Everything head coach Jeff Lebby said after the 31-9 loss at No. 6 Texas A&M

Mississippi State struggled to find any kind of offense on Saturday evening as the Bulldogs dropped a 31-9 decision at No. 6 Texas A&M. Afterwards, head coach Jeff Lebby met with the media to discuss the setback:

Q: Any word so far on Fluff Bothwell?
Lebby: Don’t really know. They immediately took him in to get X-rays. So hopefully we get some kind of update here sooner than later.

Q: What do you contribute the offensive struggles to?
Lebby: First off, defensively, the way we played for the first three quarters is exactly what the expectation was. Our guys, defensively, were ready to play. Played our butts off on defense. The frustration is, offensively, we were so bad on normal downs. With all the negative plays we had no chance to sustain anything whatsoever. We were in third and long the entire day. The negative plays today was, without a doubt, what kept the game from having a chance to go the other way. It ended up being the score it was because of the situations we were in on third down, which is very frustrating.

Q: With all the injuries on the line, how much is that impacting things right now?
Lebby: Without Albert (Reese) and Blake (Steen), two starters that have played a ton of football, not having them is real but that’s the world we’re living in. We got to play better. We got to coach better. We have to do everything better, offensively, to give ourselves to play better on the road and go win and support the defense for the way they played for the first three quarters. They were on the field the entire game.

Q: What is the process like in the third quarter while trying to get the offense going?
Lebby: It was something different every single series. It’s second and three on the second series and all of a sudden the ball is on the ground and now it’s third and 11. We got exactly what we wanted with a really good first-down play and in a good situation on second and three. All of a sudden the ball is on the ground and now it’s third and 11 and the series ends with us punting. We’re not good enough to overcome things like that. That’s not going to be our identity for us to play winning football. We got to take advantage of being in second and three.

Q: After Davon Booth trips on a possible long run and then have to settle for a field goal after a penalty on the goal line, how do you keep the guys to stay in the game and keep playing?
Lebby: That was the message. The frustration was the negative plays, offensively. We had no chance to go to do what we needed to do on third downs. I loved our third and medium plan and I loved our short-yardage plan. But we didn’t have those situations because of the way we played on normal downs.

Q: How did you think Blake Shapen played today and what’s your confidence he can get it going?
Lebby: I think he played really tough. The one interception, we’ve got Brenen (Thompson) exactly the way we wanted and have a chance to go have a chunk play. We’ve got to be able to find a way to protect in this league. I thought he made good decisions and I thought he took care of the football. Again, the situational piece of it, we were so bad today on first and second down. Regardless of what’s going on, if you don’t give yourself a chance with the way they’re built on third downs.

Q: What went into starting Luke Work at right tackle?
Lebby: We felt like we needed to move Luke out to give us the best opportunity to have the best five on the field. And then we rotated guards inside because of playing next to certain people and the communication piece of it to get that as best as we possibly could.

Q: Shapen was barking at his offensive line early on. Your thoughts on that?
Lebby: I want him to be a fiery, fierce competitor and it’s not okay for us to not do our job and that starts with me. He’s fighting his butt off like we all are but we got to play better. We got to play cleaner, got to coach better. That was the struggle of the game. The negative plays were happening on first and second down and on third down, it’s what we talked about all week and about putting ourselves in good situations. That was the frustrating part of it, just trying to get the guys to go play well. We have to change the delivery at times and that’s part of being a leader.

Q: You notice anything the defenses are doing different against your offense with the deep passes being focused on more?
Lebby: There were a couple of good opportunities where we’re in a spot and we’re not able to get the ball off. That’s a very real thing. That’s what I was trying convey to the guys in the second half. It’s not about what you can throw and who’s open. It’s about what you can protect. As the playcaller, you have to find ways to protect the guy who is handling the ball every snap. We had the ability to create a bunch of chunks if we were a little better at protection and we weren’t. That’s the reality of it. For ne, putting our guys in good situations to try get in some third and mediums is something we’ve got to do a better job of.

Q: What is the role of the leaders after games like this?
Lebby: I think those guys understand the road we’ve got in front of us. We got to go maximize the open date. We got to find ways to get better. We got to get healthy. As we go into next week, those are the goals. We’ve got to get better every single day. We got to get healthy and we’ve got to continue to develop some of the guys to create a little depth. Today we had five offensive linemen and we need to have the ability to play seven guys. We’re not quite there.

Q: Was there any thought on giving KaMario Taylor a series to try to change things up?
Lebby: No. I felt with the run game piece of it and what we wanted was to do the run game through the backs. To me, that is what was going to give us the best opportunity to go run the football successfully. We didn’t do that consistently at all and that is something we will go back and look at. That wasn’t something in the middle of it that felt like the right thing.

Q: Defensively, did you see something you can build on off of that?
Lebby: The standard is how we played the first three quarters. But again, we were on the field the entire game. The fourth quarter happened and that’s a real thing and we lived that. The way we played the first three quarters, if we did what we needed to do offensively then we’re going to have an opportunity for the game to be different. We didn’t, offensively. Because the defense was on the field the entire time, I am unbelievably proud of how we played defensively. How ready we were to play, our physicality, our goal line stand. Again, those were great things.

Q: What can you do to try to stop the bleeding in a fourth quarter like that?
Lebby: For us, defensively, I felt like in the fourth quarter the tackling wasn’t as clean as it was earlier in the game in the first three quarters. That’s what created some of the chunks for them. That’s part of playing so many snaps and being on the field as much as we are against a really talented football team.

Q: After a game like that on offense, what’s the process of evaluating it and fixing it?
Lebby: For me, it’s just about finding answers. What we just lived is real, it happened. Offensively, the furthest thing from our expectation and our standard. Felt great about the game plan. Felt great about the week of work we had. But we did not play or coach the way we needed to. We will go back and watch the tape as soon I sit on the bus. It will be about fixing problems and putting people in position of success because that’s why people call us the coach.