3 takeaways from Mississippi State’s 41-28 victory against Western Michigan

Mississippi State desperately needed to get a win as the Bulldogs entered Saturday on a 3-game losing streak. It wasn’t pretty, but in the end, the Bulldogs did just enough to escape with a 41-28 win against Western Michigan.

The Bulldogs built a 10-0 lead early in the game, and then the game was pretty even the rest of the way. Quarterback Will Rogers was 16-0f-22 for 189 yards and 3 touchdowns before he left with a shoulder injury.

Here are some takeaways as Zach Arnett’s team has a week off to rest and get prepared for an Oct. 21 matchup at Arkansas.

Pass defense still is not where it needs to be

Even though the Bulldogs got the win, there are still a lot of things this team needs to fix. Western Michigan played 2 quarterbacks, and they were a combined 33-of-45 for 297 yards and 3 touchdowns and 1 interception. The secondary didn’t give up any huge big plays, but it was just a constant ability to find the open receiver and complete the pass.

Mississippi State’s Nathaniel Watson had 2 sacks for the Bulldogs, but the quarterbacks had a clean pocket for the majority of the game.

The secondary will be have to be a lot better as the team gets back into SEC play. They still have games against top 25 teams like Kentucky and Ole Miss.

Jo’Quavious Marks still not touching the ball a lot

This has been something Bulldogs have been seemingly been asking about all year, and he once again didn’t get very many carries.

In Mississippi State’s first 2 games of the year, Marks rushed the ball 43 times for 25o yards and 3 touchdowns. However, in the 4 games since, he has only 39 carries. Marks is a very talented player, and it is just confusing why he is not seeing the ball more. Even when the Bulldogs  were trying to run the clock out late in the fourth quarter, he wasn’t seeing the ball a lot.

Even against Alabama last week, he had 68 yards on 9 carries; good for a 7.6 yards per carry average. He is a very talented running back, and on an offense that doesn’t have a ton of playmakers, he should be touching the ball more.

Defense did a good job of getting off the field

While the Bulldogs did have their problems slowing down Western Michigan, one thing the defense did well was get off the field. Western Michigan was only 6-of-18 on 3rd down conversions, allowing the Bulldogs to give the ball back to the offense.

Mississippi State hasn’t been very good at stopping opponents on the 3rd down, as the Bulldogs entered Saturday ranking 95th in opponents 3rd down percentage (42.6%). That is a huge statistic because as many yards as the Broncos got, just a couple more conversions on 3rd down could have meant a different result on Saturday.

The Bulldogs are off next Saturday before traveling to Fayetteville to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Mark Kern