Vanderbilt got there without finding the end zone much. Brock Taylor kicked a school-record 6 field goals: 1 in the first quarter, 2 in the second, 1 in the third and 2 in the fourth. The Commodores scored 1 touchdown all day, in the second quarter, and the rest came off Taylor's leg. The fast start the preview pointed to showed up, but drive after drive stalled short of the goal line, and that's how a 16-point lead turned into a game that came down to the final 32 seconds.
The fade the preview warned about came in the third quarter. Mississippi State put up 14 points in that quarter alone, and the Davis Wade crowd was back in it. Vanderbilt answered with field goals instead of touchdowns, so the lead kept shrinking. Through 5 straight losses the Commodores kept hanging around and then losing anyway. This time they hung around, gave a lot of the lead back and still had just enough left.
Swann finished the game the way the preview hoped he would start it. He hit Magee for a touchdown earlier in the game, then found him again on a 30-yard strike with 32 seconds left to pull Mississippi State within 2. The 2-point try to tie went to Swann's arm too, and the pass sailed out the back of the end zone. Cole Spence then covered the onside kick and that was it. The shoulder or whatever else was bothering Swann didn't cost Mississippi State this game. The first half did.
The return of Fluff Bothwell, the other piece of good news on the Bulldogs' injury report, didn't show up anywhere in the first half, when Mississippi State scored nothing. The search turned up no rushing line for him, so the scoreboard is the only verdict here: the Bulldogs' offense didn't start moving until Swann started throwing it to Magee in the second half. By then they needed 3 scores, and they only got 2 before the clock ran out.
For Vanderbilt it's the first SEC win of the year, and it ends a 5-game skid after a run of Auburn, Georgia, Ole Miss, Arkansas and Kentucky. The Commodores are 4-5 and 1-5 in the league. Mississippi State has now lost 5 straight and sits at 4-5 and 2-5. The preview called this the Bulldogs' most realistic path back above .500 left on the schedule, and they lost it at home by 2 points.
