If there were questions about how good Mississippi State is and how bad the University of Memphis is, those questions were answered in the Bulldogs 59-14 thumping of the Tigers Thursday night.
The 20th ranked Bulldogs rolled up a school record 645 yards against a hapless Memphis team in front of nearly 34,000 at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, about half of which was filled with Mississippi State fans.
The game was over by the end of the first quarter after the Bulldogs had taken a 17-0 lead. Mississippi State built their lead to 31-7 at halftime and cruised the rest of the way.
Mississippi State scored on a number of big plays throughout the game which exposed the Tigers inadequate defense, including scoring passes of 44, 35 and 80 yards and three rushing TD’s of 46, 66 and 26 yards.
The Tigers secondary looked lost for the entire game, especially Cannon Smith, son of FedEx founder Fred Smith. The younger Smith got burned more times than all the witches of Salem, Massachusetts combined.
To give you an idea how misleading statistics can be, Memphis controlled the ball for more than 37 minutes and totaled 338 yards of offense – numbers that suggest the game should have been closer.
But there were some statistics that didn’t lie. Memphis got flagged eight times for 55 yards and the Tigers turned the ball over three times as well.
The Tigers were victims of poor field position for the entire first quarter and were never able to get on track. But even if Memphis had better field position, the end result wouldn’t have been different.
It became evident very quickly that the Tigers simply didn’t have the level of athletes to stand up against Mississippi State. The Bulldogs were clearly bigger, faster, more athletic, more physical and much deeper.
And the Bulldogs were without five players who had been suspended for the game after breaking team rules, one of which was starting defensive tackle Fletcher Cox.
None of this comes as a surprise though. Mississippi State is a legitimate top 25 team that is going to cause a lot of teams headaches once the SEC schedule begins.
The Bulldogs first real test will come on September 10 when they travel to Auburn to face the defending BCS national champions.
Meanwhile, Memphis is destined for another long season. The Tigers’ offense had some bright spots, especially freshman quarterback Taylor Reed, who completed 23 of 35 passes for 149 yards and one TD.
But the Tigers defense is pathetic. Unless they figure out how to shore up that side of the ball, Memphis is going to lit up like a 1000 Christmas trees this season.
