LSU dominates Miss St. 36-13
LSU overcame an uncharacteristically sluggish start to defeat Mississippi State 36-13 Saturday at Davis-Wade Stadium.
It was a historic day for LSU quarterback Joe Burrow and the offense. Joe Burrow added four touchdowns to his already impressive total breaking the school record with 29 touchdowns passes. LSU still has at least six games left to play this year.
Burrow went 25-32 with 327 yards and four touchdowns. Burrow has now completed 79.3% of his passes for 2,484 yards, 29 touchdowns, and only three interceptions.
“That just shows the amount of work we put in this offseason,” Burrow said. “We’re going to have two guys break the single-season receiving touchdowns record here coming up. But, there’s still five games left.
As Burrow’s stat line would suggest, LSU did eventually find its groove offensively but struggled to finish drives early in this game
“We’re going to have to execute much better in the red zone next week,” Burrow said.
LSU’s first three drives all stalled out in the red zone and forced LSU to take three field goal attempts for less than 25 yards. LSU kicker Cade York made those kicks but struggled to do so with spliced kicks, one of which bounced of the left crossbar.
“He’s our kicker and we believe in him,” LSU coach Ed Orgeron said. “He’s a freshman though and he’s going to make mistakes.”
Mississippi State responded with 7 play, 75-yard drive capped off by a 12-yard touchdown scramble by Mississippi State quarterback Garrett Shrader. This cut LSU’s lead to 9-7 in the second quarter.
It did not take long for LSU to find its groove afterward. Joe Burrow threw touchdown passes on 4 of LSU’s next five drives while the defense held Mississippi State scoreless. This gave LSU a commanding 36-7 lead.
“The defense came to play today,” Orgeron said. “The turnovers really helped us. That made it very hard for their offense.”
At this point, LSU reverted to a much more conservative look offensively with Burrow playing only one drive in the fourth quarter.
Mississippi State added a late touchdown on its final drive of the game against mostly reserve LSU defenders.
LSU had 414 yards of offense. LSU maintained its 100 percent rezone scoring by adding scores on all five visits to the red zone.
Defensively, LSU had one of its strongest performances of the season. Before the final drive of the game with mostly back up players in the game, LSU had only yielded 250 yards and seven points. Ultimately the Bulldogs ended up with 340 yards of offense. LSU’s defense also forced a pair of sacks and interceptions.
LSU safety Grant Delpit led the way for LSU’s defense with 11 tackles. He was followed up by LSU defenders JaCoby Stevens, Kary Vincent Jr. and Jacob Philips with eight tackles each. LSU cornerback Kristian Fulton had an interception and two pass breakups.