Miami (OH) vs. Mississippi State: Score, Reaction for 2016 St. Petersburg Bowl

Miami (Ohio) and Mississippi State entered the St. Petersburg Bowl with the worst combined record of any bowl participants.

That didn't stop them from putting on a nail-biter. 

Mississippi State blocked a 37-yard Nick Dowd field goal with five seconds remaining, as the Bulldogs held on for a 17-16 victory over Miami on Monday afternoon.

Gus Ragland drove the Redhawks 58 yards down the field for a chance to win. Ragland's 23-yard pass to James Gardner put the ball at Mississippi State's 17-yard line, and then the quarterback moved the ball to the middle of the field to set up Dowd's attempt. 

With an embarrassing loss on the line, the Bulldogs somehow came through with a blocked kick to seal the win. Dowd had an extra-point attempt blocked in the second quarter, which made all the difference. Barrett Sallee of Bleacher Report was not impressed:

Mississippi State was granted a bowl berth despite a 5-7 record because there were not enough teams .500 or better to fill the field. The Bulldogs were chosen as the best team remaining that wasn't already going to a bowl game.

Based on their first-half results, it appeared Mississippi State had little interest in making the trip at all.

The Bulldogs offense stalled as they trailed 9-7 going into the break against a 6-6 team from the MAC. For those who cover college football for a living, Mississippi State's performance was more than enough to garner accusations of mailing it in:

"

Mississippi State is embarrassing itself right now but not as much as A&M and Ole Miss right now and that’s how you reconcile this, Dogs

— Steven Godfrey (@38Godfrey) December 26, 2016"

Of course, Tom Fornelli of CBSSports.com wasn't so sure:

"

Mississippi State is 5-7. It lost to South Alabama. It struggled to beat UMass. Don’t be so sure it’s mailing anything in here.

— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) December 26, 2016"

Mississippi State put on a far better performance after the halftime break, allowing it to sneak away with the win. The Bulldogs' first four offensive drives went for seven or more plays, including two scoring drives. Nick Fitzgerald scampered 44 yards for a touchdown to cap off a nine-play, 82-yard drive in the third quarter, and then the Bulldogs followed that by taking the lead with a field goal early in the fourth quarter.

Fitzgerald finished with a game-high 132 yards and two touchdowns on the ground, setting a Mississippi State record for touchdown runs by a quarterback (16). He did not find much success through the air, completing just 13 of 26 passes for 136 yards. 

Jeff Feyerer of Inside the Pylon was nonetheless impressed:

Aeris Williams added 64 yards on the ground as the only other Bulldogs offensive player who made much of an impact. 

Miami outgained Mississippi State 433-335 and likely would have won the game if it weren't for its own miscues. The RedHawks turned the ball over twice compared to zero for their opponents, and they also turned the ball over on downs during a critical fourth-quarter drive.

Mississippi State's mistakes were ones made by head coach Dan Mullen himself. The Mississippi State coach went for a 4th-and-9 at the Miami 34-yard line in the first half, and then made the curious call to eschew a field goal from their opponent's 22-yard line in favor of a Damian Williams pass play.

Keep in mind Williams had not thrown a single pass in the game, and the 39-yard attempt would have forced Miami to score a touchdown on its final drive. Also of note: Kicker Westin Graves had already nailed a 36-yarder earlier in the game.

While criticism of Mullen's coaching performance and his team will likely go deep into the night, it's still a notch in the win column. A 6-7 record is better than some expected this season, with the Bulldogs rebuilding after the Dak Prescott era. But this performance proves there's a lot of work to be done heading into 2017. 

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Post-Game Reaction

Defensive tackle Nelson Adams spoke to reporters about his block: "We had noticed on film that (Dowd) kind of kicked line drives. So all that was going through my head is, 'Get your hands up as quick as you can.'"

Mullen discussed the season: "It's been an interesting year. If you look, throughout the year … we lost a bunch of games on the final play of the game. I told the guys in the locker room afterward, we're here because we didn't give up. We're here because we kept battling all the way."

Miami coach Chuck Martin thought about going for the touchdown rather than the field goal: "Yeah, I thought about (going for a touchdown) a lot, probably more than I should have. We had time; we had two timeouts. But we were sitting on a 35-yard field goal to beat Mississippi State and I'm a pretty stupid head coach if somehow we get sacked or turn it over."