The Mississippi State Bulldogs will head into “Death Valley” Saturday to face the 7-2 LSU Tigers at 6 p.m. After losing this past weekend, both teams are in need of a win to move up in the standings in the SEC West.
Dan Mullen looks to beat LSU for the first time in his career at State. The Bulldogs have not lost three straight games since Dan Mullen’s first year at MSU, when he played back-to-back ranked opponents (LSU and Georgia Tech) and then lost to Houston the following weekend.
Last weekend’s game against Texas A&M felt like deja vu for fans and students alike on Saturday after the Dawgs were trampled by the Texas A&M Aggies in the “Snow Bowl Reunion.” The 24-0 deficit at halftime was the same as the previous weekend in Tuscaloosa, and the outcome was similar as well.
Saturday’s game ended with a 38-13 loss, and State was shut down in every phase of the game. On offense, State could not drive the football throughout the entire game, with the exception of two drives late in the second half. Defensively, the Bulldogs allowed 386 yards of offense by halftime, while MSU gained only 310 yards total in the game.
Head coach Dan Mullen opened his post-game press conference by simply stating:
“We, as a team, played very, very poorly today. That’s 100 percent my fault as the head football coach. That all falls on my shoulders. In every phase we played very poorly,” Mullen said. “That was as bad of a performance as I think we’ve had here in quite a long time.”
The word “execution” was the most often used word for players after the game on Saturday. Linebacker Cameron Lawrence said the team lacked the ability to execute Saturday.
“This game came down to execution,” Lawrence said. “We missed a lot of tackles, and that is a reoccurring problem that has to be fixed.”
Texas A&M won the game, however, not simply because of a lack of execution by the Dogs, but mainly to the credit of a phenomenal game by freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel. “Johnny Football” threw for 311 yards, one more yard than MSU gained in total offense the entire game. Manziel also led the Aggies on the ground with 129 yards on 21 carries, as well as scoring two rushing touchdowns.
For MSU, quarterback Tyler Russell threw for 212 yards on 19 completions, as well as throwing one touchdown and one interception. Russell also ran for a four-yard touchdown midway through the fourth quarter for MSU’s final touchdown of the game.
Russell’s touchdown pass was his 16th of the year and tied him for the MSU record for single-season touchdowns. Russell said tying the record meant nothing to him since his team could not pull out the win.
“They had a really good defense. Give credit to those guys. They outplayed us today,” Russell said. “I can go out there and throw three picks, and as long as we win the game, I’m happy.”
LaDarius Perkins led the Bulldogs rushing with just 42 rush yards in the game. These lacks of offensive efficiency lead to a stellar game for punter Baker Swedenburg. Swedenburg had five punts on Saturday for 230 yards, an average of 46 yards per punt, all of which resulted in a fair catch for the Aggies.
Swedenburg said it was one of his better games of the year but not his best.
“I felt like the punt team came out today and did our part to keep Texas A&M from having good field position,” Swedenburg said.
Defensively, the Dogs missed numerous tackles, which must improve to succeed against an LSU team that is coming off a draining loss to No. 1 Alabama. LSU’s quarterback Zach Mettenberger is coming off a career-high game against Alabama in which the quarterback seemed to find his rhythm offensively.
Senior captain Johnthan Banks said bouncing back from the loss will not be challenging at all since the team has been in this situation before.
“As a leader on this team, I have to keep my poise and keep my defense and my team calm and in good spirits,” Banks said. “We’re going to come back out and work hard and try to win again. We’re going to get back to the basics and keep grinding it out.”