Mississippi State football vs LSU: The good, bad, and ugly
By John King
The bad from Mississippi State football vs. LSU: the defensive gameplan
“Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me… can’t get fooled again”
-George Bush
Malik Nabers is a very good wide receiver for the LSU Tigers. Needless to say, I was very surprised to see Mississippi State attempt to guard him with a safety and give up a 26-yard touchdown on LSU’s second drive of the game. Generally, Nabers is someone you would always cover with one of your best cornerbacks or even double team with a cornerback and a safety over the top.
Mistakes happen though.
Sometimes matchups get out of whack. It happens in college – even to the best teams. It happens in the NFL.
But then it happened again. On the very next LSU possession.
On 4th down and 7. LSU ran the exact. same. play. They mirrored their earlier play and found the exact same matchup with Nabers on an MSU safety. Expectedly, Nabers torched the Bulldogs again for a 33-yard touchdown.
It was the easiest example of multiple gaffes by the State defense that led to Jayden Daniels completing 30 of 34 passes. Nabers had nearly 200 yards receiving before the end of the first half. It was an overall dreadful performance, and it was almost all because of the gameplan. Couple that with a defense that was worn down from not getting any rest from State’s inept offense, and it was virtually impossible to keep LSU out of the endzone.
Speaking of MSU’s inept offense…