Mississippi State came to a crossroad a quarter of the way into the 2018 season. The Bulldogs, after two consecutive conference losses, were 3-2 in what was supposed to be an historic season for one of the most talented teams in program history.

The heat under first-year HC Joe Moorhead’s seat was quickly rising among the Bulldogs faithful, who, like everyone else, had extraordinarily high expectations. What was especially frustrating was that the primary reason the team lost those games to Kentucky and Florida – horrible play on offense – was the calling card of their coach, who had built a juggernaut the previous two years as OC at Penn State.

Give credit to Moorhead, though, because he did exactly what good coaches do – adapt and adjust his game plan to better capitalize upon the strengths of his team. The result? A dominating 23-9 win at home over No. 8 Auburn, a game in which the Bulldogs relied heavily on their defense and rushing attack to simply wear down the Tigers.

So, what really changed? Moorhead effectively threw in the towel on stagnant passing attack, and put all of his efforts into the rushing attack, which obviously worked very well. After compiling just 403 yards of offense in the two losses, the Bulldogs more than doubled that Saturday night, racking up 418 yards, including a whopping 349 on the ground.

There was the thought by many, myself included, that Moorhead would be able to improve Fitzgerald’s ability to pass the ball effectively and unleash an element to his game that had been lacking. After all, Moorhead’s star pupil at Penn State, QB Trace McSorley, had thrown for 7,184 yards (62% completion) with a 57/18 TD to INT ratio in 2016 and 2017, averaging 8.8 yards per attempt. Fitzgerald was always a big, athletic kid with a very strong arm, but struggled with accuracy, which many contributed to mechanics. Moorhead would clean that up, right?

Throughout the first 3 games of the season, the offense flashed what we saw from Moorhead’s Penn State unit, as they were averaging 50 points and 587 yards of offense per game (276 passing and 311 rushing). Then came SEC play, and the wheels fell off, as the offense dipped to 6.5 points and 201.5 yards of offense per game. A big culprit to the offense coming to a skidding halt? Fitzgerald trying to pass the ball.

He averaged 29 pass attempts in those two losses, and completed just 46 percent of his passes for 243 yards (no TDs and 1 INT), averaging just 4.1 yards per attempt. Granted, he didn’t get much help from his teammates, but you can’t deny that Fitzgerald was holding the offense back trying to balance the offense with his arm.

So, Moorhead did what he had to do, and that was pull the plug on trying to develop Fitzgerald the passer — perhaps for good. Against the Tigers, Fitzgerald attempted just 17 passes (completing 9 for 69 yards), and instead carried the ball 28 times for 195 yards and 2 TDs. The Bulldogs as a team ran the ball 57 times for 349 yards, averaging 6.1 yards per carry against a very talented Auburn front seven.

Again, don’t forget to give the Mississippi State defense credit for its role in the huge win, because it held Auburn to just 304 yards of offense and 3 FGs while forcing 2 turnovers. That’s good work. With that said, it’d be disingenuous to deny the fact that the primary cause to victory was the punishing Bulldogs rushing attack, which ate up nearly 42 minutes of play.

The Bulldogs enter a bye this week before beginning a brutal 4-week stretch that includes trips to No. 13 LSU, No. 1 Alabama and a home date versus No. 22 Texas A&M in between. Guess how Moorhead’s Bulldogs are going to attack those teams? You guessed it, with their once-again dominant rushing attack.

The new focus of the team will be a ball control, run-heavy offense that capitalizes on the strengths of the interior of the offensive line and talented ball carriers like Fitzgerald, Kylin Hill and Aeris Williams. This limits the vulnerability of the passing attack, keeps the chains moving and controls the clock while taking a ton of pressure off the defense, who won’t have to win games by themselves.

Maybe if Moorhead had gotten a hold of Fitzgerald a few years ago he would have had different luck developing the strong-armed QB, but at this stage of his career, and with a season quickly coming to the aforementioned crossroad, Moorhead has to be more concerned with simply winning games as opposed to creating the perfect offense.

State fans will have to wait a bit longer to see the full result of what Moorhead is looking to build on offense. Make no mistake, he still wants a QB who can run the ball and keep defenses off balance with his legs, but he really needs someone who can complete passes downfield to stretch the field vertically.

Perhaps it’s 2019 recruit Garrett Shrader, a 4-star dual-threat QB currently committed to the Bulldogs, but even if it’s not, Moorhead will eventually find his guy, and when he does, he’ll make the Bulldogs an even bigger force to be reckoned with in the SEC West.