Mississippi State coach Joe Moorhead will have a number of plays to look at when trying to find out how Kansas State escaped Davis Wade Stadium Saturday with a 31-24 win.
It could be the 100-yard kickoff return by Malik Knowles that tied the game moments after the Bulldogs took a 24-17 lead early in the fourth quarter. It could be coverage busts that left receivers wide open down the stretch, one of which resulted in Skylar Thompson’s 15-yard touchdown pass Dalton Shoen with 5:37 to play that gave the Wildcats the lead for good.
It could be the fact that Mississippi State got off to a rough start, falling behind 10-0 before.
“We’re going to look back and see about three or four plays in each phase of the game, offense, defense and special teams, where we’ll have to make sure we’re making the right calls as a coaching staff,” Moorhead said. “We make a good call when we don’t question the players’ effort, but we have to make sure we’re executing plays at critical junctions of the game.”
Kansas State coach Chris Kileman said he was impressed with the way his team fought the heat, humidity and adversity to finish off the upset win.
“It was hot out there. We played a ton of bodies and had guys cramping up, but the guys finished the game,” That’s the one thing we talked about; we need to finish, and they did. The guys were really excited about playing this game.”
It was also a game that saw true Mississippi State freshman Garrett Shrader come in for the relief of starting quarterback Tommy Stevens, who was pulled after his second interception.
The Bulldogs immediately got the ball back on that AJ Parker interception, as Reese Stewart stripped him of the ball and Darryl Williams recovered the fumble. Shrader came in on the next play and led a 12-play, 79-yard drive to give Mississippi State its first lead.
Shrader completed a 26-yard pass to Deddrick Thomas on third-and-7 and a 9-yard pass to Osirus Mitchell on third-and-6 to set up Shrader’s 5-yard touchdown run. Mississippi State led 21-17 with 6:50 to play in the third quarter.
Moorhead said Stevens re-aggravated his upper body injury after halftime and was taken out of the game. Up until that point, Stevens was having an up-and-down game. The high points were that he led two second-quarter touchdown drives, one was capped by his own 2-yard touchdown run with 5:05 to play in the half. The other came on a Mitchell 35-yard touchdown pass with 9 seconds left in the second quarter.
The low points included Stevens’ fumble the ball to the Wildcats’ Daniel Green. Instead of the Bulldogs trying to tie or take the lead, the Wildcats then took advantage of the short field to score a touchdown on Thompson’s quarterback sneak on the goal line to give Kansas State a 17-7 lead late in the second quarter.
Stevens’ first interception actually set up Kansas State’s 35-yard field goal by Blake Lynch with 4:05 to go in the first quarter. After a three-and-out by MSU, Kansas State added to the lead with a Jordon Brown 7-yard touchdown run with 13:31 to go until halftime.
Stevens finished the day with 100 yards passing on 7 of 15 passing with rushing and passing touchdowns, but he accounted for three turnovers.
Shrader didn’t turn it over, but he struggled to complete passes down the stretch after starting 4-for-6 for 51 yards. He didn’t complete a pass after that point.
However, the freshman may have earned the respects of his teammates. On fourth-and-16, Shrader went airborne six yards away from the sticks, trying to dive for the first down. Parker and Elijah Sullivan hit Shrader midair and sent him flying like a helicopter. Shrader fell on his back after the high-flying move at the 20-yard line, one yard short of the line to gain.
While Moorhead would have preferred Shrader throw the ball in that situation, Mitchell said he appreciated his quarterback’s effort to make the first down.
“He definitely earned a lot of respect,” Mitchell said. “It boosts everyone’s confidence up too to see him out there doing that. And he’s just a freshman.”
While Kylin Hill failed to score, the junior running back had 111yards on 24 carries. Shrader finished with 82 yards on 10 carries without a sack.
For Kansas State, Thompson finished with 123 yards completing 10 of 18 passes with no interceptions. James Gilbert was the workhorse, gaining 59 yards on 17 carries. Brown finished with 41 yards on five carries, while Harry Trotter added 25 yards on five carries.
Now the attention turns to Kentucky for Mississippi State as the Bulldogs open conference play while Kansas State will travel to Oklahoma State next week.
