STARKVILLE — Malik Nabers committed to Mississippi State the summer before his senior year of high school. The four-star wide receiver had offers from blue blood programs all over the country, but he was ready to come and be a big playmaker for the Bulldogs.
That fall, though, the Lafayette, La,. product received an offer from LSU, and the chance to play for the flagship college football program in his home state was too good to pass up.
On Saturday at Davis Wade Stadium, Nabers showed the Bulldogs just the type of player they lost out on. He torched MSU’s defense to the tune of 13 catches for 239 yards and two touchdowns as the No. 14 Tigers rolled to a 41-14 win in the Southeastern Conference opener.
“We obviously had a poor plan,” head coach Zach Arnett said. “We have to go and reevaluate what we called and why we called it. It was a complete, dominant victory by them.”
The Bulldogs, for the most part, gave LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels plenty of time to get set in the pocket or move around, and the veteran signal-caller had one of the most efficient days of his collegiate career. Daniels completed his first 13 passes and 23 of his first 24, finishing 30-for-34 with 361 yards and two long touchdowns to Nabers.
MSU quarterback Will Rogers, meanwhile, completed less than half of his passes for the first time in a Bulldogs uniform. He was just 11-of-28 for 103 yards and looked out of sync with his receivers on numerous occasions.
“I’m trying to anticipate throws, and maybe I have to throw a little quicker because the rush is on me,” Rogers said. “Receivers and quarterbacks have to be on the same page, and we obviously weren’t early on.”
Rogers’ first throw of the game was a good one, a 12-yard slant to Justin Robinson on the first play after the opening kickoff. But his struggles began immediately thereafter, and MSU (2-1, 0-1 SEC) punted for the first of seven times on the day.
Daniels and the Tigers (2-1, 1-0) took control from there. LSU’s first drive stalled just short of the goal line thanks to a false start that took away a touchdown and instead resulted in a field goal, but the visitors were just getting warmed up. When the Tigers got the ball back following the first of five Bulldogs three-and-outs, they needed just four plays to go 70 yards, scoring on a perfect deep ball from Daniels to Nabers from 26 yards out.
Linebacker Jett Johnson and defensive end Deonte Anderson took down Daniels for a four-yard loss on the first play of the second quarter to bring up a fourth-and-7 at the MSU 33. LSU opted to go for it — and the Bulldogs still had no answers for the Daniels-Nabers connection. Nabers again outraced safety Hunter Washington to the corner of the end zone and Daniels delivered another perfect ball for a 17-0 Tigers lead.
“A lot of guys can run but can’t throw very well, or vice versa, but (Daniels) can do both,” Johnson said. “He likes to step up in the middle and take off, and he can pick you apart with his arm.”
MSU finally created some offense late in the first half, already down by 24. Running back Jo’Quavious “Woody” Marks — shortly after becoming the Bulldogs’ all-time leader in receptions — used a stutter-step on his way to a 52-yard run that eventually set up a 9-yard touchdown on an end-around run from receiver Lideatrick “Tulu” Griffin. Prior to that drive, MSU had not picked up a first down since its first offensive play and had just seven total yards.
With a bit of momentum on their side, the Bulldogs had chances to get their defense off the field after LSU took the ball to start the second half, but the Tigers picked up a pair of third downs and extended the lead to 27-7 with a field goal. LSU finished 9-for-16 on third down and 2-for-2 on fourth down, while MSU was a combined 5-for-16 on third and fourth down.
The Bulldogs were set to go for a fourth-and-1 at the Tigers’ 32 on their next drive, but a false start on Robinson pushed them back to fourth-and-6 at the 37, and Rogers overthrew Zavion Thomas as the Tigers took over on downs.
“We thought it was first down, so we called in a first-down play,” Rogers said. “By the time they got the play in, the play clock was (winding down), so we tried to rush the snap and had the false start. That kind of sums up the day.”
Daniels then put the finishing touches on the blowout, rushing for a touchdown later in the third quarter and another early in the fourth. MSU did find the end zone one more time as backup quarterback Mike Wright’s first pass in a Bulldogs uniform was a 4-yard touchdown to Antonio Harmon, but it was much too little, much too late.
Earlier in the game, with Rogers struggling, chants of “We want Mike” were audible from the student section, which was all but empty by the start of the fourth quarter.
MSU hits the road for the first time next Saturday as SEC play continues for the Bulldogs at South Carolina.
“We have a decision on how we’re going to respond to this,” Arnett said. “There’s going to be plenty of outside noise. We can either decide to listen to all that and let it be a distraction… or we can not listen to all that and we can go to work. And we can study the film and we can be critical of ourselves, a lot more critical of ourselves than any outside noise. I hope we choose that course of action.”
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