{"id":52725,"date":"2023-10-09T09:00:52","date_gmt":"2023-10-09T13:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=52725"},"modified":"2023-10-08T17:53:28","modified_gmt":"2023-10-08T21:53:28","slug":"bulldogs-win-game-but-maybe-lose-rogers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2023\/10\/09\/bulldogs-win-game-but-maybe-lose-rogers\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulldogs Win Game But Maybe Lose Rogers"},"content":{"rendered":"

This was supposed to be the get-ready game for Mississippi State heading into a bye week. It was a game to instill confidence in the team. Indeed, the Bulldogs toppled the Western Michigan Broncos 41-28, but the score is not indicative of how the game was played.<\/p>\n

Quarterback Will Rogers<\/a> was back to his old form, going 16 for 22 (72%) for 189 yards and three touchdowns. But he left the game in the fourth quarter with a left shoulder injury. In addition, their ace running back Woody Marks<\/a> was benched for the second half due to a leg injury. He originally injured it in the previous game with Alabama, but kept playing in the way tough players do. But the future of the post-bye week games, and the team that takes the field, will be the topic of discussion in the coming week.<\/p>\n

Following the game, there was no word on the prognosis for either of them. In his postgame press conference head coach Zach Arnett<\/strong> was tentative about their conditions. \u201cWe\u2019ll get them back to the facility and do a thorough evaluation,\u201d Arnett said. \u201cThose guys are warriors; they didn\u2019t want to come out. That\u2019s why I appreciate coaching guys like that. They\u2019re Bulldog mentality guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team came into the game banged up and bruised and came out even more so, their two aces questionable.<\/p>\n

As far as the game is concerned, there are more questions than answers about the defense. They struggled against a MAC opponent playing with a third-string quarterback.<\/p>\n

Offense Coming Out Fast<\/h3>\n

Arnett said prior to the game that he wanted his offense to come out fast and they did, relatively speaking. Their first series only netted three points. However, they would get to 17-0 against the Broncos in the second quarter.<\/p>\n

You could say that offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay<\/strong> was experimenting with players seen before, but not on this scale.<\/p>\n

True freshman Seth Davis<\/a> led rushing for the Bulldogs, running 10 times for 65 yards and one touchdown. That was the first of his young college career. Barbay had been high on him in preseason despite his 5\u20197\u201d frame. He could be a key to the Dawgs future, in this season and beyond.<\/p>\n

Penn State transfer Keyvone Lee<\/a> was next in line rushing with five runs and 49 yards. He had been seen sparingly in previous games.<\/p>\n

But the most exciting part for the fans was the emergence of Mike Wright<\/a>.<\/strong> The fans had chanted \u201cWe want Mike\u201d<\/a> in the LSU blowout. Against the Broncos, they got what they wanted. For the first time, Wright ran several series at quarterback. You had to expect that at some point. He ended up passing seven for 10 (70%) and 57 yards. Wright also ran seven times for 24 yards, scoring one touchdown. He has scored once in each of his last three games. Is this a bit of foreshadowing considering Rogers\u2019 injury? Arnett seemed impressed in his postgame conference. \u201cEvery time his number has been called, he\u2019s answered the call,\u201d Arnett said. \u201cWe said he would get more opportunities; it allows us to expand the package for him\u2026We had two quarterbacks do a lot to spark our offense today.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a Time to Be Defensive<\/h3>\n

The part of the game that had many wondering about the Bulldogs\u2019 future, was the absence of a solid defense. They continued a sub-par performance under defensive coordinator Matt Brock<\/strong>. The veteran line is missing some key players due to injury, and the secondary continues to struggle.<\/p>\n

Western Michigan\u2019s starting quarterback Treyson Bourguet<\/a> did not start the game due to injury. Second-stringer Jack Salopek<\/a> started the game but was replaced quickly by their third-string quarterback, Hayden Wolff<\/a>. He ran an efficient offense, completely controlling first and second down. Mississippi State\u2019s defense allowed the Broncos to rack up 413 total yards of offense. And, once again, the Bulldog secondary allowed Wolff to pass 27 for 35 (77%) and 262 yards. In the Dawgs’ previous three games, they\u2019ve allowed passing of 80%. Arnett said after the Alabama that allowing an 80% completion rate was unacceptable, yet here they are.<\/p>\n

In WMU\u2019s previous contests with Power Five opponents Iowa and Syracuse, they were only able to tally 17 points combined. Yet, the Dawgs allowed 28 points.<\/p>\n

Arnett addressed this in his postgame presser. \u201cThe guys aren\u2019t satisfied,\u201d Arnett said. We\u2019ll utilize this bye week to highlight the ways we need to improve. We\u2019re facing a lot of good teams in the second half and it\u2019s time to make our run. We have a chance to get freshened up, really evaluate what we\u2019re doing wrong on both sides of the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Time to Heal<\/h3>\n

The bye week couldn\u2019t have come at a better time for Mississippi State. There are a lot of banged-up Dawgs that they sorely need on the field after this coming week. It starts with a quickly improving Arkansas, then Auburn. Both of those games are on the road. Nationally-ranked Kentucky has been playing some amazing football this year. The one good thing for State is that they come to Starkville after the Auburn game. But, we\u2019ve seen what happened with LSU and Alabama in Davis-Wade. Then, the Bulldogs head to Kyle Field to face Texas A&M. The noise level there can sometimes be more deafening than cowbells. Just ask Alabama. They had three straight false starts this weekend against the Aggies because of the 12th<\/sup> man.<\/p>\n

All of those are daunting games and they will need a healthy or refurbished Mississippi State. Don\u2019t be surprised to see a totally different team take the field on October 21 in Fayetteville, AR. It might be one that the opponents haven\u2019t scouted. It all depends on the prognosis this coming week.<\/p>\n

Of course, Arnett wouldn\u2019t allude to their exact plans. But he did speak of being confident. \u201cWe need to improve our consistency,\u201d Arnett said. \u201cWe need to give some guys more reps, and we need to do a better job of executing on a consistent basis. I\u2019m very confident in this locker room…it\u2019s full steam into the rest of the season. We\u2019re in control of our own destiny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next week, the story will be about Rogers, Marks, and the rest of the beat-up Dawgs. Perhaps we\u2019ll see a totally different team emerge. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Bulldogs
Photo courtesy:\u00a0 Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was supposed to be the get-ready game for Mississippi State heading into a bye week. It was a game to instill confidence in the team. Indeed, the Bulldogs toppled the Western Michigan Broncos 41-28, but the score is not indicative of how the game was played. Quarterback Will Rogers was back to his old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4559,"featured_media":52750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[10339,10220,10248,5287,10635,9739],"class_list":["post-52725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sec","category-featured","tag-2023-sec-football","tag-kevin-barbay","tag-matt-brock","tag-mississippi-state-football","tag-western-michigan-football","tag-zach-arnett"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4559"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}