Mississippi State football was outscored 14-0 in the Egg Bowl following DeShawn Page’s targeting penalty
STARKVILLE — Given the quality of opponent, the performance displayed by Mississippi State’s defense in the first half of Thursday night’s Egg Bowl against No. 12 Ole Miss was its best performance of the season.
The Bulldogs held the high-octane Rebels to just three points and 137 total yards through two quarters, and in the third quarter were playing with a 7-3 lead after Will Rogers gave Mississippi State the lead on a one-yard touchdown run. Playing with all the momentum, Thursday’s game flipped on a controversial penalty that will surely be remembered in the rivalry for years to come.
Mississippi State’s stifling defense carried over into the third quarter, where it had appeared the Bulldogs forced another Ole Miss punt when linebackers DeShawn Page and Nathaniel Watson combined to stop Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart one yard short of a first down on a third-and-8 scramble. A punt would have given the ball back to the Bulldogs with a chance to expand on their upset bid. However, after further review, it was ruled that Page had made helmet-to-helmet contact and was ejected from the gameb
Key play in the game,” Mississippi State interim head coach Greg Knox said following the game. “It was going to be a stop and we were going to get the ball back. Momentum, energy, everything was going in our direction. That was the big change in the game.”
Granted a new set of downs, Ole Miss drove down the field in eight plays, finding the end zone on a four-yard touchdown run by Quinshon Judkins. The Rebels added to their lead the following the drive on a 26-yard touchdown pass from Dart to Caden Prieskorn. Suddenly, a four-point Mississippi State lead turned into a 10-point deficit, leading to Ole Miss’s 17-7 win, sending the Golden Egg Trophy back to Oxford.
Me being a captain, I take blame for that,” Watson, who tallied 21 tackles for the second straight game said. “We gave up 17 (points), so I take blame for on that.”
Naturally, Watson said Mississippi State had a “next man up” mentality, something had embraced all season due to a vast number of injuries throughout the year. Through inconsistencies, the Bulldogs were able to look their best against their in-state rivals, forcing Ole Miss punts on six of seven first-half drives, with a lone exception bein
g a field goal on a drive that stalled just inside the 20.
We were just flying around and just getting all 11 hats to the ball,” senior linebacker Jett Johnson said. “I think the defense played pretty well, but not well enough to get a win.”
Up until that targeting call, Mississippi State’s did. But instead of pushing the play aside, the Bulldogs allowed it to flip the the script on the entire game.
“Obviously as a defensive player, I thought it was a pretty good hit by DeShawn,” Johnson said. “But you can’t let that affect you and just play the next play. It is part of the job. You to do that and it is what it is. (We) should have probably gotten off the field, but it is what it is.”
