3 burning questions after Mississippi State football loss to South Carolina

After falling short on the road vs. the South Carolina Gamecocks, Zach Arnett and his Mississippi State football team have some questions that need answering.

For the second straight week, the Mississippi State Bulldogs suffered a frustrating SEC loss. The Bulldogs came up short in Columbia, South Carolina. In what was a winnable game for the Mississippi State football team, it was clear that crucial mistakes and some poor defensive play ultimately doomed the Bulldogs’ chances at getting a road win.

Despite some impressive offensive performance (shoutout to Will Rogers and Tulu Griffin), the Bulldogs simply couldn’t keep up with a flawed South Carolina Gamecocks team.

And that’s a pretty big problem.

Kevin Barbay and MSU’s offense (for the most part) got things figured out. In a raucous and rowdy road environment, Mississippi State managed to put up 30 points against an SEC foe. And yet, that wasn’t enough for the Bulldogs to come away from Columbia with a win.

The Bulldogs won’t always be facing an offense that is this effective at throwing the ball, but they will have issues against other SEC teams if these sorts of things keep happening. And as such, there are some questions that are worth asking here.

Let’s start examining this loss and asking those questions.

What happened to Miss. State Bulldogs’ running game?

I’m not at all complaining about the fact that the Bulldogs decided to throw the ball early and often in this contest. I’m not at all complaining about how the Mississippi State football team decided to operate on offense.

I’m just very, very concerned about the way the Bulldogs executed when they actually focused on running the ball.

Because it was bad.

Jo’Quavious “Woody” Marks was held to a meager 27 rushing yards on 12 carries. He only managed 2.3 yards per carry and the Bulldogs, as a team, were limited to 1.4 yards per carry. While South Carolina is a respectable SEC foe, the Bulldogs should have found more success when running the ball.

Thankfully Will Rogers was able to find success through the air and connect with Lideatrick “Tulu” Griffin. But MSU’s offensive line has got to figure out what went wrong here. Because Alabama is coming to town.