BYU Football: 3 takeaways from Cougars loss at Mississippi State

1. BYU pushed around on defense by Mississippi State rushing attack

There were few bright spots for the BYU defense on Saturday. Dayan Ghanwoloku picked off two Nick Fitzgerald passes and had two long returns. The second interception set up a Cougars touchdown, and kept Mississippi State from opening up an even bigger deficit against the visitors.

In general, the secondary was able to hold up its end of the bargain on defense. Fitzgerald went 19-of-30 for 241 passing yards. He did throw two touchdown passes, but the interceptions kept him from putting up bigger numbers against the Cougars. But Fitzgerald has never been exclusively a passer, and he was a key contributor to a big rushing day by Mississippi State.

The Cougars gave up over 300 total yards on the ground to the Bulldogs, who averaged nearly six yards per carry as a team. Aeris Williams led the way on the ground, finishing with 114 yards and two scores as the feature back. Fitzgerald hefted a big part of the rushing load as well, racking up 103 yards on 15 carries while adding two rushing scores to his passing touchdowns.

BYU entered the day allowing an average of 167 yards on the ground, right around average for FBS teams. They exited Starkville with an exposed front seven that is susceptible to giving up big yards against decent rushing teams.