NCAA Football

LSU Survives by a Foot, and by Miles

Posted Sep 26, 2009 4:21PM By Clay Travis (RSS feed)

Filed Under: LSU, Mississippi State

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LSUDan Mullen's Mississippi State team was the length of the football from taking the lead with just over a minute to play against No. 7 LSU.

And then the Les Miles magic happened.

On third-and-goal, Mullen went play-action with his quarterback Tyson Lee. A wide-open Marcus Lee stood in the back of the end zone awaiting the ball, but LSU's safety swatted the pass away. Then on fourth-and-inches Tyson Lee kept the ball for the quarterback sneak. His head appeared to cross the goal line, but, inexplicably, he did not attempt to reach the ball out in front of him. As a result LSU, under new first-year defensive coordinator John Chavis, took over on downs.
The Tigers weren't out of the woods yet since Mississippi State still had three timeouts remaining. But after running the ball on three consecutive plays to force the Bulldogs into taking their timeouts, the Tigers took an intentional safety on fourth down -- running their punter out of the end zone. After receiving the free kick, State was unable to move the ball effectively with under a minute to play and LSU won 30-26.

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The furious finish masked a game that Mississippi State won by the statistics, outgaining LSU 374 to 264 yards and holding the Tigers to just 30 yards rushing on 31 attempts. As if that weren't enough, LSU finished 2-13 on third down conversions. With all of these statistics in their favor, State couldn't avoid turnovers. They had four, including a fumbled snap at the end of the first half that eliminated a scoring chance and kept LSU in the lead 16-14 as both teams jogged off the field.

For the moment at least, LSU remains unbeaten and poised to climb in the college football rankings. But LSU fans can't be pleased with what their team has shown in four underwhelming performances. In the ultimate irony, LSU may have played their best game of the season thus far in the much-criticized opener against Washington. Certainly the Huskies look to be the best scalp that the Tigers have claimed so far this season. LSU is now 4-0 and set for a game at Georgia that could go a long way towards establishing the balance of power in the SEC.

For Mullen and Mississippi State, it was as close to victory as a team can come and still end up on the losing end. As both teams jogged off the field, the cow bells were still ringing in Starkville. Time will tell whether eventually those bells will ring in victory over a top-10 opponent.

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