Pat Forde with his thoughts on our game..

[fishwater99]

6. Dan Mullen is a very good coach. He has a very good team that played very well Saturday night. But he and defensive coordinator Todd Grantham will have to live with some decisions that didn?t work out well in that agonizing loss to Alabama.
https://sports.yahoo.com/10-takeaways-wild-playoff-altering-day-college-football-064045324.html


Twice, Mississippi State had fourth-and-short in Alabama territory ? once in the first quarter and once in the fourth. Both times, Mullen opted to punt. The first time was the opening possession of the game and the Bulldogs faced fourth-and-2 at the Tide 36 ? State took a delay of game and kicked the ball away. The last time was a fourth-and-3 from the Tide 42 with seven minutes left in a tie game.

In a vacuum, both decisions were defensible. But in the big picture of trying to take down the king of the conference, they could be second-guessed. Fortune favors the bold, the saying goes, and Mullen was anything but bold in making those decisions.

Grantham, meanwhile, erred to the other extreme ? he was far too bold with his blitz calls on Alabama?s winning touchdown drive. Specifically: on third-and-15 from the Alabama 43 with 31 seconds left, Grantham blitzed and Hurts burned him with a 31-yard completion to Calvin Ridley.

But that at least is who Grantham is and has been ? he goes after the quarterback on third downs, even if it means putting his defensive backs in single coverage that can result in big plays. Georgia fans coined the term, ?Third and Grantham? years ago because of aggravation from surrendering first downs in those situations. Grantham has done great work with the Mississippi State defense this year ? but his unit couldn?t get the stop it absolutely had to have to shock the Tide.

[Cooterpoot]

You don?t simply go for every 4th down because it?s in their territory. Especially not in the first quarter. The other one is 50/50. But we?d pinned them deep and played D twice before down there and it worked.
The blitz was bad only because we showed it too early and didn?t back out. It worked a lot of the time.
Hell, big bad Bama isn?t that much better than us.

[defiantdog]

You don?t simply go for every 4th down because it?s in their territory. Especially not in the first quarter. The other one is 50/50. But we?d pinned them deep and played D twice before down there and it worked.
The blitz was bad only because we showed it too early and didn?t back out. It worked a lot of the time.
Hell, big bad Bama isn?t that much better than us.
They were methodically marching down the field. The blitz was to throw off their rhythm. They just hit big plays. No one?s fault there. And their receivers didn?t drop passes either.

[Commercecomet24]

The first 4th down punt led to us pinning them deep which led to our first td. So no Pat no second guessing that decision. Did he watch the game? Geez

[Activated Alpha]

The 4th and 3 in the fourth I was screaming for us to go for it our D was gassed and was obvious that we wouldn't be able to contain like we had all game.

[bluelightstar]

The 4th and 3 in the fourth I was screaming for us to go for it our D was gassed and was obvious that we wouldn't be able to contain like we had all game.

I thought we should've gone for it on the 4th down in the fourth quarter (and we didn't get very much out of punting anyway). Just seemed at that point that our defense was not going to be able to hang on anymore. Hard to be too angry about Mullen's decision though.

[Commercecomet24]

Yeah the 4th quarter punt was the bad one. We only gained 12 yards by punting it into the end zone. And our defense was not getting off the field at that point.

[PassInterference]

You don?t simply go for every 4th down because it?s in their territory. Especially not in the first quarter. The other one is 50/50. But we?d pinned them deep and played D twice before down there and it worked.
The blitz was bad only because we showed it too early and didn?t back out. It worked a lot of the time.
Hell, big bad Bama isn?t that much better than us.


Don?t have to go for every 4th down. But late in the 4th quarter with the game tied, you have to step up and take that W.

[thf24]

I have a feeling if he'd gone for it and not gotten it, he'd be getting crucified by the same people right now for giving them the ball back with good field position.

[GreenheadDawg]

I have a feeling if he'd gone for it and not gotten it, he'd be getting crucified by the same people right now for giving them the ball back with good field position.

Yep. Damned if you do damned if you don’t. They both called one hell of a game until the final 2 minutes.

[Commercecomet24]

Coaches did a heckuva job last night. Great game plans.

[Coach34]

We weren't in man for Ridley's 1st long catch. We just can't match up with them in the Secondary. Worry about that in big games next season as well

[msstate7]

We weren't in man for Ridley's 1st long catch. We just can't match up with them in the Secondary. Worry about that in big games next season as well

Yep. We have to find some corners to be a serous sec contender

[bulldawg28]

Yep. We have to find some corners to be a serous sec contender

We've got some guys redshirted and backups that can play

[maroonmania]

I had no big problem with bringing some pressure on that 3rd and 15 but bringing EIGHT?? That was crazy. We only had 3 guys in coverage at all and weren't even playing press coverage so Peters (or whoever the CB was on that side) was giving a 15 yard cushion to Ridley. Basically Ridley just did a little quick inside move for an easy catch and then there was nobody in the secondary to make a tackle. Worst defensive call of the game. Hurts didn't probably even hold the ball for a full second. Even I could have made that little throw to Ridley.

[Coach34]

We've got some guys redshirted and backups that can play

Dantzler should be solid next year and Peters a year older. If Sweat is smart and returns to raise his draft stock- our front will be so damn good it will mask their defiencies even more than we have this year

[HoopsDawg]

Too bad Savion Smith doesn't realize what an impact he could have for our team.

[turkish]

Fortune favors the bold, except when it doesn't. Got it, Pat. Profound!

[MetEdDawg]

Actually I thought the most Mullen thing would have been to go for it that early and is miss it. He didn't and I was extremely happy. We lose to Bama because we lose the field position game. We didn't last night and that's why we had a chance. We played sound football and didn't take risks to win.

Basically we didn't have to do anything gimmicky to have a shot. We played that game straight the hell up and went toe to toe with the best team in the country. That's why I'm proud. We did nothing out of the ordinary and should have won

[Commercecomet24]

Actually I thought the most Mullen thing would have been to go for it that early and is miss it. He didn't and I was extremely happy. We lose to Bama because we lose the field position game. We didn't last night and that's why we had a chance. We played sound football and didn't take risks to win.

Basically we didn't have to do anything gimmicky to have a shot. We played that game straight the hell up and went toe to toe with the best team in the country. That's why I'm proud. We did nothing out of the ordinary and should have won

Great post and spot on!

[Reason2succeed]

The 4th in 3 was huge. Our best defense was our offense staying on the field. With better receivers and a better and more experienced secondary next year I like our chances on the road. Proud of the players. They fought for 60 minutes.

[maroonmania]

Actually I thought the most Mullen thing would have been to go for it that early and is miss it. He didn't and I was extremely happy. We lose to Bama because we lose the field position game. We didn't last night and that's why we had a chance. We played sound football and didn't take risks to win.

Basically we didn't have to do anything gimmicky to have a shot. We played that game straight the hell up and went toe to toe with the best team in the country. That's why I'm proud. We did nothing out of the ordinary and should have won

I was fine with not going for it in the first quarter not so much in the fourth. In the fourth quarter it was becoming obvious our defense was wearing down and Alabama was getting the momentum. THAT fourth down WAS the time to go for broke and try to regain the lead and put the pressure back on Bama. Even if we hadn't made it Bama still had 60 yards to cover. Given the poor punt we only ended up netting an extra 20 yards in field position anyway. No guts no glory. Can't be timid when you are trying to knock out the champ.

[Reason2succeed]

Had we converted the 4th and 3 Bama’s defense would have been demoralized. We might have scored but for certain we would have run off more clock.

[bulldawg28]

Dantzler should be solid next year and Peters a year older. If Sweat is smart and returns to raise his draft stock- our front will be so damn good it will mask their defiencies even more than we have this year

Agreed

[Coursesuper]

We weren't in man for Ridley's 1st long catch. We just can't match up with them in the Secondary. Worry about that in big games next season as well

His first long catch was illegal touching, no doubt about it. Steve Shaw was a good official one of the best I've seen work in the SEC, but as a whole the league is poorly and homerly officiated.

[confucius say]

Both decisions to punt were the right calls. You can't risk giving Bama the all at midfield there.

What I've not seen mentioned is Cooke punted the last one in the end zone. You have to make them start at their 10 there and, with a minute left, they prob play for ot.

[Homedawg]

Yeah the 4th quarter punt was the bad one. We only gained 12 yards by punting it into the end zone. And our defense was not getting off the field at that point.

We gained 22 yards. Not 12.

[Commercecomet24]

We gained 22 yards. Not 12.

You?re right I was thinking they got it at 25 instead of the 20.

[Dawg50]

The 4th and 3 in the fourth I was screaming for us to go for it our D was gassed and was obvious that we wouldn't be able to contain like we had all game.

I was hoping we would go for it. Had we made it, I believe we would have scored a TD, burned clock, made a 2 score separation and won the game. We absolutely needed to keep the ball out of Hurt's hands.