STARKVILLE, Miss. — LSU junior safety Chad Jones is not Billy Cannon, but he certainly did his best impression Saturday in Davis Wade Stadium.Clinging to a six-point lead in a wet and wild shootout, Jones delivered both the game-winning points and the game-saving goal-line tackle for LSU (4-0, 1-0) in a sloppy 30-26 win against Mississippi State (2-2, 1-2).Even with a messy victory, LSU moved up to No. 4 in both the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches Top 25 national polls.”I’m glad to see our players rally late, but we cannot make mistakes like we did today,” said LSU coach Les Miles. “The team better show up Monday ready to work.”It all started for Jones, like Cannon, with a booming punt deep into LSU territory. Jones fielded a bouncing ball on the Tigers’ 7-yard line, slipped a tackle and was off — streaking, snaking and stumbling to a 93-yard touchdown.”If he didn’t run out of gas, I ran out of gas for him,” Miles said. “Daggone it, it seemed like he made more rights and lefts than he should have, but I’ll tell you one thing — he was not going down, and that team that was running alongside him was certainly going to support him.”With the Bulldogs lined up at the LSU goal line with 1:08 to play, Jones struck again, batting down a sure-thing touchdown pass on third down and assisting on a fourth-down tackle to keep Mississippi State senior quarterback Tyson Lee out of the end zone.”The play worked out like it was supposed to — the linebackers took out the fullbacks, and I came and tackled the quarterback for the fourth down,” Jones said. “I was hoping the play was coming to my side. I wanted to make the big play, and it definitely came.”The late-game heroics were just some of many on a rainy afternoon in which LSU scored a touchdown on offense, defense and special teams for the first time since Oct. 12, 2002, against Florida.LSU sophomore quarterback Jordan Jefferson connected on passes of 39, 18, 58 and 40 yards for two touchdowns and a career-high 233 yards.LSU sophomore cornerback Patrick Peterson opened the day’s scoring with a 27-yard interception return for a touchdown, and senior cornerback Chris Hawkins and sophomore safety Brandon Taylor each added a pick in the second quarter.But the Tigers simply could not finish off Mississippi State, as the Bulldogs battled back from deficits of six, two and nine points to come within a literal inch of pulling the upset.”If we don’t play sloppy, if we don’t have miscues in the kicking game, if we don’t do the things that leave our opponents right in position to play with us, this game can be very different,” Miles said. “But until we do that, we’re going to be a team that’s very vulnerable.”The Tigers’ ground game struggled to 87 total yards but LSU also lost roughly 50 yards on sacks and broken plays.”We came out [in the second half], we had a quick little drive and a quick score, and we thought we were going to get rolling,” said senior wide receiver Brandon LaFell, who paced the Tigers’ offense with 101 yards and two touchdowns. “We thought sooner or later they’d drop back and play the deep ball, but they still kept eight in the box and made us try to beat them with the pass.”Mississippi State senior running back Anthony Dixon had a much more memorable day, as his 106 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries vaulted him to the top of the Bulldogs’ all-time rushing and scoring lists. Lee recovered from his three-interception first half to loft a desperate 50-yard touchdown to sophomore tight end Marcus Green to cut LSU’s lead to 23-21 in the third quarter.”You put so much work in and lose so close,” Lee said. “I cannot put into words how this loss feels. We played hard for four quarters — or actually, 59 minutes.”The day seemed destined for oddity as a torrential downpour dampened the proceedings during pregame and lasted well into the second quarter.The Tigers and Bulldogs combined for three fumbles, three interceptions, seven penalties and three botched special teams plays — all in the first-half monsoon.The Tigers experienced their second botched punt of the season when an airmailed snap gave MSU possession at the LSU 1-yard line for an eventual Dixon touchdown.The Bulldog faithful weren’t as effective as anticipated in the early going, as Mississippi State’s white out was marred by the conditions. Roughly 53,612 fans came out into the elements — 1,470 short of Davis Wade’s maximum capacity — and multicolored patches of ponchos dotted the landscape for much of the first half.- – – -Contact David Helman at [email protected]