VIDEO: Bulldogs Stunned In Home Opener

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) — What appeared to be a game winning drive that would save the season opener changed at the sound of a crash as Weston Graves’ 28-yard field goal bounced off the left upright and fell back to the turf.

Mississippi State stood in disbelief, as did their fans, as the Bulldogs drop their home opener against the South Alabama Jaguars Saturday afternoon.

“We didn’t execute well at times and had some absolutely critical errors”, said head coach Dan Mullen.

“You can’t make a critical error and expect to win a game and there’s a lot of different times a situation in that game where we’ll see some critical errors were made.”

The concern to start the season for Mississippi State was going to be who was going to play quarterback.

Nick Fitzgerald began the game for MSU, but Damian Williams ended up being the guy that brought the Bulldogs 17 points on three consecutive drives.

Mississippi State didn’t score again until the second half, when South Alabama had momentum.

The Bulldogs thought they may have flipped the switch off, and relaxed a little bit in that second half.

“We weren’t going out there playing with the same fire. Just too relaxed man, not finishing blocks, just the little things that comes back and makes a big difference in the end”, said senior wide receiver Fred Ross.

“Coach Bates said it best, we were out there when they put 21 [points] up…”, said senior defensive lineman AJ Jefferson, “…that was solely on the defense. I mean, we didn’t have no turnovers, did we? We could have helped out a lot, especially flipping field position if we got a turnover…”

There’s no time for Mississippi State to hang their head, they can deal with this loss tonight, but starting tomorrow, they now have to prepare for the Southeastern Conference.

SEC play begins next Saturday, South Carolina comes here to Davis Wade stadium.

The Gamecocks coming off a come from behind victory against Vanderbilt on Thursday, and the Bulldogs have to get right back at it, practice better as Dan Mullen put it, they practiced like they played.