STARKVILLE, Miss. – Before each home game, the Mississippi State football team runs on to Scott Field through a giant, maroon, inflated football helmet with smoke pouring out of the facemask as the Bulldogs emerge from the locker room. After halftime with LSU winning 24-0, all the air was let out of the helmet and it deflated into a crumbled maroon mass, sort of like the Bulldogs’ football team.
LSU’s defensive effort in Saturday’s 41-6 win played a large part in that.
“I thought we played well on defense, played hard, got some turnovers, got some big plays and I was pleased with that,” said LSU coach Nick Saban.
The Tigers held the Bulldogs to 239 yards of total offense for the game and did not allow a touchdown until 10:12 left in the fourth quarter when State quarterback Kevin Fant hit wideout Justin Jenkins on a 15-yard TD pass.
“I think we weren’t prepared for LSU,” said Jenkins, who led MSU receivers with 61 yards on five catches. “Kevin had a lot of pressure on him. It was our job to get open.”
Like the giant football helmet was deflated, it is not a stretch to say State’s offense deflated after its first drive.
After the MSU defense held LSU to a three and out in its first possession, the Bulldogs took the field and immediatley began moving the ball against the Tigers.
Tailback Nick Turner rushed for 18 yards on five carries and Fant completed his first three passes for 28 yards as the Bulldogs drove down to the LSU 14-yard line and were threatening to take an early lead.
But those hopes were popped like a balloon when Turner fumbled a pitch from Fant and defensive end Melvin Oliver, who started for injured Marquise Hill, recovered the ball.
“It pushed the momentum from their end to ours and our offense was able to take advantage of it,” Oliver said.
State was never the same after that.
The Bulldogs only mustered 85 more yards of offense in the first half as the Tigers’ defense tightened up.
For the game, the Tigers forced four turnovers.
“The only thing we were trying to do was get after them for 60 minutes,” Travis Daniels said. “We knew that they had the second best offense in the SEC so we wanted to get out there and affect the quarterback. That was the main focus.”
Turner, who was averaging 100.7 rushing yards per game coming in, only gained 23 yards on 10 carries. For the game the Bulldogs only had 31 yards rushing.
The Tigers secondary held Fant to 191 passing yards and forced him into two interceptions.
Safeties Jack Hunt and Daniels each picked off a pass, and Daniels returned his 48 yards for a score while Hunt returned his to the MSU 2-yard line.
“The receivers were downfield and the only people that were there were the running back and the quarterback,” Daniels said of his interception return. “And I knew the quarterback wasn’t going to catch me.”
Saban praised Daniels and freshman LaRon Landry for their performances. Daniels registered a fumble recovery, three pass breakups, a sack and six tackles to go with his interception while Landry led the Tigers with 10 tackles and a partially-blocked punt.
“Travis played a really good game,” Saban said. “He played a good game last week at safety.
“I felt like Laron Landry was improving and he played a good game today. He made a lot of tackles, was aggressive and made a minimal amount of errors for a freshman out there playing.”
The Tigers had six sacks on the night.
Along with Daniels, Kyle Williams, Chad Lavalais, Cameron Vaughan and Randall Gay each recorded a sack while Oliver and Dave Peterson were given credit for half a sack.
“We felt like if we didn’t get some pressure on the quarterback that we’d have a difficult time covering them,” Saban said. “We got a couple of pass interference penalties that I thought were pretty good coverage, but I was really pleased with the defense.”