State Downs Bowling Green 21-20 For Homecoming Victory
STARKVILLE,
Miss. - Mississippi State (3-3) escaped Saturday night with a close
Homecoming win over Bowling Green (5-2), defeating the Falcons 21-20 at
Davis Wade Stadium.
Penalties and mistakes made it a closer game
than the Bulldogs would have liked, but 139 rushing yards and 75
passing by sophomore quarterback Dak Prescott (and two rushing
touchdowns) helped the home team to victory.
Sophomore receiver
Joe Morrow was the team's leading receiver with four catches for 57
yards, while senior running back LaDarius Perkins was second only to
Prescott with 83 yards rushing including one touchdown, a diving score
on the opening drive of the evening.
MSU's two other scores came
on the ground as well with runs of 75 yards and 10 yards from Prescott,
while senior Tyler Russell actually drew the start for MSU at
quarterback, completing 12-of-14 passes for 102 yards.
Defensively, State was led with eight tackles each from Deontae Skinner and Benardrick McKinney.
MSU-BGSU Postgame Quotes:
Opening Statement ... “A win is a win. We’ll take it. Give Bowling Green credit because that is a very good football team. Coming in they were 5-1 on the season and they really look like the top team in their conference.
“Like everybody else we have played, they have all been good football teams this season. It’s great to be 3-3 at this point in the season. Obviously, you would like to play a little bit better, but its pretty good to be 3-3. We’ll take it.
On the decision to go for the first down late in the fourth quarter … “I wanted to score. I wanted to put the ball in Dak [Prescott’s] hands. I thought he was playing pretty well and he was running it pretty well. I figured that was a good opportunity for us to finish off the game. It didn’t go exactly as I planned, but that was our decision.”
On defensive stand to win the game … “I don’t know if we played a great defensive game tonight for the entire duration, but we have to trust in our guys on defense and trust in our guys to make plays and step up in key moments.
“We talked about finishing the game and I tell you what the one thing we did tonight was finish the game.”
96 – Chris Jones – Fr. – DL On getting pressure on the quarterback … “We came in with the mindset we are going to play hard, and I have to give credit to that team. That was a good team. We just wanted to play a complete game.”
17 – Tyler Russell – Sr. – QB On the offense executing no matter who was playing … “It doesn’t really matter who is our quarterback. Coach Mullen calls in a play and we execute it.”
15 – Dak Prescott – So. – QB On the last drive … “We moved the ball well. We did some good things, but we also shot ourselves in the foot on some things. We just have to get better.”
27 – LaDarius Perkins – Sr. – RB On tonight ... “I felt pretty good tonight. I stayed a little irritated but I kept going. As I kept going, I kept getting stronger and stronger.”
On scoring a touchdown ... “Oh it felt good. But the main thing is that we won; that is what I was really focused on during the game.”
On the comeback in the second half ... “Like I told the team, I’m disappointed that we didn’t win but that’s the only thing I’m disappointed with. Our effort was outstanding, our preparation was great and I thought our kids played their hearts out. We came up one point short.”
On first-half offensive struggles ... “We didn’t really struggle, we just dropped a few passes. We catch the one pass down the sideline and if we catch the other one down the sideline, this may have been a different outcome. I thought we protected well.
“We had a good mix of run and pass. We just dropped a few balls.
On emotions changing tides ... “Things changed at halftime when we kicked that field goal. I thought at halftime we had a lot of momentum. We came out in the second half and went right down the field, but we missed a field goal. We got the ball right back and scored a touchdown. It was a one point game with 20 minutes left.”
On possibly going for two to tie the game ... “I did, but usually I start going for two in the fourth quarter. I wanted to keep us in the game. I didn’t want to not get it and then have MSU score to go up nine and make it a two-score game. I thought about it, but I just thought there was too much time left. If it was inside the fourth quarter, we probably would have gone for two.”
On the fourth quarter offensive drives ... “I think we were holding up upfront. We dropped too many balls tonight. If we catch everything that we should catch then perhaps it’s a different outcome.
“When you play a team like this you have to execute at a high level. When you have chances to make big plays you have got to make them. I thought we left a couple plays on the field simply through dropped passes.”
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