If you didn’t buy tickets to the Malik Nabers show, you missed out.
LSU dominated in a 41-14 victory over Mississippi State in Starkville on Saturday due mainly to an outstanding performance by Jayden Daniels and Malik Nabers.
Daniels and Nabers connected on 13 passes for 239 yards and two touchdowns which led all receivers. It was an outstanding performance from the quarterback and receiver duo and as much as Daniels and Nabers deserve the credit for their performance, it was a tremendous game plan from the offense to give him those one-on-one chances.
MORE FOOTBALL: It takes two: Jayden Daniels and Malik Nabers headline LSU’s dominant offense against the Bulldogs
The passing game was too much for Mississippi State’s defense. They simply could not cover everyone on the field and even though roughly 42% of passes were caught by Nabers, having a talented wide receiver core allowed Nabers to get those opportunities.
The speed of Aaron Anderson and Chris Hilton Jr. and the big game ability from Brian Thomas Jr.–who was leading the team in receptions before the game– opened up the offense and opportunities for Nabers.
LSU showed success running the ball and most importantly being able to keep drives alive and convert on both third downs and fourth downs. The offense did a great job of keeping things fresh and showed another dimension in the offense.
First, Brian Kelly got Nabers involved early. On the first offensive drive for LSU, Daniels found Nabers four times. Right then it was established that Nabers was going to play a big role in the game.
Nabers was able to find the holes in zone coverage which allowed him to get in rhythm early and giving him the ball on jet touch passes allowed him to become a playmaker in the open field.
This played a big role in the game because it forced Mississippi State to change its defense from playing over the top to playing more man coverage and worrying about the underneath routes that were working for LSU.
Another thing the LSU offense did was line Nabers up all around the field. To keep the offense and Nabers fresh they moved him around a lot so the offense wouldn’t get stagnant and find mismatches across the field.
Speaking of mismatches, one of the reasons why Nabers dominated the defense was because they exploited the safety in the slot that was matched up with Nabers. On both of his touchdowns, he was guarded by Hunter Washington. Washington, a safety who doesn’t specialize in man coverage was targeted when matched up against Nabers.
Both Kelly and Daniels noticed the mismatch and believed that Nabers was going to win his matchup, which he did. He was able to blow right by him and create immense separation that allowed two big play touchdowns.
The aggressiveness from both Daniels and Kelly was shown. Many people didn’t believe Daniels could move the ball down the field as not many shots were taken in previous games, but that was quickly shut down.
Nabers and Daniels connected five times for plays over 26 yards including a fourth-down conversion that went for a 33-yard touchdown. This opens a new wave in the offense, now showing that LSU can stretch the ball downfield, especially the talented receiver core LSU has.
