NASHVILLE – It was wet and sloppy, but it was another first for Dan Mullen.

Mississippi State’s defense rebounded from the previous week’s humiliation at Auburn, and Anthony Dixon rushed for 123 yards in a 15-3 victory over Vanderbilt on Saturday night in front of 31,840, many of them wearing maroon and white.

It was the first SEC win for Mullen as a head coach.

“I felt good about when we called the victory formation,” Mullen said. “I didn’t feel too good until about then.”

MSU (2-1, 1-1 SEC) held Vanderbilt to 157 total yards, including just 33 rushing on 29 carries. That was a week after Auburn piled up 589 yards, 390 of that on the ground.

A couple of big red-zone stops helped keep the Commodores (1-2, 0-2) out of the end zone.

“You know what, I thought we did a better job putting them in positions to make some plays, and they came out, and they played their butts off on defense today,” Mullen said.

MSU never trailed, but was never comfortable, either. The Bulldogs were clinging to a 9-3 lead when a Larry Smith bomb fell off the fingertips of receiver John Cole in the end zone early in the fourth quarter, the closest Vandy came to scoring a touchdown.

State sealed it with quarterback Tyson Lee’s 22-yard touchdown run with 3 minutes, 20 seconds left in the game. The two-point try failed, but that didn’t matter.

A Damein Anderson interception on Vandy’s ensuing drive capped it.

Lee’s run was set up by Dixon’s hard running. He ripped off a 41-yard run earlier in the drive, and on the TD, Lee made a zone read, faking to Dixon – who took a huge hit – and dashed untouched into the end zone.

“I made a lot of bad reads tonight, and that was one of the ones I made the right read,” Lee said. “(Dixon) took one for the team.”

Dixon also converted a fourth-and-1 on the drive.

Both teams came out using the no-huddle, but neither attack was effective. Vanderbilt had zero first downs in the first quarter and just 29 total yards and one first down at halftime.

Neither team scored until the first play of the second quarter, when MSU’s Sean Brauchle drilled a 44-yard field goal attempt to cap a nine-play drive.

Vanderbilt had a golden opportunity when it recovered a Robert Elliott fumble at State’s 6-yard line, but safeties Charles Mitchell and Zach Smith made a big stop on third-and-goal from the 1-yard line. Ryan Fowler’s 20-yard field goal tied it at the 11:28 mark.

A 27-yard Brauchle field goal put MSU back on top, 6-3, at the 2:14 mark. State had a chance to add more just before halftime, reaching Vandy’s 33. But Lee was sacked twice, including on the last play of the half, and the Bulldogs had no timeouts to stop the clock.

MSU finished with 341 total yards. Dixon had help in the run game, as Christian Ducré ran for 62 yards, and QB Chris Relf added 44 yards.