STARKVILLE — The Mississippi State’s football team’s 47-34 victory against Alabama-Birmingham on Saturday at Davis Wade Stadium was the team’s third-consecutive victory against a Conference USA opponent.
But the mood following the game was far less positive than the previous two. The first, a 44-7 victory against league champion Rice last season in the Liberty Bowl, gave MSU a winning record and coach Dan Mullen his third bowl victory in four years. The second, a 49-0 demolition of Southern Mississippi on Aug. 30, featured dominant performances on both sides of the ball.
But the 13-point win against UAB left Mullen with as many questions as answers. One involves a pass defense that finished fourth in the Southeastern Conference a season ago giving up 438 yards, including three touchdowns of more than 75 yards.
Those defensive lapses, and periods of offensive sluggishness, left MSU players — and Mullen — in a less-than-celebratory mood.
“It’s just not the way we wanted to play, not how we play defense here,” MSU cornerback Taveze Calhoun said. “Give credit to them, but we made too many mistakes, gave up too many plays.”
MSU’s trouble defending the home run ball against quarterbacks Cody Clements and Jeremi Briscoe shifted focus from an otherwise strong performance by an offense that topped the 500-yard plateau for the third-straight game.
Junior quarterback Dak Prescott, despite being lifted in favor of backup Damian Williams for four of MSU’s nine first-half possessions, tied a career-high with four touchdown passes. He also rushed for 111 yards and a score.
But the Haughton, Louisiana, native was 12 of 25. He also threw a first-half interception for the second week in a row, a turnover that contributed to MSU’s lack of momentum in the first half.
“He’s definitely what we predicted,” UAB safety Bobby Baker said of Prescott. “He did not move around as much as we thought he would. In saying that, he’s still a good player.
“I do not think there was anything they did that really affected us. It was just a matter of tempo.”
Despite Baker’s assessment, MSU’s offense controlled much of the game. Aside from Prescott’s 322-yard, five-touchdown performance, starting tailback Josh Robinson had a career-high 124 rushing yards on 20 carries. Prescott also hit four receivers with his touchdown passes.
“We talk about making the play when our time comes,” said MSU wideout Robert Johnson, who had a 68-yard touchdown reception on the third play of the game. “We’ve talked about being the best unit on the team, so when we’re called upon, we have to come through.”
Yet while MSU’s offense showed the ability to move the ball at will and resiliency after UAB took two leads in the first half, the defensive lapses and continued trouble in the kicking game dominated the postgame talk.
“It’s just not who we are as a football team,” Mullen said of UAB’s offensive explosion. “It’s embarrassing. But we will come back to work (Sunday). It will be a long day, and we will take a good long look at how to fix it.”
In the kicking game, Westin Graves and Evan Sobiesk struggled. Graves missed an extra point following a 21-yard interception return for a score by defensive end Preston Smith, while Sobiesk clanked his extra point off the upright after the next touchdown.
“They don’t look like that in practice,” Mullen said of Graves and Sobiesk. “We’ve got to figure out what’s going wrong in game situations.”
MSU will face South Alabama at 3 p.m. Saturday.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat
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