Led by an offensive surge and a dominating defensiveperformance, LSU took advantage of an overmatched opponent onSaturday, defeating Mississippi State 51-0 in its final tune-upprior to this weekend’s game at No. 3 Georgia.
With the win, LSU (3-1, 1-1 SEC) managed to bounce back after adisappointing loss last weekend at Auburn, accumulating 599 totalyards and 31 first downs in route to its first shutout victorysince 2002.
“This was the first game that I thought we went out and beat theother team like we want,” coach Nick Saban said. “I wasparticularly pleased with the team as a whole.”
LSU jumped out to an early lead, scoring on its opening drivewith an 11-yard run from running back Alley Broussard.
Broussard finished the day with 75 yards on 13 carries and threetouchdowns.
Quarterbacks Marcus Randall and JaMarcus Russell continued inSaban’s two-quarterback system, combining to go 16-for-19 for 240yards and one touchdown.
“It feels good,” Russell said. “Coach [Saban] challenged us togo out there and identify ourselves, and I think we did a prettygood job of reacting to what went on [at last week’s game] atpractice this week.”
Russell also said he was pleased with the way thetwo-quarterback system worked in the game.
“Right now, it’s doing pretty good,” Russell said. “We didthings today that were a lot better than we normally do. We had apretty good group of plays between one another.”
Saban said LSU’s only problem in the game came with fourturnovers in MSU territory.
“I know we made some mistakes and turned the ball over,” Sabansaid. “But we were kind of sacrificing that to get the kind ofeffort and resiliency and toughness that we want to try toget.”
After jumping out to a 14-0 first quarter lead, Broussard scoredhis third touchdown of the game on a 16-yard sprint to cap off aseven-play, 68-yard drive.
Kicker Chris Jackson missed the extra point to give LSU a 20-0lead. It was Jackson’s only miss of the day.
Defensive end Marcus Spears also managed to get in on thescoring frenzy, returning an interception 35 yards to give theTigers a 27-0 lead.
“It was just executing, basically,” Spears said. “That’s thething we’ve been lacking in the first three games, and we did abetter job of that. It was just something that I was in the rightposition again and made a good play on the ball.”
With the loss, MSU (1-3, 0-2) has now lost three straight gamesafter opening the year with a win against Tulane.
Wide receiver Craig Davis, who finished the game with fivecatches for 93 yards, said a comfortable game can prove beneficialdown the road.
“We really weren’t thinking about last week during the game, but[winning today] is a really big confidence booster going into nextweek’s games,” Davis said. “Georgia is a really big game for us,and I believe that we really just need to have a good week ofpractice and keep the focus going like we did this past week.”
MSU coach Sylvester Croom commended LSU on its dominatingperformance.
“Where I come from we call that a good old fashion ‘buttwhooping’,” Croom said. “[LSU] has an outstanding footballteam.”
LSU will now begin preparations for its game this weekend atGeorgia. LSU defeated UGA twice last year, including a win in theSEC championship game in December of 2003.
“At Auburn, fans got really rowdy, and I know it’s going to bethe same and possibly even worse [at Georgia],” Davis said. “So thefocus will be there because in practice they will have usready.”