The Mississippi State offense is built around the Air Raid passing game.

In fact the passing game is the centerpiece for the entire team.

When the passing game didn’t play up to its usual standard last week, the result was a 27-17 loss at Kentucky.

Now Will Rogers will try to get the Air Raid back on track Saturday night against an Alabama secondary that also fell well short of its standard in a loss last week.

If one unit – the State passing game or the Crimson Tide secondary – can regain its form much better than the other, that will go a long way toward determining the outcome in Bryant-Denny Stadium.

“We didn’t move the ball very good (against Kentucky),” Bulldogs head coach Leach said of an attack that was limited to 47 total plays, 13 first downs, 225 totals yards and less than 21 minutes of possession time.

He called the total number of plays “the bigger problem” than the mere 10 rushing attempts, the fewest in his 3 seasons as head coach.

“We didn’t move the ball effectively,” Leach added.

State is ranked No. 2 in the SEC in passing yards per game (334.6) and No. 1 in completion percentage (71.4) and touchdown passes (3.3 per game). But against the Wildcats, Rogers completed 25-of-37 for just 203 yards, his 2nd-lowest total in 26 career starts, and had just 1 touchdown pass.

Of his 25 completions, 12 were to running backs. Check-downs, including those to running backs, are designed to be a big part of the attack and running backs often have a significant percentage of the catches in productive performances by the passing game.

But last week Rogers and the offense couldn’t get much going with the running backs or the wide receivers. The 12 catches by the backs produced 74 yards and the 13 catches by the wide receivers produced 128.

Rogers had to settle for underneath completions even more than normal, and State didn’t produce as many yards after the catch as it normally does.

Colleague Matt Hinton studies SEC QBs for SDS. He noted in this week’s SEC QB Power Rankings that Rogers’ average depth of target was just 3.4 yards — the lowest since his first career start. And that just 5 of Rogers’ 37 attempts traveled 10 yards or more.

The passing game averages 10.1 yards per completion for the season but averaged just 8.1 against Kentucky. The wide receivers average 10.6 yards per catch for the season and averaged 9.8 against Kentucky. The running backs average 7.3 yards per catch for the season and averaged 6.2 against Kentucky.

In other words, the Bulldogs need to gain more yards with their pass completions, sometimes with longer passes, sometimes with more productivity after the catch and ideally both on some occasions.

That’s where the Bama secondary comes in.

Or at least that’s where Leach and Rogers hope it comes in because the big plays that Tennessee made in the passing game against the Bama secondary were the biggest factor in the Vols’ 52-49 victory last week.

Hendon Hooker passed for 385 yards and 5 touchdowns. The touchdown passes came from 11, 13, 36, 60 and 78 yards.

The score was tied at 49 when the Vols took over at their 32-yard line with 15 seconds left in the 4th quarter. Hooker had back-to-back completions of 18 and 27 yards to set up a game-winning field goal as time expired.

Bama coach Nick Saban said his team “had done a good job” of not allowing explosive plays prior to last week.

Even with the poor numbers against Tennessee, Bama ranks 2nd in the SEC in opponent completion percentage (54.6), is tied for 6th in touchdown pass allowed (1.1) and is 8th in passing yards allowed (197.6).

Saban gave the Vols credit for utilizing “wide splits” to create favorable matchups that Hooker was then able to exploit.

“Guys have got to play with better focus, better leverage, got to be able to cover people better,” Saban said. “I mean, it’s as simple as that.”

The Tide were penalized 4 times for defensive pass interference.

Saban said technique would be emphasized in practice to try and cut down on the penalties.

Now, there are clear differences between Leach’s Air Raid and Josh Heupel’s Blur Ball offense. The primary one being: Heupel loves taking deep shots. The Vols lead the SEC in 30+ yard completions (20), whereas State has completed just 9. The difference is even more glaring on 40+ yard completions. Tennessee leads the SEC with 14. State has completed just 1.

There’s also this: In 2 games against Alabama, Rogers has thrown 5 interceptions and has yet to find the end zone.

“Mike Leach is one of the most difficult guys to try to defend relative to their offense,” Saban said.