Missouri State football left much to be desired in loss at No. 24 Youngstown State

Coming off a pair of wins against teams at the bottom of the conference, Missouri State needed to show any sort of growth it had in a performance at nationally-ranked Youngstown State.

The Bears (3-5, 2-3) showed mixed results in a 44-28 loss to the FCS No. 24 Penguins (5-3, 3-2) on Saturday afternoon in Youngstown, Ohio.

On one hand, the Bears' secondary struggled throughout the entirety of the game. On the other, MSU found itself down 24 early in the third quarter and fought back to put some pressure on the Penguins. It didn't matter as the Bears' two-game winning streak was snapped and they still sit in the bottom half of the Missouri Valley Football Conference.

The Bears' secondary was torched for the majority of the afternoon, especially in the first half. It allowed a pair of Youngstown State quarterbacks to complete 27 of 34 passes for 415 yards and four touchdowns. Mitch Davidson, a senior quarterback, threw all but one pass that was completed for 25 yards.

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Big plays against the Bears' secondary and undisciplined play by the entire team were the themes. It didn't matter whether passes were contested or not, the Penguins' receivers came down with the ball. Multiple blown coverages and contested completions turned into chunk yardage as the Penguins had nine passes go for 15 yards or more.

The Bears had seven defensive penalties accepted against them for 62 yards. Five of them came on third- or fourth-down. Offensively, the Bears had four penalties accepted against them for 30 yards.

Youngstown State broke the game open late in the second quarter as the Penguins scored 17 unanswered points over the last 6 minutes and 10 seconds. Davidson completed two touchdown passes to Bryce Oliver over the stretch from 51 and 20 yards out.

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Offensively, the Bears didn't quit and almost kept them in the game. After falling behind by 24 early in the third, starting quarterback Jordan Pachot completed touchdown passes to Jacardia Wright and Lance Mason on passes of 29 and seven respectively to bring the game back within 10.

That's as close as the Bears got when they had their chances to bring the game back within a score. They came up empty on their final four drives which included a Pachot interception on an underthrow to the endzone. He finished the game 25 of 38 for 341 yards, two scores and a pick.

Missouri State will return to Springfield for its final two home games of the regular season. The Bears will host Illinois State on Nov. 4 at 2 p.m. before hosting Northern Iowa the next week. The Redbirds lost 24-21 to the Panthers on Saturday.

Scoring Summary

• 1Q 13:44 - Jordan Pachot nine-yard run. MSU 7-0.

• 1Q 10:02 - Mitch Davidson 10-yard pass to C.J. Charleston. 7-7.

• 1Q 3:36 - Jake Benio two-yard run. YSU 14-7.

• 2Q 8:18 - Jacardia Wright 45-yard run. 14-14.

• 2Q 6:10 - Mitch Davidson 51-yard pass to Bryce Oliver. YSU 21-14.

• 2Q 0:45 - Mitch Davidson 20-yard pass to Bryce Oliver. YSU 28-14.

• 2Q 0:00 - Andrew Lastovka 27-yard field goal. YSU 31-14.

• 3Q 12:54 - Dra Rushton one-yard run. YSU 38-14.

• 3Q 10:12 - Jordan Pachot 29-yard pass to Jacardia Wright. YSU 38-21.

• 3Q 4:48 - Jordan Pachot seven-yard pass to Lance Mason. YSU 38-28.

• 4Q 8:21 - Andrew Lastovka 29-yard field goal. YSU 41-28.

• 4Q 2:17 - Andrew Lastovka 44-yard field goal. YSU 44-28.

Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or X at @WyattWheeler_NL. He's also the host of the weekly "Wyatt's World Podcast" on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other podcasting platforms

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Youngstown State beats Missouri State in MVFC action