Everything head coach Jeff Lebby said after State's 58-25 loss to Arkansas

Mississippi State (1-7, 0-5) dropped its seventh straight game on Saturday as the Bulldogs got whipped 58-25 by Arkansas at Davis Wade Stadium. Following the game, head coach Jeff Lebby met with the media to discuss the loss:

Q: What did you see today defensively?
Lebby: Disappointed today. I thought we’d made real progress. We’ve gotten better and had played really good normal down defense where today it was just the opposite. We did some things on third down but we couldn’t get them into enough third downs. We have to play better against the run. That’s first and foremost. We got to make people one-dimensional and find ways to get the back on the ground when we make contact with him. To me, that’s where it starts. Being able to go stop the run and put us in a good situation from a down and distance standpoint, which we had done for a couple of weeks in a row. Then to play the way we did today was frustrating.

Q: What changes do you see that need to be made to fix the defense?
Lebby: We’ve got to find a way to get our guys to play at a better speed, at a better physicality, at a higher level. We got to get every single ounce out of them that we can possibly can. We have to. That won’t ever change. We need to get a couple of guys back and I think that was evident today. Hopefully we will have those guys back. But at the end of the day, the guys we put on the field, we’ve got to do everything we possibly can to make sure those guys are going to play free, to play fast, play incredibly physical and have the opportunity to go make the plays.

Q: Your thoughts on the preparation of the defensive staff for this game?
Lebby: Again, the frustrating part today is we had made such improvement. We had played better and better. We had played some really good units and done some things to give us a chance to win games. Then today, we did and took a step back. For me, I think at the end of the day, continuing to get the most of whoever is on the field. Banged up? Yes. Missing some guys and need some guys back? Yes. But the guys we put out there, we’ve got to find a way to get the absolute most out of them every single snap.

Q: Your red-zone offense was challenge today. What did you see there?
Lebby: I think it was the last four drives of the first half we were down inside the red zone and we get three points. You got no chance to beat a good football team if you’re doing that, offensively. To me, offensively, we had the ability to keep us in the game. Make a couple of those plays as we’re down there to be able to go score. We’ve got to be able to punch it in when it is 2nd and 1 at the one. Again, I felt good about running the football. Looking back in the moment, had the ability to maybe throw it a couple of times to create some isolation. I go back and forth with myself on that.

But as we look at it, the turnover piece of it as we started the game. The turnover coming off for the first drive of the second half and then not being able to get touchdowns, we had the ability, offensively, to make this a game to where it’s respectable and not end up the way it did. Give some energy and hope to our defense, too. So that’s my stress to the offensive guys. Make everybody around you better. That’s the entire football team. You got a chance to score, you score. You got to take care of the football. You got to get touchdowns in the red zone and then you have a chance to build on that and make it a game.

Q: What has to change with the turnovers and ball security?
Lebby: A couple of them were obviously in the pocket. Mike’s (Van Buren) got to continue to do a really good job of understanding every situation and that the people that are around him every snap have the ability to get to him and get the ball out. So playing with two hands on the ball. I thought one of them was bang-bang. Another one he had a real chance to hang out to it, had two hands on it to be able to go squeeze it up.

Then we got to catch the football there in the fourth quarter where it’s tipped in the air. We can’t reach the ball as we’re getting close to the one-inch line there. So there’s a lot of things that went on inside the game from a ball security standpoint. Ultimately, we’ve got to get back to taking care of the football in a great way or we will have no chance to get done what we want to get done.

Q: What’s your confidence level in being able to fix some of these issues?
Lebby: Again, the confidence level for me is not just the defense. It’s the fact we have the ability, offensively, where you create some momentum and energy for the other side of the ball. It is team all the way around. There’s frustration in how we played today, defensively. There’s great disappointment in how we played today. But I’m not going to look at it just inside these four quarters. Again, we made great improvement and had played better and better. Today we didn’t. We’ll go back and look at it and fight out butts off to fix it.

Q: How do you handle the undisciplined penalties your team had at the end of the game?
Lebby: It’s just incredibly disappointing for that to happen in the moment. Should never happen and incredibly out of character for Seydou (Traore) inside that moment. You address it immediately, get him off the field and don’t give him a chance to go back in the game for a little bit. He has to understand the importance of what just happened. That was frustrating because that’s not going to be us. That hasn’t been Seydou. So for him to do that in that moment, it was disappointing and frustrating.