No. 13 Georgia was a 26-point favorite to beat Mississippi State on Saturday night. The Bulldogs would win by just seven points. While quarterback JT Daniels' fantastic performance put 31 points on the board, it’s hard to ignore the success that MSU's offense had against UGA, scoring 24 points of their own.

Mississippi State's freshman quarterback Will Rogers milked Georgia’s secondary for 336 yards on 41-of-52 passing. Obviously, that number is a tad inflated due to the fact that Mike Leach is on the opposing sideline, and he would rather get a root canal without numbing agent than run the ball 20 times in a game. But, still—336 yards passing is a lot to concede.

So, how did it happen?

Let’s start with the quarterback of Georgia’s secondary being absent. Richard LeCounte’s presence at safety offers much security to Georgia’s linebackers and cornerbacks. An experienced ballhawk who also isn’t afraid to come down to the line of scrimmage is a tough loss against an air-raid offense dinking and dunking you to death. And that's what MSU does. It is death by a thousand passes to the slot, just past the line.

Secondly, Georgia was forced to alter its game plan and limit a unit that yearns for “havoc.”

“It’s tough being patient, because we told ourselves, and every team we talked to said the same thing: you’ve got to be patient, you’ve got to be patient, you’ve got to be patient,” said head coach Kirby Smart. “You’re counting on them a little bit to mess it up, and I told y’all all week, it's very similar to the Georgia Tech triple option. If you’re in third-and-one or third-and-two every third down, you’re not going to win. You’ve got to get them off schedule.”

Those “havoc” plays (sacks, interceptions, forced fumbles, etc.) that Smart and company preach were few and far between against Mississippi State. The Bulldogs in maroon and white were methodical, yet assured. Rogers seemed to know where he was going with the ball before it was snapped, and didn’t hesitate. Although Rogers only averaged 8.2 yards per completion, those really add up when throwing the ball as much as a Leach offense does.

“We didn’t play anything different than anybody else that plays them,” said Smart. “It’s crazy. You go watch the tape, and every team that plays them plays the same stuff. We probably got as good or better players than the teams that played them well. The difference? They didn’t drop balls, they didn’t fumble, they didn’t throw an interception. They have a ton of interceptions. Will Rogers played really well and was really accurate. It forced us to be really patient.”

The man attempting to fill the rather large cleats of LeCounte was Lewis Cine. He returned to game action following his collision with Florida’s Kyle Pitts two weeks ago. He was greeted with a multitude of route concepts and attempted distractions, courtesy of Mississippi State’s game plan. Cine said he and his teammates were prepared, thanks to advice from defensive coordinator Dan Lanning.

“Our defensive coordinator usually says, ‘Don’t bite the cheese, because most likely there’s something behind you coming,” said Cine. “The type of offense they have is, they’ll show you something so you can bite it, and have something come from behind you. The goal was to have them throw it in front of us, so we could just rally to it.”

Smart and Cine’s comments on patience were echoed by Georgia’s leading tackler on the night, Nakobe Dean, who finished the contest with 12 total tackles.

“We just had to keep our composure and stay patient. That’s what changed the most (in the second half). We knew we had to execute better, and that rests on the shoulders of the linebackers and leaders of the defense.”