Alabama A&M beat Miss. Valley State Saturday night in a different way that their not used to winning. The Bulldogs, a team that likes to grind it out and play solid defense, won on big plays.

Touchdowns coming in the form of a 31 yard touchdown pass, 53 yard touchdown pass on a trick play, and 65 yard punt return for a touchdown gave the Bulldogs their only touchdowns.

''Big plays have been the story all year,'' said MVSU coach Willie Totten. ''No one is going up and down the field beating us. We're beating ourselves.''

On the flip side of the coin the Bulldogs were penalized 10 times for 72 yards. This is problem that head coach Anthony Jones is worried about for next week’s game against Alabama State.

''We made more big plays tonight, but they didn't count because we had so many penalties,'' Jones said. ''It comes down to discipline.

''If we make those kinds of mistakes against Alabama State, we'll be on the short end of the stick.''

The Bulldogs will face a rested Alabama State team as the Hornets had a bye this past week, but don’t expect that to be an advantage because teams coming off bye weeks have been performing horribly.