LSU Football: Tigers look to avoid trap vs. Mississippi State in Week 8

With the biggest game of the season looming, LSU football must first focus on the task at hand and avoid a trap game against Mississippi State.

LSU silenced its critics following up their eight point loss in the Swamp to Florida with a dominating display in Baton Rouge, routing the 2nd ranked Georgia Bulldogs 36-16 in a game that was never in doubt in the second half. The Tigers defense swarmed a typically potent Georgia rushing attack, holding the Bulldogs to just 113 yards on the ground, which forced Jake Fromm into uncomfortable third-and-longs. LSU won in the trenches on both lines-of-scrimmage, racking up 275 rushing yards in their own right.

The win kept LSU alive in the SEC West race, and breathed new life into their playoff aspirations. All roads seem to be leading to a mammoth showdown with Alabama in Baton Rouge on November 3rd, but first the Tigers must navigate through a difficult trap game against Mississippi State this week. Following back-to-back physical games against Florida and Georgia, LSU must stop a Mississippi State squad whose physicality is their bread-and-butter.

After a pair of frustrating losses to Kentucky and Florida, new Mississippi State head coach Joe Moorhead went back to the basics with his offense, using Nick Fitzgerald’s physical running to wear down Auburn. Fitzgerald ran for a season-high 195 yards on 28 carries against an elite Auburn defensive front, carrying Mississippi State to a 23-9 win.

The Bulldogs have had an extra week of preparation to get ready for LSU, and they’ll be hoping the Tigers’s attention has already turned to the Alabama game in two weeks. Mississippi State’s punishing physicality could wear down a tired LSU team, and lead to an upset in Baton Rouge.

Here’s how you can watch Saturday night’s matchup between LSU and Mississippi State:

Date: Saturday, Oct. 20
Time: 7:00 p.m. ET
Location: Baton Rouge, La.
Venue: Tiger Stadium
TV: ESPN
Live Stream: WatchESPN  | FuboTV

Keys to Victory

Mississippi State will hope to utilize the same script from their matchup with Auburn to take down this batch of Tigers. They’ll want to make it ugly and hope they can wear down the LSU defense with three-yards and a cloud-of-dust, plunging Nick Fitzgerald into the LSU defensive line time-and-time again. The Bulldogs sport one of the country’s top defensive lines led by Montez Sweat and Jeffery Simmons, and they’ll look to take away the LSU running game and keep them behind-the-chains all night long, forcing LSU’s Joe Burrow to beat them with his arm.

On the flip side, it will be imperative that LSU is able to establish a running game to maintain balance and not put too much on Burrow’s shoulders. The Mississippi State front seven has lived in opposing backfields this season, ranking 9th in the country at 8.5 tackles-for-loss per game, so they will be licking their chops to tee off on Burrow in third-and-long situations. It’s likely that the Tigers will need Burrow to hit a few passes to win this game. That could be a tall-order for the SEC’s 12th most efficient passer.

Betting Odds

Odds courtesy of oddsshark.com

Point Spread: LSU -6.5
Over/Under: 45

Prediction

When you are tired from a pair of physical football games, this Mississippi State team is the last team you want to run into, particularly with the Bulldogs coming off of a bye. This is a tough matchup for LSU in what has been a brutal three-game stretch heading into the bye week. The Tigers need this win to keep the stakes high for Alabama’s trip to Baton Rouge, and they’ll have to dig deep in order to survive it. If this game was in Starkville, I’d be calling for the upset, but I’ll give the slightest of edges to the home team from Death Valley, with the sun setting at kickoff.

Final Score: LSU 16, Mississippi State 13