STARKVILLE — As the massive clock at the base of the Davis Wade Stadium scoreboard ticked down under 10 minutes to play in the fourth quarter, the droves of maroon and white that enveloped the seats around kickoff at 2:30 p.m. had dissipated.
What was once a hope-filled, upset-minded crowd had shifted to a scattered batch of beleaguered fans who stood upon crushed pom-poms and broken dreams as No. 2 LSU (7-0, 3-0 SEC) put the finishing touches on its 36-13 win over Mississippi State (3-4, 1-3 SEC) Saturday.
“Was it clean, was it precise, was it what we needed to be against this team? Absolutely not,” coach Joe Moorhead said postgame. “But I know this, when I’m in that locker room and I look at that team and I saw how we fought, we’re going to build off this one. We’re going to take the good things and correct the bad things and be a football team that continues to fight for the rest of the year.”
While LSU’s vaunted offense marched into Starkville with expectations of a romp, the MSU defense held steadfast in the early going against the Tigers.
Thrice the Bulldogs stuffed the LSU offense in goal-to-go situations in the first quarter — all of which resulted in Cade York field goals.
“I’m certainly not excited about the outcome,” Moorhead continued. “…But when you look at it in spurts and see when we were playing well and we were executing and doing the things we needed to do we stopped them, we moved the ball and we were making plays.”
With an early nine-point deficit in tow, freshman quarterback Garrett Shrader notched the first of his two touchdowns of the day with a 12-yard scamper to bring the Bulldogs within two — momentarily offering the 59,482 fans in attendance a semblance of hope.
LSU quarterback and Heisman Trophy hopeful Joe Burrow wistfully wiped those thoughts aside as he marched the Tiger offense to back-to-back scoring drives — the latter of which was set up by the first of Shrader’s two interceptions.
Burrow then slammed the door when he connected with Justin Jefferson for the pair’s second touchdown hookup of the day on an 18-yard pitch and catch with 5:36 remaining in the third quarter.
The scoring strike also moved Burrow into first place on the Tigers’ single season passing touchdown chart with 29.
“It just shows the amount of work we put in during the offseason,” he said. “In game seven, we broke the touchdown record and we’re about to have two guys break the single season receiving touchdown record coming up. I think it was obviously a great achievement for us, but we still have five games left.”
As for MSU, despite a change at quarterback from Penn State transfer Tommy Stevens to the freshman Shrader, the Bulldog offense remained stagnant for most of the afternoon.
Shrader finished his day 17 of 28 for 238 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
But more pressing was MSU’s inability to get much of anything going on the ground. Junior running back Kylin Hill 34 yards on 15 attempts, marking the third straight game he was limited to less than 50 yards. The Bulldogs also averaged a meager 2.8 yards per carry.
“We want to get Kylin going,” Moorhead said. “The offense kind of centers around him ’cause he’s our most talented player on offense.”
Of the few positives to draw from Saturday’s loss, the MSU defense offered a brief glimpse of a capable pass rush. Senior Chauncey Rivers, who spoke at length last week regarding forcing more sacks, recorded 1.5 himself, while senior linebacker Leo Lewis (one) and junior cornerback Cameron Dantzler (0.5) aided in the cause.
“At the end of the day it was just a matter of winning our one on ones,” Rivers said. “That’s been preached all week and today we did that.”
Following a week filled with speculation regarding his connection to the head coach opening at Rutgers coupled with MSU’s downright dismal display at Tennessee, a fiery Moorhead remained confident in where his program is headed despite the loss Saturday.
“Once again, not a moral victory at all, I get that part,” Moorhead said. “But the process of what we’re doing and where we’re taking this team is going in the right damn direction, and we played our asses off today, and we fought.”
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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