Nick Fitzgerald said earlier in the week that he liked the offensive game plan Mississippi State had drawn up for the Egg Bowl.
MSU, it turns out, planned to plunge the ball straight ahead at the Rebels’ porous run defense and was able to have its way more often than not. The Bulldogs ran the ball for 309 of their 420 total yards — and 51 of their 69 plays were runs.
“From the start, we were going to run an inside zone and run the ball straight at them until they stopped it and definitely throw the ball around a little bit,” Fitzgerald said. “Our main goal was to dominate the line of scrimmage and pound it up the middle as much as we possibly could, and I think we did a pretty good job of it.”
Fitzgerald and Kylin Hill both eclipsed the century mark on the ground, with Fitzgerald rushing 18 times for 117 yards and two touchdowns and Hill adding 108 yards and a score on 17 carries.
“We were going to establish our physicality on the line of scrimmage and be able to run the ball with Kylin, Aeris (Williams) and Nick,” said MSU coach Joe Moorhead. “I think we were able to do that and move the ball well, similar to the (Arkansas) week.”
MSU defensive coordinator Bob Shoop’s game plan was executed equally as well.
The Bulldogs held a usually potent and explosive Ole Miss offense out of the end zone and only surrendered 189 total yards (37 rushing, 152 passing) — all season lows for the Rebels.
The Bulldogs tallied 11 tackles for loss, four sacks and forced three turnovers.
“We wanted a shutout but this was big,” said MSU defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, who had four tackles, two tackles for loss, a sack, a pass breakup and forced a fumble. “Coach Shoop mentioned they had the No. 2 offense in our conference. With the type of receivers they have, our secondary came up real big this game.”
