Mississippi State capitalizes on Troy turnovers
In front of a record crowd of 29,013, Troy gave Mississippi State a fight, but ultimately came up short.
Mississippi State scored 20 points off of three first-half Troy turnovers. The Trojans would turn the ball over four time total in the first two quarters killing successful drives.
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"It's very frustrating to move the ball up and down the field on a team like that and not get it in the end zone," quarterback Corey Robinson said. "Whether it's a turnover or something goes wrong, it's pretty frustrating."
Robinson was 32-for-45 for 343 yards, but was intercepted twice by Darius Slay.
Troy running back Shawn Southward turned in his second 100-yard performance of the season with 137 on 20 carries and two scores.
The Trojans trailed 23-7 at halftime, but scored twice in the second half to cut the deficit to 23-21.
Mississippi State scored with 7:00 left in the game on a 25-yard pass from quarterback Tyler Russell to Chad Bumphis on a fourth down to essentially put the game out of reach.
"I was really proud of our football team. I was definitely proud of our people," head coach Larry Blakeney said.
I'm not the least bit discouraged except for turnovers, the explosive plays and the timeouts. We squandered a timeout because we had 12 guys out there on a punt return. That always comes back to bite you late in a game."
Troy out-gained Mississippi State 572-457 in the game.