Mississippi State Bulldogs

Mississippi State Report Card vs. LSU

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Here is Mississippi State’s report card grades for offense, defense, special teams and coaching.

OFFENSE

The problem was, they didn’t turn trips into LSU territory into points. They stalled out four times just beyond field goal range and had to punt. FOUR TIMES they failed to convert on third down and punted inside LSU territory.

There were a number of wide receiver drops in the game that really cost MSU. Mix in more Holloway up the middle calls and there were chances to get more points that didn’t happen.

Damian Williams did a good job late in the game to get a couple of scores. How tough was LSU playing defense at that time it’s hard to tell but Williams did a good job nonetheless and got State back into the ball game.

DEFENSE

Leonard Fournette is a beast so it’s hard to gripe about missed tackles on him, but there were still too many in general for the game. It’s hard to come back from a 20-0 hole, so I give the defense a C- in the 1st half. In the 2nd half, however, I give them an A+. They forced a number of three and outs, forced a fumble and turnover on downs.

Overall, really good job by the defense. The secondary had holes but they weren’t terrible, and the D-line played pretty well.

SPECIAL TEAMS

A-You really can’t ask for much more here. Westin Graves hit both of his field goals and was pretty good on kickoffs (switching with Logan Cooke there for some reason). Punts were pretty good, and while there wasn’t much of anything on returns that has to do with excellent kicking by LSU. They blocked an extra point which was good too. The only down spot was the running into the kicker penalty which shouldn’t have been one, but if Johnathan Calvin isn’t that close to him it doesn’t get called.

COACHING

C-Everyone sees that Holloway cannot run the ball up the middle, yet Mullen continues to do it. Finally, in the second half he put Aeries Williams and Ashton Shumpert in there and they moved the pile as we all knew would happen. Then on the last drive he hands off to Holloway for a wasted play. In a critical 2nd half drive, MSU was really moving the ball well with Shumpert, then all of the sudden Coach Mullen decides to start throwing the ball. The first down pass was dropped by Fred Ross but he still didn’t go back to the run, and the drive ended. You have to scratch your head at these moves. Mullen made the right call by staying with Williams who had the hot hand, but unfortunately it seems he’s only good for two drives and then he falls flat.