STARKVILLE — There were several times in the first half Saturday night when Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott put his hands up in frustration.
It was easy to see why because the Bulldogs couldn’t find a rhythm on offense against a very tough LSU defense. MSU gained only 109 yards of total offense, while Prescott had 71 (88 passing yards, -17 rushing yards) in the first 30 minutes. As a result, MSU trailed 14-3 at halftime.
Prescott and the No. 25 Bulldogs turned it around the second half with 269 yards of offense, but it wasn’t enough as Devon Bell missed a 52-yard field goal as time expired to give the No. 14 Tigers a 21-19 win.
In the first half, we were really just stepping on our own feet,” Prescott said. “They weren’t really stopping us more than we were stopping ourselves.”
MSU coach Dan Mullen said there was some hesitation from his offense in the first half, but he told his players to take a deep breath at halftime and it seemed to work.
“Everybody’s looking around for somebody to make a play.” Mullen said. “And I said, ‘You know what, y’all have scholarships and we have a lot of good players on this team. Go make the plays we expect you to make.’ ”
Prescott was one of those players who made plays, as he was 34 of 52 for 335 yards and one touchdown. He had a rushing touchdown, but rushed for -19 yards in the game.
Prescott is the unequivocal team leader, so he took Mullen’s words to heart and put his team on his back.
“It was important for me to get those guys going,” Prescott said.
The Bulldogs (1-1, 0-1 Southeastern Conference) finished with 378 yards of offense (335 passing and 43 rushing).
MSU and Prescott had 570 yards of offense against LSU last season in a 34-29 victory. It was the team’s first win against LSU since 1999. Prescott passed for 268 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 105 yards and another score.
The Tigers brought in new defensive coordinator Kevin Steele after John Chavis left for the same position at Texas A&M.
Mullen didn’t get to show his offense any new film of Steele leading the Tigers defense because LSU’s game against McNeese State last week was canceled due to weather.
“One of the hardest thing is not having any film on the team you’re going to watch play,” Mullen said. “It’s hard on kids.”
MSU trailed 21-6 after three quarters, but Prescott got the Bulldogs within eight with a 1-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter. He hit De’Runnya Wilson for a 5-yard touchdown with four minutes left to pull the Bulldogs within two, but his two-point conversion pass to Ashton Shumpert coming out of the backfield was short and he couldn’t pull it in.
“It’s not that we didn’t have plays open to make, we just didn’t make our plays when they came to us in the first half of the game,” MSU junior running back Brandon Holloway said. “In the second half, it felt good. We were running plays efficiently.”
MSU’s Westin Graves kicked field goals of 43 and 24 yards.
MSU rushed for 205 yards in a 34-16 victory at Southern Mississippi last weekend. Prescott rushed for 72 yards and a touchdown, while Holloway had 51 yards and Shumpert had 38 yards on eight carries. But the Bulldogs couldn’t run against the Tigers (1-0, 1-0). Holloway led MSU with 37 yards, while Shumpert had 30. Redshirt freshman and former West Point standout Aeris Williams had -5 yards.
“I don’t know that we tried to run the ball a whole lot in the second half, and I thought we could throw the ball on them,” Mullen said.
MSU will play host to Northwestern State at 3 p.m. Saturday.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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