Dak Prescott had his best game as a Mississippi State Bulldog in a 34-29 win over LSU in Death Valley last weekend, and the nation is beginning to take notice.

Prescott dazzled fans with both his arm and his legs, and made perhaps the play of the night on a 56-yard touchdown run one drive after he lost a fumble that LSU would return for a touchdown.

Take a look at the play below, and then we’ll discuss it further:

To the naked eye, it appears Prescott simply runs through a hole at the line of scrimmage then out-runs the LSU defense for a touchdown. The play is impressive nonetheless, but most fans credit the touchdown to nothing more than the dual-threat quarterback’s athleticism.

Those fans are dead wrong, as there is much more to this play that meets the eye.

The start of the play is indeed rather elementary. Mississippi State lined up five wide receivers in its formation, forcing the LSU defense to thin out and cover sideline-to-sideline. Prescott then executes a designed run inside against a defense with very few defenders in the box.

Mississippi State relied on this strategy time and time again because, frankly, LSU never made an adjustment to stop it. However, to be fair, if the Tigers had elected to load the box, Prescott would have checked to a pass and thrown to a wideout in single-coverage, which is why he gives opposing defenses nightmares every week.

Back to the play, Prescott follows a gaping hole on the right side of the offensive line created by right tackle Justin Senior and right guard Ben Beckwith, which made picking up a first down a rather easy task. It’s not a very sophisticated blocking scheme — Senior clears his man to the right and Beckwith seals his man to the left, and Prescott splits the two lineman with ease on his way up the field.

Once Prescott reaches the open field, his true brilliance is put on display. He begins to head toward the middle of the field, aiming to elude an LSU safety waiting for him near the Tigers’ midfield logo. The defender takes a decent angle, and appears to have a chance to bring Prescott down by his legs. However, rather than simply run up field as fast as he can, the quarterback shows the presence of mind to stiff arm the defender to the ground without breaking stride, keeping the play alive without sacrificing speed or momentum toward the end zone.

He runs another 30-or-so yards without a defender in sight, then meets a pack of Tigers inside the 20 yard line. Again, rather than simply trying to out-run the defenders, he cuts right on a dime and breaks cornerback Jalen Collins’ ankles in the process (sources have not confirmed nor denied whether Collins had to retrieve his jock strap after the play). At that point, it’s smooth sailing toward the right pylon.

The play ends with a valiant dive into the end zone followed by a modest celebration from a player who seems to understand the big picture of Mississippi State’s season.

Prescott’s athleticism, intelligence and poise are all on display in one spectacular run to the end zone, resulting in a touchdown that could be listed among the plays of the year by season’s end.