What a wild ride in the Mississippi State-NC State game!
The same team that barely squeaked out a victory vs a far inferior LA Tech, came out as underdogs against the Wolfpack. On the opening kickoff Tulu Griffin came up pulled off a 100 yard return, but the special teams would suffer two nasty shanked punts.
Leach’s offense looks fairly effective at points in this game, only botching one redzone trip. Will Rogers showed a lot of development by maintaining ball security and throwing away busted plays instead of taking bad sacks and throwing into tough coverage.
Rogers went 33/49 for 294 and 2 TDs. He hit Walley on one and dropped an absolute dime to Malik Heath. Overall, the RBs took up 13 of the 33 completions, which is a sign that they are starting to get the ball outside to the receivers, but they are still relying on the RBs to act as safety valves for Rogers.
The real MVP has to be the entire defense. There’s no underdog victory if the boys on D didn’t hold NC State to 3 points for 58 minutes.
The defense continued to force turnovers in this one with Peters and Green pulling off interceptions (one coming in the endzone and the other ending the game). The defense also recovered a fumble (while forcing a few extra).
That absolute stud Emmanuel Forbes made his presence known with an NC State team that thought they wanted a piece of that defensive powerhouse. Man had 11 total tackles, but most important of all was a massive drive ending sack he had. His ability to sniff out screen passes, play the outside the tackle run, and his sure tackling makes him a nightmare.
And when we talk defense and Mississippi State the legacy is the monsters of the trenches. The D-line were out in force pressuring Leary all game long.
This game was a full team effort. They looked much better than the week prior. It seems that they learned a thing or two from last week.
Players of the game:
Offense:
Will Rogers
My man went out there and despite the struggling run game, he moved the ball quite a bit. Like I said he showed a lot of growth from last year and even last week. While he missed a few open receivers and a had some accuracy issues, he showed poise and when under pressure he made better decisions.
Shoutout to the big uglies upfront. I feel like it is hard to recognize the O-line, but they held up great tonight.
Defense:
Jalen Green 4 tackles .5 sacks 2 pass breakups 1 int
Green’s interception might be the biggest of the game strictly due to the timing of the pick. When you get a team moving on your defense early in the game after your punter shanks a punt, you need someone to bail you out. When Person Jr. goes for the jump pass, Green was that dude. while his stat line isn’t quite as nice as Forbes’, you have to appreciate the gritty play of Green, and the big time interception. He could have let the ball fall and NC State would have scored 3, but he left them with a goose egg and kept the momentum with Mississippi State.
Special Teams:
Tulu Griffin 100 yd TD return
Tulu had the 73 yard return last week that sparked the comeback, today he decided to see what happens when he takes it yard to start. The kid is special, he has a feel for the creases on special teams.
All Hype Podcast 