STARKVILLE — With two weeks to prepare, Mississippi State football coach Dan Mullen was surprised Saturday by how his team played against Auburn.
The Bulldogs used the bye week to clean up mistakes and to give players time to heal their injuries.
Unfortunately, Mullen and his coaches appear to need a little more time to get things going in the right direction.
Backup running back Kamryn Pettway had a career-high 39 carries for a career-best 169 yards and scored three touchdowns in the first half to help Auburn build a big lead and cruise to a 38-14 victory at Davis Wade Stadium.
“I didn’t expect us to make all the mistakes that we made,” Mullen said. “There’s all different things that will happen. I’d love to tell you it was one thing. I could easily put my finger on and say it was just this one thing, but it wasn’t.”
MSU (2-3, 1-2 Southeastern Conference), which overcame a halftime deficit to beat UMass 47-35 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, trailed Auburn 35-0 at halftime. The Tigers denied the Bulldogs any hopes of a comeback by piling up 432 yards of offense (228 rushing, 204 passing).
“It was 3 yards and a cloud of dust, pounding away at us,” Mullen said. “We didn’t do a good job of getting off the field.
“The whole game starts up front. They physically won the line of scrimmage. You’re not winning many football games when you’re not winning the line of scrimmage. One of the things we take a lot of pride in is being physical and winning the line of scrimmage.”
The Bulldogs started strong, as Kivon Coman intercepted a Sean White pass to put the Bulldogs at the Tigers’ 19-yard line, but the Bulldogs couldn’t pick up a first down and Westin Graves missed a 28-yard field goal.
Auburn scored on its next three possessions to take a 21-0 lead. White hit Ryan Davis for a 3-yard touchdown and Pettway scored on a 1-yard run and on a 2-yard run.
Pettway scored a 2-yard touchdown and Montravius Adams scored on a 13-yard fumble return within nine seconds of each other late in the first half.
“There were just some silly things that kept happening, silly penalties,” MSU senior linebacker Richie Brown said. “They were out-toughing some of our guys. Some of our guys were simple miss fits (in regard to matchups) that (they) were hitting us for long yardage.”
Brown, who had a game-high 14 tackles and a fumble recovery, said no one yelled or screamed at each other at halftime. He said the coaches and his teammates handled the deficit maturely.
MSU sophomore quarterback Nick Fitzgerald, who was 17 of 34 for 181 yards, hit Keith Mixon for a 37-yard touchdown and Fred Ross for an 8-yard touchdown in the second half. He also threw an interception.
Fitzgerald was 7 of 18 for 61 yards and had 18 yards rushing in the first half. MSU had 61 yards offense in the first two quarters.
“We didn’t make plays when we needed to make plays,” Fitzgerald said. “We didn’t execute to our ability. Going into halftime, it was ‘Don’t stop believing and don’t let go of the rope,’ as coach Mullen would say, ‘Don’t let this get out of hand and have some pride.’
“They weren’t doing anything special. It wasn’t anything crazy we couldn’t handle. We just didn’t execute when we needed to execute.”
Boos reigned down as Fitzgerald and the offense took the field late in the first half down 35-0. Fitzgerald said the boos didn’t faze him and that it is expected when you’re not playing well. He said he blocked the crowd out and kept playing.
Mullen said Fitzgerald played “OK.” He said he made a couple of nice throws, but he missed a protection check here or there. He was impressed with Fitzgerald’s running ability, as he led the team with 61 yards. Senior Brandon Holloway led the running backs with 17 yards. Fitzgerald was sacked three times, MSU committed seven penalties for 80 yards, was 6 of 16 on third downs, was 1 of 3 in the red zone, and turned the ball over three times (two fumbles, one interception).
“It’s not all on him,” Mullen said. “He’s not blocking, he’s not catching. There’s 11 guys on offense that have to execute all together. He’s got to lead it, and I have to lead it.”
MSU will play at 9:15 p.m. Friday (ESPN) against BYU in Provo, Utah.
Mullen hopes a short week will give him and his coaches enough time to correct the Bulldogs’ mistakes.
“(We did) all the little things you can’t do to win football games in the Southeastern Conference. We’ve got to make sure we get all those things fixed,” Mullen said.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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