Mississippi State looks to refocus on offense during bye week

The Mississippi State Bulldogs may have started their 2020 season off on a high note winning in Week 1 against LSU 44-34.

But now things are starting to look rough for the Bulldogs and head coach Mike Leach. Mississippi State (1-3) has lost their last three straight games. Most recently, the Bulldogs lost to Texas A&M 14-28 at home.

The team looks to fix things up during this bye week before they head to Tuscaloosa to take on the undefeated No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide.

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Offense Continuing to Struggle

After losing three straight weeks in a row, coach Leach said his offense is struggling the most it ever has is in coaching career. Leach became the head coach of Mississippi State at the beginning of 2020. Before his position with the Bulldogs, he coached at Texas Tech and Washington State.

The last two games Mississippi State played, to say the team has struggled offensively is an understatement.

When the Bulldogs faced Kentucky for their third game of the season, they scored 0 points offensively and lost the game 2-24.

Coach Leach says his team’s performance against Kentucky was completely unacceptable.

The offense in their latest game against the Aggies wasn’t much better either.

The Bulldogs scored only one touchdown and were even worse in some aspects than they were in the Kentucky game.

In the Texas A&M game, Mississippi State had a total of 217 yards, including minus-2 rushing yards.

The offense line also gave up six sacks during the last game.

The Bulldogs did at least show a bit of an offensive pulse late by switching out quarterback K.J. Costello for freshman Will Rogers. However, it didn’t matter whether Costello or Rogers were in the game, constant pressure surrounded the quarterback.

This is the second-straight week, coach Leach has inserted true freshman Rogers at quarterback for Mississippi State in place of Costello. Rogers entered midway through the third quarter of the game and eventually rewarded his coach’s faith. At the end of the third quarter and stretching into the fourth, Rogers engineered a 13-play, 89-yard drive that culminated with a 32-yard touchdown pass to Malik Heath.

Coach Leach was brought into Starkville to implement a better offense for this team. Although this installation has not gone as planned for the Bulldogs so far, coach Leach looks to continue getting his players to take what they are doing in practice to the field on Saturdays.

Up Next for Mississippi State

Up next, Mississippi State takes on No. 2 Alabama on Oct. 31 at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.