A look at what went right and what went wrong in LSU’s 37-17 win against Mississippi State. Disclaimer: we had to think pretty hard to come up with three nit-picky negatives.
Three up
A developing connection: Junior quarterback Zach Mettenberger delivered his second consecutive strong performance, completing 19-of-30 passes for 273 yards and a pair of touchdowns. One of those touchdowns went to sophomore receiver Jarvis Landry, who hauled in a career-high nine grabs for 109 yards. The duo has connected 17 times for 185 yards and a pair of scores in the last two games.
Dynamic Shep: Senior wide out Russell Shepard seems to have found his niche. It’s not as the starting quarterback or the No. 1 wide receiver, as many people expected when he signed, but it’s still important. His eight carries for 33 yards against Mississippi State didn’t exactly light up the stat sheet, but he provided some variety to keep the Bulldogs defense guessing. Shepard has big-play potential and it would be a mistake if Les Miles didn’t give him an opportunity to make things happen.
Flag free (mostly): How things have changed. In just three games, LSU went from committing 13 penalties for 102 yards against Texas A&M to seven penalties for 51 yards against Alabama all the way down to just two penalties for 20 yards against the Bulldogs. It took far too long for the Tigers to cut down their issues, but it’s better late than never. We’ll see next week if this was just a one-week trend, or if LSU really has its penalty problems under control.
Three down
Still a passing grade: LSU is still the Southeastern Conference’s top-ranked pass defense, but Mississippi State quarterback Tyler Russell completed 68 percent of his passes against it for 295 yards and a score. Granted, he threw the ball almost 40 times, but he found and exploited holes in the LSU secondary, most notably with wide receiver Chad Bumphis (9 receptions, 140 yards).
Two minute defense: LSU limited the damage, but Mississippi State drove deep into Tiger territory on its final drive of both the first and second halves. The Bulldogs cut the LSU lead to 13-10 with less than a minute remaining in the first half by booting a 47-yard field goal with 48 seconds remaining. The Bulldogs also nearly pulled within one possession late in the game when they drove to the LSU 4-yard line. Russell hit Bumphis three times for 41 yards on the drive, including a 23-yarder on 4th and 10. The good news? LSU responded to the late first-half drive by needing just four plays and 35 seconds to score a touchdown, and junior safety Craig Loston intercepted a Russell pass near the goal line late in the second half and took it 100 yards to the house.
Dropping the ball: Even though the Tigers only lost one of their three fumbles, mistakes like that are never good. Something like a fumbled snap can end up causing a massive momentum shift in a close game, which the Mississippi State matchup was until late in the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs capitalized on the one fumble they recovered and they game may not have ended the same if they had recovered the other two.
What’s next?
LSU (8-2, 4-2 SEC) welcomes Ole Miss (5-5, 2-4) to Tiger Stadium Saturday at 2:30 p.m. for the 101st meeting between the two schools. LSU coach Les Miles owns a 5-3 career record against the Rebels.
