Mississippi State misses assignments while yielding 300 yards to Mizzou's Ahmad Hardy
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Ahmad Hardy broke off a 72-yard touchdown run, and Missouri pulled away.
The Tigers running back gave Mississippi State fits on the ground, taking advantage of a weakness Bulldogs coach Jeff Lebby preached about cleaning up this past week. While seeing its defense provide two touchdowns, Missouri also relied on its explosive runs, beating Mississippi State, 49-27.
Hardy, a sophomore from Oma, Mississippi, rushed for a career-high 300 yards, the second most in program history behind Devin West (319) against Kansas in 1998. The first-year Tiger registered eight of his 25 carries for double-digit yards.
“We couldn’t stop the run at all,” linebacker Nic Mitchell said. “Getting out of our gaps, not setting edges. … Anytime someone rushes for 300 yards, you can’t expect to win the game. It’s not how it works. That’s not how football works.”
“I’m really frustrated again with the explosive runs that we gave up when we had talked non stop about it,” Lebby added, “and thought we had a physical week of practice then did not execute the way we needed to.”
Mitchell saw the Bulldogs defense fall out of consistency with the basics. Defenders missed assignments while trying to fill gaps, which allowed running paths for Hardy and Jamal Roberts to combine for 345 yards on the ground.
Mississippi State struggles to run against Missouri
The Bulldogs yielded a season-high 326 rushing yards to the Tigers. They strung together 110 total yards rushing of their own on 52 attempts, giving them an average of 2.1 yards per carry.
“It’s not like it gave us answers,” Lebby said. “The way they’re structured defensively, they play with a heavy box. So having the ability to play 11 on 11 was something that was necessary, and pending on what the C gap player did, that was going to dictate whether we were handing the ball (off) or pulling the ball that way. We had the ability to have hats in the run game.”
“They haven’t done anything really special,” Mississippi State guard Albert Reese IV added. “We’ve been getting ourselves in the feet. It’s not so much about them as it is about us.”
Even with Missouri committing 11 penalties, four more than Mississippi State, the Bulldogs never took advantage of those opportunities. They owned the time of possession by over 13 minutes, but quarterback Blake Shapen watched both of his interceptions returned for touchdowns.
“Missouri is a really good football team that we need to be able to come in here and not turn it over a single time, play better against the run than we did and take advantage of opportunities when we got them,” Lebby said. “And we didn’t.”