Game Superlatives - Mississippi State 23, Auburn 9

Last night sure was frustrating, like watching Hagrid try to not bumble around and cause extra problems for Harry Potter and his friends. Auburn got in its own way all night long, but we’ll give credit where it’s due — Mississippi State had a game plan that worked and they stuck to it to the tune of a 323 rushing yard performance. Let’s check out the, uh... highlights...

And now here are the thoughts of Gus Malzahn courtesy of AL.com.

• Gus is proud of the team with the late field goal block and creating the opportunity to tie the game up late. Third downs were a huge problem on offense, and MSU had the game plan to run the ball and executed it well.
• He says that the blockers had trouble with MSU’s zone scheme on defense, and that created the issues with the run game. When Auburn went to the air, there was some more success, but couldn’t string together the plays that they needed.
• As far as Jarrett Stidham’s overthrows, he never got into a rhythm and that’s been a problem with the offense this whole year.
• Deshaun Davis’ leg injury “looked pretty scary” but we’ll have to wait for an update.
• The two reviews on the goal line were huge plays, but that’s what you have to deal with. Even with those two things, there were still opportunities but the Tigers didn’t seize the moment.
• Gus says that there was an inadvertent whistle that blew when Ryan Davis fumbled, and he was trying to get the officials’ attention to that.
• In terms of reassessing the offense, you have to take it a game at a time and continue to improve. Auburn has to show improvement now that the young guys are experienced.
• Nick Fitzgerald is pretty good when he gets going downhill and they beat Auburn with some basic concepts.
• With being aggressive, Gus talks about the field goal early on 4th and 1, and he wanted to get some momentum with the points at that time in the game.

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME

Tempted to give this to the receiving tight end trio of Sal Cannella, Tucker Brown, and John Samuel Shenker, who combined for four catches for 51 yards last night, but that would be in jest. Ryan Davis had a nice receiving night with eight catches for 91 yards, but he also had a couple of miscues on punts and turned the ball over once in that area.

Therefore, we’re going with Boobee. He ran hard, averaged 11 yards per carry, and was the Tigers’ best running threat last night.

OFFENSIVE PLAY OF THE GAME

I don’t care that it was ruled a fumble on the field, this was a play that actually showed where Auburn can still make things happen in the running game, and that there’s a back on campus that knows what he’s doing.

Boobee Whitlow averaged 11 yards per carry last night and finished with 88 yards overall. He should’ve had a touchdown as well, but that’s showbiz.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME

This one’s pretty easy. Jeremiah Dinson set a career high with FIFTEEN tackles in the ballgame, not to mention a tackle for loss and an interception.

Every time Dinson does something well, I smile, simply because he’s come such a long way after that injury in the 2015 Texas A&M game. Now, he’s one of the more reliable players on a great defense (yes, they’re still a great defense even after last night), and he just had the most tackles for an Auburn defender in the last six seasons.

DEFENSIVE PLAY OF THE GAME

We’re taking some liberties here with this one as well, as the play of the game goes to the defense for what should have been a fourth and goal stop at the end of the first half. Here’s the still shot that should’ve been the deciding factor in the review, but for some reason they couldn’t see logically and ruled that Fitzgerald was in the end zone.

The defense stood tall when it needed to and while Kevin Steele can say that we should’ve stopped him in the backfield, it doesn’t really help that the process failed in this regard.

It’s officially Tennessee week now, y’all. Let’s not let Jeremy Pruitt beat us. War Eagle.