The now-No. 13 LSU football team waited 11 months and 23 days for a shot at redemption.
The Tigers (1-0, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) had Saturday night’s game against then-No. 25 Mississippi State University marked on their calendars since suffering a nail-biting defeat last season.
Saturday night, they filed into Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Mississippi, to a hellfire of cowbells. Three hours and 25 minutes after the opening kickoff, the Tigers celebrated on the field to the sound of silence after quieting the cowbells, coming away with a 21-19 victory against the Bulldogs (1-1, 0-1 SEC).
Junior defensive tackle Christian LaCouture said the team’s keys to victory before the game started were to pressure senior quarterback Dak Prescott in the pocket without letting him get loose and break off large chunks of yards after he ran for 105 in Mississippi State’s victory against the Tigers last season.
“We wanted to make sure that never happened again,” LaCouture said. “We were a little embarrassed last year by that. We prepared, moved on and got
better as the year moved on.”
The Tigers were successful in containing Prescott in the running game as he finished with 10 carries for negative 19 yards.
In fact, LSU managed to contain the entire Bulldogs’ offense in the running game. Junior running backs Brandon Holloway and Ashton Shumpert combined for 15 carries and 67 yards, putting the Bulldogs’ net yardage at just under 50 for the game.
With the Tigers shutting down the run game, Prescott was forced to pass 52 times to try to keep up with sophomore running back Leonard Fournette’s three touchdowns on the board.
LSU junior defensive end Lewis Neal said the coaches did a good job of noticing the formations Mississippi State was lining up in and finding the most opportune time to send blitzes, which senior linebacker Deion Jones said forced Prescott to make inaccurate passes on the run.
“It affected him big time,” Jones said. “We tried to pepper him, tried to make him uncomfortable in the pocket. The d-line did a great job with that, and the safeties with their blitzes.”
The Tigers’ pass rush forced Mississippi State to finish the game 3-for-15 on third down conversions.
Although LSU wasn’t able to get Prescott on his back every time it pressured him, the Tigers still managed three sacks and eight quarterback hits.
“We wanted five sacks,” LaCouture said. “I almost had one at the beginning, but we are very happy with our performance tonight. The work we put in as a defensive line and as a team was huge.”
Mississippi State nearly completed a second-half comeback, during which Prescott put up 240 of his 335 passing yards. Junior linebacker Kendell Beckwith said he was more successful in the second half because he was getting the ball out of his hands quicker.
Neal said in the end, the root of LSU’s victory came down to hard work.
“It’s all about effort,” Neal said. “Just laying it all out on the line and going hard regardless of what the situation is.”
Jones said an underrated part of the Tigers’ success Saturday night was the secondary. While LSU sent blitzes, the defensive backs were in one-on-one coverage against big, talented receivers, and they held the Bulldogs at bay all night, he said.
The LSU secondary recorded six pass break ups and played a big part in the stifling of the Bulldogs’ ground attack with four of the top six tacklers being members of the secondary.
“This is DBU, man,” Jones said. “You got to trust them. You know what they’re about, and people in the nation know what they’re about. It’s nice to be playing with them guys. When you’re pressuring the ball like that, you know they have your back. It makes you go even harder on your blitzes.”