That was...
Jarrett Stidham is...
But the play calling...
Hang on to...
Gus should be...
Give the ball...
Okay, okay, sorry if I stuttered a bit there. I think it might have been contagious, the Mississippi State offense was false starting all over the place tonight.
So I could pretty much copy and paste what Jack wrote least week after the Missouri game, and it would still apply this week. It may not have been QUITE the domination we saw last week, but Auburn entirely outclassed another SEC opponent, and this time it was a ranked opponent.
Auburn marched down the field quickly on the first drive thanks to a 60-yard rush by Kerryon Johnson, and punched it in a few plays later. A fumble on a pretty poor decision by Stidham led to a Mississippi State field goal on their second drive of the night, but that was almost the only damage done by the Dan Mullen offense. Auburn hit another big play to set up a touchdown later in the first quarter, this time to Darius Slayton, to go up 14-3, and the rout was on from there.
The offense slowed a bit after Stidham hit Hastings for a 47 yard touchdown early in the second quarter, and Mississippi State even made it a 21-10 game at the half, but in the second half both the offense and defense showed what their ceiling can be against an admittedly middle of the road SEC team.
The final score ended up being 49-10, thanks to three touchdowns from Kerryon Johnson (that’s eight in two weeks!), a 67-yard touchdown run from Malik Willis, two touchdown passes by Stidham, and a late pick six by Javaris Davis.
There were a few things I questioned during the game, such as the absence yet again of Kam Martin and the continual playing of Kam Pettway despite his bad foot. Overall, though, the offense was creative on several plays (a wildcat-handoff-reverse to Stidham-deep ball??), finished drives when it needed to, and for a second consecutive week put up ~ 50 on an SEC team. When you combine that with a NASTY* defense (Jeff Holland is a monster, with another sack tonight), you should win most of your games. We’ll talk more over the next few days about tonight’s game, and people smarter than me will be able to break down and analyze everything we saw. For now, War Eagle, y’all.
*Tre Williams didn’t even play, and the defense didn’t miss a beat. I think I’m in love.