By By Richard Dark / EMG staff writer
Sept. 29, 2002
BATON ROUGE In football parlance, they are called game breakers. And on a rare morning game at LSU's Tiger Stadium, Domanick Davis showed why he is quickly becoming the Southeastern Conference's best.
On the other hand, however, the Mississippi State Bulldogs showed the 90, 793 on hand at Death Valley, that they in fact, have none.
Davis piled up 295 all-purpose yards and scored a pair of touchdowns, as No. 22 LSU sent State tumbling to a 31-13 defeat.
Big plays weren't uncommon for LSU (3-1) in its league opener. And for the Bulldogs, losing in Bayou country has been, as Saturday's setback not only dropped them to 1-3, but it marked a defeat to the defending SEC champs in 10 of the last 11 games, including six straight at Tiger Stadium.
Davis set the tone just as the late arriving crowd was settling in, waking up the stadium with a 78 yard punt return to give LSU a quick 7-0 lead.
But State was able to capitalize on the first of three LSU fumbles. After Tiger quarterback Matt Mauck fumbled after a nasty hit linebacker T.J. Mawhinney, kicker Brent Smith nailed a 21-yard field goal which capped a lengthy 13-play, 43 yard drive that served as the day's longest on either side of the ledger, taking up 5:38 of time.
A stroke of luck in the second quarter gave MSU its only lead of the day. After hauling in a short pass from Mauck, Devery Henderson was upended by State's Kory Banks. Josh Morgan then scooped up the loose ball and rumbled down to the Tiger 2, where Donte Walker's run to the corner on the ensuing play, gave the Bulldogs a 10-7 margin.
It would seem at that point, that the Bulldogs had the Tigers back on their heels, as Mauck, largely ineffective on his own the whole day, fumbled again, this time the recipient of a punishing lick by Tommy Kelly on the LSU 36-yard line.
Jason Clark recovered the gift at the 7:37 mark of the second frame, but the Bulldogs were not able to answer this time. A trio of plays only yielded five yards and Smiths boot from 47 yards out fell short.
At that point, Davis went back to work, showing that it was he and not MSU, which was exactly what was hard on the visitors.
He methodically ran the ball down the Bulldogs' throats, carrying the ball in all but two of the Tigers 10 plays in a 70 yard drive that gave them back the lead. After gaining 62 of his 122 rushing yards, Davis scored again, giving LSU a lead they would never relinquish at 14-10, just before the half.
In all, LSU outrushed the Bulldogs 256 yards to only 88. It accentuated a day in which the tone was all about the ground game, as neither team's QB had much to write home about. MSU's signal caller Kevin Fant struggled mightily, before being pulled late in the game. Fant finished the day 15-of-39 for 122 yards. He was intercepted twice and sacked once. Conversely, Mauck didnt do much better, completing only 4 of 12 passes for 52 yards. But his longest offering was a nifty 36-yard touchdown to Henderson early in the second half that served to let the Dogs know their rally from 10 points down, would be an uphill climb. The production was kept alive by a crucial running into the punter penalty.
The former minor league baseball player did himself find the end zone, to end the day's scoring. At the 9:42 mark of the fourth, LSU kicker John Corbello's 19-yard field goal attempt hit the upright, but State was offsides, giving the Tigers another shot. Mauck then scored on a 2-yard sneak that provided the final margin with 9:31 remaining in the fourth, before garbage time began.
One of Fant's picks was hauled in by Cory Webster and returned 26 markers to set up a 26-yard try by Corbello that gave LSU a 24-10 lead going into the final frame.
State's only offensive bright spot in the second half came when Smith kicked a 52-yard field goal to open that quarter.
But Griffith, who Sherrill singled out as having a good day, said his team cannot quit despite being in a hole in SEC play. "The mindset is we have to bounce back and win ballgames. We gotta go to work. Forget about what's in the past. We got eight games left. We gotta win eight games."
At this point, MSU's faithful would settle for just one win, that being next week at South Carolina.