WATCH: Stone Blanton, State defense seek to shore up tackling issues
Mississippi State’s defense didn’t have the best road experience last weekend at Arizona State. The Bulldogs allowed over 300 yards rushing to the Sun Devils and senior tailback Cam Skattebo collected 262 yards of that total.
Following Tuesday’s practice, senior linebacker Stone Blanton met with the media to discuss that disappointing effort and talked of the corrections needed as State prepares for Toledo on Saturday:
Q: What did you see from the defense looking back on the Arizona State game?
Blanton: Yeah that one hurt. It wasn’t our best game. Our execution wasn’t there, our tackling wasn’t there. The first half was pretty bad. But we were able to bounce back in the second half and played a lot better. We were able to tackle better and execute better. We just have to carry that over to next week. We gave ourselves a chance there at the end and we should’ve been able to finish but we didn’t. We’ve got to learn from that and move on.
Q: Isaac Smith is off to a good start this year. What has allowed him to be such a good player?
Blanton: He’s a super-smart guy. Isaac is always studying. He has a notebook he always carries around that’s full of notes. He’s super organized with good handwriting so that helps. He brings a lot of juice and he’s a great tackler. He’s long, lean, and he’s able to wrap up and get low on people and that’s what’s giving him success.
Q: What have you seen from Branden Jennings?
Blanton: We call him ‘hammer head’. That dude’s crazy. He’s a hard hitter, he’s a funny dude. I love BJ. He is always going to play hard and that’s why he is always around the ball. He’s always running to the ball, being physical, beating people up. It’s good playing with him.
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Q: What have you seen from Toledo’s offense?
Blanton: They’re fast. They have a lot of fast guys. Their running back is one of the fastest guys in the country. I think he ran a 9.4 in the 100 (meters) so he is a fast dude. The tight end is a big guy. The quarterback is a big guy. So they have some good skill guys and the offensive line can move. So it will be fun.
Q: After a tough loss how important is it to get back home in front of State fans?
Blanton: It’s good to be back in our home-field advantage and have that. Then be able to go out there and play a sharp game. We’re working super hard to clean up the mistakes we had last week and fix them and go out and play super, super hard.
Q: How do you account for opposing teams wanting to run the ball on the defense?
Blanton: We just have to execute better. I think we have to stay in our gaps. Then once we stay in our gaps, finish our tackles and it will be a lot cleaner.
