Mississippi State
3-2 , 1-2
#14 Texas A&M
5-0 , 2-0
No. 21 State Drops 30-17 Decision At No. 14 Texas A&M
October 04, 2015 | Football
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - No. 21 Mississippi State (3-2, 1-2 SEC) fell to No. 14 Texas A&M (5-0, 2-0) by a score of 30-17 on the road Saturday night.
The Bulldogs and Aggies were fairly close in most statistical categories, but turnovers for MSU and the resulting points for A&M helped sway the result in favor of the home team.
“When you're on the road, you can't come in and play the way we were playing and expect to win,” Mullen said of his team's miscues handling the ball and on special teams. “It was pretty simple: they played better than we did tonight.”
MSU senior quarterback Dak Prescott finished 20-of-34 passing for 210 yards, while also rushing for 96 yards and one touchdown. For the Aggies, quarterback Kyle Allen finished 25-of-41 passing for 322 yards and two touchdowns.
Overall, A&M out-gained MSU 516-406, each team falling just short of 200 yards rushing.
The 96 yards on the ground were a season-high for Prescott, something Mullen said they didn't necessarily do on purpose, it just fell into the gameplan against a team with a strong pass rush.
“We wanted to run the ball going into this game because we didn't want to be in pass situations against this defense,” Mullen said.
State receiver Fred Ross had a career-best 11 catches for 103 yards, the most catches in one game by any Bulldog since Eric Moulds set the school record with 15 against Tennessee in 1995.
Defensively, MSU was paced in tackles by Richie Brown and Beniquez Brown who each had 11.
Mississippi State returns home this Saturday, Oct. 10, hosting Troy in a 3 p.m. non-conference matchup at Davis Wade Stadium. The game will be televised by the SEC Network.
“We've got three-straight home games coming up so this is a really important stretch for us to get the season where it needs to be,” Mullen said.
Team Stats
MS 0, TAMU 7
TAMU - R. Seals-Jones 1 yd pass from Kyle Allen (Taylor Bertolet kick) 12 plays, 91 yards, TOP 5:01
MS 3, TAMU 7
MS - Westin Graves 38 yd field goal 11 plays, 63 yards, TOP 4:30
MS 3, TAMU 14
TAMU - Damion Ratley 29 yd pass from Kyle Allen (Taylor Bertolet kick) 6 plays, 75 yards, TOP 2:06
MS 3, TAMU 17
TAMU - Taylor Bertolet 55 yd field goal 6 plays, 28 yards, TOP 2:16
MS 10, TAMU 17
MS - Malik Dear 52 yd run (Westin Graves kick), 4 plays, 75 yards, TOP 1:38
MS 10, TAMU 24
TAMU - Tra Carson 1 yd run (Taylor Bertolet kick), 5 plays, 64 yards, TOP 0:54
MS 10, TAMU 27
TAMU - Taylor Bertolet 24 yd field goal 8 plays, 48 yards, TOP 2:42
MS 17, TAMU 27
MS - Dak Prescott 5 yd run (Westin Graves kick), 10 plays, 68 yards, TOP 2:40
MS 17, TAMU 30
TAMU - Taylor Bertolet 30 yd field goal 10 plays, 35 yards, TOP 3:48
