UMass loses shootout
FOXBORO — Mississippi State may not have looked like a Power Five conference heavyweight early in the game, but a 28-point third-quarter eruption enabled the Bulldogs to pull away from a stubborn UMass team, 47-35, at Gillette Stadium yesterday.
The UMass defeat squandered another stellar performance by redshirt sophomore Andrew Ford, who was 24-of-40 for 273 yards. Sophomore running back Marquis Young was also potent, rushing for 125 yards along with his first TD of the season.
“The third quarter killed,” UMass coach Mark Whipple said. “It was almost like freshman mistakes. Credit them. They are an SEC West team. They’re bigger and faster and we just made too many mistakes. When they ran 50 plays (for 309 yards) at halftime that was tough on our defense. But, I don’t think there was any point on the sideline where our guys hung their heads. You try to get the game into the fourth quarter and our guys battled. I’m proud of them and it was a fun game for me to coach.”
Mississippi State (2-2) opened the scoring on a 23-yard field goal by junior Westin Graves in the first quarter.
The UMass defense later forced the Bulldogs to punt and the Minutemen took over at its 17. On the first play, Young dashed around the left side and raced the distance to the end zone for a 7-3 lead with 6:08 to go in the frame.
The Bulldogs punted again but UMass quickly turned over the ball on a fluke play when Andy Isabella fell while running his route. That allowed Bulldogs defender Kivon Coman to easily make an interception at the MSU 23.
The MSU offense later got going, churning out 67 yards on 15 plays with Graves splitting the uprights from 30 yards to reduce UMass’ lead to 7-6 midway through the second.
UMass answered with a 10-play, 74-yard scoring march with Ford connecting with wide receiver Jalen Williams, who outleaped the coverage of Lashard Durr in the end zone. Mike Caggiano added the PAT and the gap widened to 14-6 with 1:48 remaining before halftime. UMass caught a break on fourth-and-12 when a Ford-to-Williams pass went for only 5 yards. But MSU was ruled offside.
The Bulldogs’ Fitzgerald (25-of-38 for 299 yards, 3 TDs) engineered the type of drive that NFL scouts love to see. The 6-foot-5 sophomore completed six passes to four different receivers, good for 65 yards, finishing with a 9-yard toss to Fred Ross (8 catches, 126 yards, 2 TDs), the top active SEC receiver with catches in 26 straight games.
Mississippi State grabbed its second lead when Fitzgerald and Ross teamed up from 46 yards. Ross, who set the Bulldogs single-season reception mark with 88 catches last season, broke away from would-be tackler Isaiah Rodgers along the left sideline. Graves hit the PAT for a 20-14 margin and 9:05 to go in the third.
UMass took back the lead, 21-20, on a 19-yard hookup from Ford to Jalen Williams with 7:08 left in the quarter.
Mississippi State erupted for 14 points in 17 seconds to assume control. A 48-yard kickoff return by Brandon Holloway put the Bulldogs in prime position. Thirdstring back Aeris Williams, aided by a downfield block from tight end Justin Johnson, scooted 16 yards for the TD. UMass’ Ford suffered a pick-6 on the next possession as Jamoral Graham went 38 yards to paydirt to make it 34-21 Bulldogs.
Video replay helped UMass stem the bleeding when it showed Bernard Davis got his left foot down for a 19-yard score with just over 10 minutes to play. Five minutes later, Ford threw his fourth TD of the game, also for 19 yards to Sadiq Palmer, who made his firstever catch. That made it a 41-35 score. But, Ashton Shumpert widened the gap on a late 12-yard run for the visitors.
“As long as there is time on the clock, we’re still going to fight,” said Ford.