It took them more than a quarter to find their form, but once the Mississippi State Bulldogs hit their stride against Southern Miss in the second quarter of Saturday’s showdown, the game was as good as over.

Yes, Southern Miss only has one win since 2012 and no, it is not a surprise Mississippi State won the game convincingly. Still, let’s not over-think this. MSU played an in-state rival on opening night in rainy conditions and laid an absolute slaughter on the Golden Eagles.

As a team, the Bulldogs earned an emphatic A for their performance. But let’s break out the report card and assign grades to each of MSU’s three units: offense, defense and special teams.

Offense: B+

The Mississippi State offense was clicking on all cylinders by the middle of the second quarter, scoring three touchdowns in the final 10 minutes of the first half to seize a commanding 28-0 halftime lead. The Bulldogs scored rather effortlessly on their first drive of the second half, and removed all of their starters not long after that to preserve them for a long season. Dak Prescott threw for nearly 300 yards and four touchdowns in a career night as the new undisputed starter at quarterback. Four different receivers racked up at least 50 yards through the air, two of whom scored multiple times. Josh Robinson amassed 136 yards from scrimmage on 17 touches, and MSU rushed for more than 200 yards as a team.

The only reason the grade here is not an A is because of two first half failures in the red zone. Mississippi State possessed the ball inside the Southern Miss 5 yard line on two different occasions in the first half, failing to come away with points either time. Prescott made his only mistake of the night with an interception in the end zone to kill one of the two chances; the other was a simple goal line stand by the USM defense. The Bulldogs didn’t need any extra scoring to win this game, but the offense must be able to capitalize on red zone opportunities once the team reaches SEC play.

All in all, Prescott was able to spread the ball around and involve a number of MSU’s skill position stars on a strong night offensively, but it wasn’t quite perfect, resulting in a B+ grade Dan Mullen and company can be proud of.

Defense: A

The defense was as close to flawless as you can get against the Golden Eagles. Not only did the Bulldogs’ defense post a shutout on the scoreboard, it also forced three turnovers and held Southern Miss to less than 300 yards of total offense. Thanks to MSU’s defensive prowess, the Golden Eagles were a horrific 4-of-18 on third downs, failing to ever put together an extended drive that even threatened the goose egg on the scoreboard.

Mississippi State had 31 different players make a tackle against USM. That’s right, 31. Sure, some of those tackles came on special teams, but 31 players is a lot. That’s almost enough to fill three entire starting defenses, and every one of those players made a stop in whitewashing the Golden Eagles. Furthermore, only three players recorded more than four tackles for the game, which sounds like a weakness but is actually a strength. Think about it – 31 players recorded a tackle and only three of them recorded more than four. That’s parity, but parity at an incredibly high level. This defense is going to be fresh late in the season with a number of rotating pieces, and MSU’s opponents are going to struggle late in the season when the weather gets cold.

Special Teams: B+

Again, this was ever so close to being an A, but the Bulldogs did show some flaws on special teams that need to be addressed before reaching the meat of their schedule. Mississippi State still doesn’t have one definitive place kicker, and in the team’s only field goal attempt of the night, Westin Graves hooked a 40-yard attempt. Graves and his competitor, Evan Sobiesk, did convert all seven of their PATs, but neither separated himself from the other and MSU blew its only field goal try of the night. What’s worse, the missed field goal can be credited more to long snapper Winston Chapman and Prescott, the holder, than it can to Graves. Chapman’s snap on the missed field goal was poor, and Prescott’s recovery as the holder was even worse. Neither of the two is competing for his job on the field goal unit like Graves and Sobiesk, but they’ll need to figure out the snap-hold exchange to avoid costing MSU points in tight games.

All that said, the rest of the special teams looked tremendous, especially punter Devon Bell. He only had to punt the ball four times as the Bulldogs continued to mount scoring drives, but three of those four punts landed inside the 20 yard line, giving Southern Miss long fields every time it got the ball back. Neither team was able to do much in the return game, a credit to Mississippi State’s coverage teams but a knock on its return units. To summarize: Bell was fantastic and the rest of the special teams were just good, resulting in the B+ grade.