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Saturday’s contest between LSU and Mississippi State may have made a few Tiger fans nervous. LSU dominated the last eight games of the series by an average margin of victory of 32.4 points, but the Bulldogs refused to go down without a fight. LSU defeated pesky Mississippi State, 34-24, and held the Bulldogs to 285 total yards on offense. Mississippi State is the first team to gain more than 100 yards rushing against the Tigers, and part of the Tigers’ woes may be attributed to injuries to the middle of the defensive line.Starting defensive tackles Charles Alexander and Ricky Jean-Francois both went down with minor injuries during the game.Alexander, who missed most of the 2007 season and part of fall practice with a knee injury, returned for a few plays in the fourth quarter while Jean-Francois didn’t come back in. LSU coach Les Miles said he isn’t worried and expects to have everyone back for Florida.”I know they are not serious, serious injuries,” Miles said. “I think in two weeks we’ll have every guy.”This week’s bye gives LSU the time to get players like Jean-Francois, Alexander, and senior middle linebacker Darry Beckwith healthy for Florida. Beckwith went down during the North Texas game two weeks ago with a leg injury, and Miles said he expects Beckwith to return for the Florida game. Junior Jacob Cutrera, who started in place of Beckwith, had six tackles against Mississippi State.Jean-Francois said doctors told him his injury may be a hip flexor or a groin injury.”I’m good,” Jean-Francois said. “It feels like I pulled something. I wanted to come back in, but the coaches said to stay out.”Although Jean-Francois didn’t return after the injury Saturday night, he said he would play if there was a game this weekend.”Right when I leave, I am going straight into the training room, putting some ice on it and just getting straight,” Jean-Francois said.Senior defensive end Tyson Jackson said he got a little uneasy when he saw Jean-Francois go down, but he knew he would be back.”Ricky’s a tough guy,” Jackson said. “He’ll be back before you know it. I’ll be looking forward to him being back beside me Florida week.”With Jean-Francois and Alexander temporarily out, backup defensive tackles Drake Nevis, Marlon Favorite and Al Woods stepped in and stepped up. Nevis, Favorite and Woods combined for 9 tackles with Nevis getting 1.5 tackles for loss.”Our backup DTs could be anywhere in the nation,” Jackson said. “I feel real comfortable with those guys. I told Drake [Nevis] ‘at some point in time you are going to have to play behind one of us.’ He came out there and played to the point that I thought he could or better.”LSU has an off week before traveling to face No. 12 Florida on Oct. 11. Jean-Francois said the off week couldn’t have come at a better time.”There are a couple of people nicked here and there,” Jean-Francois said. “The extra week for healing will help. We will be in the training room and on the field preparing every day for this Florida team. It will be a fun game for me, seeing as Florida is my home, but they will play us tough and we will have to be ready.”—-Contact Tyler Harvey at [email protected]