STARKVILLE — It’s not good when your best offensive play comes on the opening kickoff.

For Mississippi State, that’s what happened in its 3-2 loss to ninth ranked Auburn last week. Auburn got a second quarter field goal from Wes Byrum and that was enough as the Bulldogs (1-2) could only muster 116 yards in total offense.

It was the second time in three games the Bulldogs’ offense has struggled. In a season-opening 22-14 loss at Louisiana Tech, they turned it over five times and were shut out over the last 2 1/2 quarters.

Mississippi State quarterback Wesley Carroll felt his team’s problems have been self induced.

“We had plenty of opportunities. We blew two fourth downs at least in the fourth quarter. I know we’re capable of making those plays. We beat ourselves,” Carroll said after the loss to Auburn.

Actually, it was three fourth down plays against Auburn. One came on a fourth-and-1 from the Auburn 41. Backup tailback Christian Ducre was stopped for no gain and the Tigers regained the ball on downs.

“We missed an assignment on the fourth-and-1,” MSU coach Sylvester Croom said. “We had some other potentially big plays in the passing game, but we just flat missed them. The one time we get a field goal attempt, we have a bobbled snap. If we hit that, we could’ve won the game.”

The missed 38-yard field goal came after the Bulldogs recovered the first of three fumbled exchanges by the Tigers midway through the third quarter. The Bulldog offense did not get close again.

A second recovered fumble with 4:09 left had the Bulldogs at midfield. They went nowhere. A first down run was stuffed and Carroll misfired on three straight passes, including a fourth-and-15 with three minutes left that had many Bulldog fans scratching their heads.

“I didn’t know if we would have a chance to get the football back,” Croom said of the decison to go for it instead of punt. “There were three minutes left, we’re down a timeout, and we might not get the ball back.”

Ironically, a punt earlier in the quarter did pin the Tigers back on their own 3-yard line and resulted in the Bulldogs getting their only points of the game on a safety after an Auburn offensive lineman was called for holding in the end zone.

Fortunately for Croom, the Bulldogs defense got the ball back, getting a third recovered fumble with two minutes remaining.

It took one play for Auburn to get it back as State receiver Brian McRae lost a jump ball to Auburn’s Walter McFadden on a deep fly route, resulting in a game-sealing interception.

“Auburn was tough and they have a great pass rush,” said Carroll, who was just 10-of-25 passing for 78 yards. At least six of his passes went to no one in particular as he tried to escape the Tigers’ stout front four. “We just have to bounce back.”

The Bulldogs may get a chance to do that this week against a Georgia Tech squad that’s had similar offensive struggles.

Georgia Tech’s 278 yards rushing against Virginia Tech, including 151 by quarterback Josh Nesbitt, showed the potential of Paul Johnson’s spread option offense.

Nesbitt’s two lost fumbles and first interception of the season showed how badly turnovers can hurt the offense.

Nesbitt threw the ball only eight times. One was a 41-yard touchdown pass to Roddy Jones. Another was an interception that set up a Virginia Tech field goal in the Hokies’ 20-17 win on Saturday.

The turnovers negated the gains, said Johnson, who graded Nesbitt’s performance as “some good and some bad.”

“He’s got to learn to take care of the ball,” Johnson said of Nesbitt, a sophomore in his first season as a starter. “He was involved in three turnovers. We’re not going to be successful if we do that. We’ve got to do a better job of taking care of the ball.”

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.