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Mississippi State football vs Louisiana-Lafayette 2018 preview

By Jackson Laidhold

STARKVILLE, MS - OCTOBER 14: Jamal Couch #17 of the Mississippi State Bulldogs celebrates a touchdown with his teammates during the second half of a game against the Brigham Young Cougars at Davis Wade Stadium on October 14, 2017 in Starkville, Mississippi. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
STARKVILLE, MS - OCTOBER 14: Jamal Couch #17 of the Mississippi State Bulldogs celebrates a touchdown with his teammates during the second half of a game against the Brigham Young Cougars at Davis Wade Stadium on October 14, 2017 in Starkville, Mississippi. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images) /
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Mississippi State football will face Louisiana-Lafayette tonight

According to ESPN’s Football Power Index, the Mississippi State football team has a 98.9% chance to beat Louisiana this weekend. I like those odds, a lot. But what should we look for in this game, a game Mississippi State should win with ease?

What should we expect to see?

We expect to see a Mississippi State win. But in what fashion will the victory come?

This Bulldog offense seems to be truly and fully dictated by the quarterback. This past week at Kansas State, Nick Fitzgerald had many plays where he had plenty of options for what to do with the ball.

Moorhead seems to trust Fitzgerald’s maturing decision-making and many plays revolve around those decisions: whether or not to give the ball to the running back or take it himself, and whether to throw or take off and do what Fitz does best, run. Expect to see this a lot as this Mississippi State football team wants the offense clicking efficiently ahead of conference play.

Bold Stat Predictions

BATON ROUGE, LA – SEPTEMBER 17: Nick Fitzgerald #7 of the Mississippi State Bulldogs throws the ball during the first half of a game against the LSU Tigers at Tiger Stadium on September 17, 2016 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
BATON ROUGE, LA – SEPTEMBER 17: Nick Fitzgerald #7 of the Mississippi State Bulldogs throws the ball during the first half of a game against the LSU Tigers at Tiger Stadium on September 17, 2016 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images) /

Kylin Hill goes over 100 rushing yards again… easily. This isn’t exactly a bold prediction seeing how explosive Hill has been thus far, but expect him to be a large part of the offense again here in Week 3, both on the ground and out of the backfield.

Nick Fitzgerald rushes for over 100 yards… again. Last week Fitzgerald had his 15th 100-yard rushing effort of his career. That’s outstanding. He gets his 16th this weekend.

4 passing TDs. We all know the Bulldogs can run the ball, but Moorhead and fans alike want to see the passing game improve. MSU will be looking to improve on that aspect of offense in this one, and I’m betting it’ll lead to Fitzgerald tossing 4 touchdowns.

Louisiana scores AT LEAST 14. This Bulldog defense has been phenomenal so far, allowing only 16 points through two games. Louisiana is not a fantastic team, but they can play football. They’ll put a few points on the board against a stingy Mississippi State defense.

Score Prediction

Mississippi State is looking great right now. They haven’t played anyone that good yet, but they have impressed people beyond the fanbase, and that says something about this team. Louisiana should put up some points, but this Bulldog squad is just too talented to lose this game. State will make big plays on both offense and defense and should control this game from the get-go.

Pick: Mississippi State 48, Louisiana 17

All stats from Sports-Reference.com

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