adjustments, you man up, you dig deep, and protect your home field. State displayed extremely weak effort in every facet of the game, on both sides of the ball. On Offense: from the lack of run-blocking and pass protection, to route-running, and not extending plays with our feet from the QB position. On Defense: tackling was laughable, QB pressure was non-existent from LBs and the DL, and the secondary clearly lost focus and was physically ‘owned’ by their WRs on the edges-be it in blocking or coverage situations. Effort is driven by passion and pride. Passion and pride for your STATE, your SCHOOL, your BROTHERS. And the commitment to that passion and pride, means you don’t let those any of those down. The team and coaches apparently haven’t stressed that enough in the last few weeks, because a team that plays the way this team did on Saturday, has completely forgot the meaning of WHAT and WHO you play for. The ‘Bulldog’ name-brand took a hit on Saturday. Either this team isn’t very good, or needs a reminder about passion and pride, and a heck of a lot sooner than Egg Bowl week. Because there’s a school up north that plays with passion and pride, that doesn’t have anywhere near the talent that State does, but that gets every ounce of ‘what matters’ from each and every player that steps between the lines. And it’s passion, and it’s pride that has made the difference for them. It’s passion and pride that will determine whether MSU wins 7, 8, 9, or 10 games this season. Does this team have it? I wonder, because I’ve never been more embarrassed of my team’s effort in a home game, on national TV, in my entire life.
Good L’awd Dan, get me in the locker room for pregame and I’ll have them running through the walls. Yall feeling this?
#2 Coaching Changes- Koenning/Wilson: I’m not one to start jumping ship, or blaming the leader or leaders when the Dawgs falter, but there’s common themes that occur, and there are philosophies that have and will hold us back, be it Offensively or Defensively. And, when you consider Koenning and Wilson, you have to wonder when Mullen will HAVE to move away from his rolodex hires. All coaches have them when they are starting from scratch, like Mullen had to in Starkville. You know, the available coaches you call or pull away from schools to come be a part of your staff. Not because they are great, but because they can fill the need for the moment or a few years, and who knows, they might even have shown some promise at their previous school. Offensively, we have the best QB in MSU’s history, yet we are happy to do nothing more, than run a slow-developing, sluggish pro-style Offense out of the shotgun, and call it the spread. This is not the spread. I heard a statement one time: You can put syrup on crap, but it don’t make it pancakes. The ‘spread, actually ‘spreads’ out the opposing Defense, gets the ball to playmakers in open space, and plays to the strength of your QB. I really don’t think we are doing any of that. If you want to see a spread Offense that’s built on those aspects, look at A&M. They actually spread Defenses out, get the ball out of the QB’s hands quickly, get the ball in the hands of their playmakers in open space, and after one simple juke or shift, they are headed for green pasture, picking up yards in chunks. Les Koenning is out-dated, non-creative, overly conservative, and predictable. It’s time for a young, fresh innovative mind to take the reigns of State’s Offense. If I’m Mullen, I look to a team like Oklahoma State, who lets their QB sling it 45-50 times a game, but that still has a run game when they need it. I know they’re not on top of the world right now, but consider Oklahoma State’s success over the last 5 years…can you name a running QB for them? Nope. You don’t have to have a running QB to run a spread system. Now, I don’t want to be a team that abandons the run, but when you have Tyler’s arm in your arsenal, you have to be more creative. Why on earth, are you down 31-0, yet elect to run the ball on the first possession of the 2nd half?!? I would have went 5-wide-empty, and let Russell throw it 40 times to try and catch up, which lets the entire team and fan-base know that we aren’t laying down and quitting. Les Koenning quit on this football team, and is not the future of the Bulldog Offense. And the 3 & Outs killed our Defense, who was on the field for 97 plays, compared to our 57. Ever notice how both- Koenning and Chris Wilson, seem to stumble on the big stage as well. As much as I liked Wilson’s promotion 2 years ago, I can’t see where his Defense, or Manny Diaz’s Defense, can survive much longer. We all know the pains of a risk vs reward style Defense now, and don’t even get me started on the bend but don’t break mentality. What Mullen needs, is a pro-style Defense, that plays man coverage, and a strong occasional zone (not soft), that actually gets pressure up front on the opposing Offense’s QB and run game, and still forces turnovers. People look at the Bama game and the A&M games, and might point out where a certain player was out of position to make a play, but that’s more than likely coaching. Coaching was what put them in the position they were in before the snap. Coaching tells you how to adjust to what you see before the snap and after the snap as well. We can’t put this completely on the players like some want to do. So, if I’m Mullen, I go get an up-and-coming Saban, Muschamp, or Chavis disciple and bring them in. They exist, you just have to find them. We have become a FINESSE Defense. That’s not MSU Football.
I say all of this, to say that I firmly believe that Mullen has too much pride in what he has built, to let it continue to go down the road of mediocrity. And, if he is going to continue to be the type of coach he is-which is the type that trusts his assistants to put our guys in the position to win ballgames, he won’t allow this to carry over into next season. He needs coaches he can trust in everything from game prep to play-calls. I think Mullen has stood by and allowed Koenning and Wilson to call the game their way even to a fault at times, but it ends with this season (Ask Carl Torbush). Mullen has molded MSU into a team that’s going to make a Bowl Game every season under his watch. The question is, will he do what it takes in taking that next step to turn State into a ‘true’ SEC West contender. It won’t happen, if keeps the Rolodex hires around.
Time for a ‘Come to Jesus’ meeting for the coaches and players….Pride, effort, and passion are needed from both!
Your thoughts?
Maroon State of Mind 
I completely agree ima. Sitting at home watching the game this weekend on tv, and I have never said this in my entire life, made me happy I did not go to the game. I had the opportunity to escape the embarassment by changing channels for a little while. A few more of my observations from the game:
1) Tyler holds on to the ball too long to a fault – One of things I love about Tyler is that he is not afraid to stand in the pocket and deliver a pass right before he takes a hit. He has the mental fortitude to know he is going to take a hit and still get the ball off. However, it is usally way too late in the play that he is doing that. While I love that characteristis, it usually relates to him holding the ball way too long. During the broadcast, one of the announcers said Les worked with Tyler with a stop watch this week trying to work on getting the ball out quicker. I have to wonder if Les set that stop watch to 10 seconds and told Tyler to beat the watch. I think alot of this goes to play calling as well as ima said. The plays are slow developing and not creative at all.
2) Play calling – ima, I know I mentioned this to you at church yesterday, but halfway through the 3rd quarter we are down 31-7 and they flashed Tyler Russell’s stats: 6-11. Yes, we are down 24 in the 3rd quarter and Tyler has thrown the ball only 11 times. 11 TIMES. That is poor play calling. How do you expect to get your players to fight back in the game when your play calling won’t allow them. Where have our tight ends gone? Where have the screen passes gone? Where have the WR screens gone? Why does it always feel like we completely go away from things that work? I gave Les alot of cushion over the last few years because of personnel, especially at QB, restricting his ability to call plays. At this point, I am not so certain that he is not restricting himself on the play calling.
We have 3 games left this year. And while the LSU game is going to be just a difficult if not more than our last two games, we can still win all 3. The last I checked, they haven’t declared LSU the winner yet. Our guys better have that chip back on their shoulders. Our coaches better realize that at some point the season is going to be over and there is no one left to save any of the play calling for.
#ISTILLBELIEVE in my team.
Civil a lot of tylers faults are in the play calling. It doesn’t take a football genius to figure out when your opponent is blitzing from the LB position you run quick slants, posts, and TE dumps. aTm used their LB’s to blitz and we ran routes that took way too long to develop thus resulting in sacks and hurries. I am one that never leaves a game early or turns the tv off when state plays, but the aTm drive after halftime showed we made absolutely ZERO adjustments in half was more than I could take. I turned the tv off and went outside to enjoy the beautiful day.
Yeah, I completely agree that is goes to play calling. We have to give him options that can get the call out of hands quickly. I did the same things bleed, I turned the tv off and took my kid out to the playground with my wife. Nothing like spending time with your family to make you realize it is just football and there is no reason it should have a negative impact on the other areas of your life, even if my tendency is to let it.
Good points Civil, I agree that Russell is holding on to the ball too long, and simply needs to move in the pocket and make plays with his feet.
On the same note, WRs have to come back to the ball and create too. But yes, our plays take too long to develop, and looks sluggish. The WRs also have to get open, and with 4 or 5 senior WRs, that should happen and doesn’t.
Well said. To put it simple, we were outplayed, out coached, out hustled. aTm came to play and we never got off the bus. They came out and hit us in the mouth and we laid down and let them walk all over us. First time I’ve seen a MSU team simply quit in years. I don’t know what happened to the team. Maybe Mullen said some things after the Bama game that stirred up a little animosity among the palyers and coaches? It was clear that after they scored 2 tds just like that, we had no intention of changing our gameplan, if we even had one to start with. We looked lost on offense like we have never ran those plays before. We looked lost on D like we were shocked at what aTm did and have never heard of Johnny Football. I am at a loss. If something doesn’t change, mark it, we WILL NOT win another game. I don’t think we are a bad team, although I admit we are not as good as I once hoped/believed. I think we are on about the same level overall as the 2010 team and we still have a chance to win 9-10 games, but somethings gotta give. I agree ima Mullen needs to take a good hard look at his staff and make some changes because what we are doing now is not working. If you all haven’t read Locke’s article form the other day, you need to. I’m not a locke fan, but he hit the nail on the head. I’m all for our administration coming up with new and innovative ideas to market our program but at some point we need to stop focusing on all the gimmicks and hashtag and uniform mess and focus on winning ball games. I love alternate unis and such as much as the next guy but at times like saturday, it makes us look like fools. We start looking like the big fat bully kid on the end of the street that runs his mouth and says look at what I have and then gets his tail whipped by the kid that rarely says anything at all. I’m as frustrated as you all are, and I hope we can at least play a respectable game in Baton Rouge this weekend. Hail State guys.
Agree Bleed, completely. If we don’t clean up what we’ve seen the last 2 games, then we are in trouble.
It’s ok to be innovative, but focus on what matters most…WINS. EFFORT. PRIDE. PASSION.
Gotta rebound, play respectable football in Baton Rouge, come home and beat Arkansas, and go to Oxford and win. If we win 9 regular season games, then I’ll feel a lot better about this season. We can either man up and make the most of what’s left, or stink it up and hope to pick up an 8th win in our lower tier bowl game.
If we beat Ark and tsun, and finish with 9 wins, then people could simply look back and say they had 2 bad weeks but played LSU tough. Then most media will say that we were supposed to lose to Bama and LSU, and that leaves us with just the brain fart vs aTm. Just trying to spin this the way that they might… 😉
The thing that really surprised me was just the lack of effort on defense. The offense had trouble and Tyler has to learn to get rid of the ball (which I agree could definitely be helped by calling quick passes) but at time Cam Lawrence was the ONLY guy trying on defense. LSU put up nearly 500 yds last week on Bama. If they open up the offense like that this Saturday and State doesnt give better effort, it could be even uglier given that State will definitely be outmanned on the line of scrimmage this week.
I don’t see LSU getting too far away from their conservative identity. They let loose some due to the magnitude of the game, but wonder if they will again. They should! They looked good doing it.
I agree about our D. Everyone else looked sluggish and unfocused.