There is something about Thursday night football games that Mississippi State junior quarterback Michael Henig can’t shake.
In last night’s opener against No. 2 LSU, Henig struggled to complete passes, throwing six interceptions in the Bulldogs’ 45-0 loss against the Tigers.In last season’s Thursday night opener against South Carolina, Henig broke his collarbone, sidelining him for much of the season. After this season’s opening game loss however, MSU head coach Sylvester Croom said that he felt there was not much he could say about his quarterback’s playing.
“It’s pretty obvious it wasn’t Mike’s best game,” Croom said. “We tried to get him to settle down, and we went back to some of our base passes, but tonight the ball was just thrown too high, and it made the picks easy.”
Henig completed 11-of-28 for 120 yards, failing to spark the Bulldogs’ offense and allowing the Tigers to take advantage of his miscues.
LSU quarterback Matt Flynn completed 12-of-19 for 128 yards with two touchdowns and was also the team’s second leading rusher with 42 yards, which took Croom by surprise.
“Flynn did some things, ran the ball better than I thought,” Croom said. “I think he surprised our players a little bit, but as the game went on we were able to adjust and slow him down.”
The Tigers pounced early on the Dawgs, leading 17-0 before the half with Flynn completing 8-of-13 for 83 yards with no interceptions.
After an LSU 27-yard field goal by Colt Davis in the first quarter, the Bulldog offense put together a strong drive behind sophomore running back Anthony Dixon, who rushed for 21 yards on five carries.
However, after Dixon rushed for no gain on third-and-two at the Tiger 36-yard line, the Bulldogs elected to go for it on fourth down, but a fumbled snap by Henig following brief rainshowers gave the ball back to the Tigers.
“That was a big play in the game,” Croom said. “We felt like we had a good play set up by the way the defense lined up, and then we had the quarterback center exchange, and that’s something we practice. We practice wet-ball drills every week, and there was no excuse for that play.”
The Tigers’ attack came mostly on the ground from senior running back Jacob Hester and Flynn. Hester rushed for 4 2 yards, while Flynn, who constantly avoided Bulldog defenders, gained 29 yards in the first half.
The Bulldog offense struggled throughout the first half, only earning 75 total yards. Late in the half with the Bulldogs in the Tigers’ territory, Henig was intercepted by LSU’s Curtis Taylor, who returned the ball 22 yards and set up a Keiland Williams one-yard touchdown to give the Tigers a 17-point lead going into the half.
At the start of the second half, the Tigers’ offense came out and scored effortlessly. Flynn moved the offense on six plays for 73 yards resulting in an 11-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Early Doucet.
Henig’s struggles continued deep into the third quarter as he threw his fifth interception of the game, setting up another Tiger touchdown by running back Charles Scott bringing the score to 31-0.
LSU added two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter by backup quarterback Ryan Perrilloux.
Anthony Dixon led the Bulldogs in rushing having 13 carries for 25 yards on the night.
“I knew that the running game was not going to be as big of a factor because of the talent of LSU’s defensive line,” Croom said. “But I thought that getting small chunks of yards would set the team up for bigger plays. We tried to run them enough to keep their guys off of us.”
Croom said he believed if his team could get three or four yards in certain plays, it would give them a better chance of converting medium range plays.
The Bulldogs’ defense shined despite the devastating loss, with junior linebacker Dominic Douglas leading the team in tackles and senior defensive end Titus Brown notching four tackles and one quarterback sack. Croom said that Brown’s leadership should help to carry the team throughout the season.
“Titus got up and told the team that they are still a good team and that he thinks they are still going to win games,” Croom said. “He’s been a strong leader for this team.”
Croom said that the loss did not change his attitude about his team or the belief he has that they can still be a winning team.
“I talked to the team in the locker room and told them that my mind has not changed,” Croom said. “I still feel that we will be a good team at some point in the season.”
Croom said that he is not discouraged by the loss nor is he discouraged by his team going into the remainder of the season.
“If we would have won, we would have had 24 hours of celebration and moved on,” Croom said. “But now we’re going to have 24 hours of mourning and still move on.

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Daniel Harmon

On a wet Thursday night at Davis Wade Stadium, the MSU Bulldogs took a licking from the No. 2-ranked LSU Tigers as State hosted the first SEC game of the 2007 season.