Jeff Lebby offers his impressions of Missouri on film

Sitting at 0-6 in conference play, Mississippi State could desperately use a win on Saturday against Missouri. On Monday, Bulldogs head coach Jeff Lebby previewed Missouri.

“Both sides of the football, they’ve been dominant on third down,” Lebby said of the Tigers. “Situationally, they’ve been really, really good. So that’ll be huge for us on Saturday. We have to be able to stay on the field on third down, offensively.

“Be able to pitch and catch, play with great anticipation at the quarterback position. Then, defensively, we’ve got to get them into some third and longs to be able to go get off the field.”

Lebby is spot-on in his assessment. Missouri is only allowing its opponents to convert 29.6% of their third downs this season, the seventh-lowest rate in the country.

Conversely, Missouri knows how to find a first down. The Tigers’ offense boasts the 24th-best third-down conversion percentage in the nation, with 45.6%.

While Oklahoma has also been stellar at forcing opponents to punt this season, it’s often struggled to find first downs. The team ranks in the bottom 25 in the FBS in third-down conversion percentage, only converting 34.5% of the time.

Mississippi State was unable to break this nagging pattern in its most recent outing, falling 33-14 to Tennessee. In the loss, the Bulldogs were successful on just 3-of-their-13 third-down conversion attempts.

In fact, Mississippi State only recorded 271 total yards on offense. After the loss, Lebby addressed his team’s offensive woes.

“We were off,” Lebby said. “We did not do a great job of pitching and catching. I thought we had the ability with some guys in the first half to create some huge chunk plays where we had some missed opportunities.

“[It’s about] being able to connect at times and then from the decision standpoint having the ability to make really clean decisions. I have to continue to put him [Michael Van Buren Jr.] in better spots so that we have the chance to go create some explosives.”

On Saturday, Jeff Lebby and Co. will have a chance to show off its offensive improvements as it squares off against Missouri at 4:15 p.m. ET. The game will air live on the SEC Network.