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STARKVILLE, Miss. - For LSU senior quarterback Matt Flynn, Thursday night did not start out perfect, but ended pretty close to it.
After a rocky start, Flynn bounced back in the second half, throwing two touchdowns and leading the No. 2 Tigers to a 45-0 victory against Mississippi State University in his first ever Southeastern Conference start.
"It felt good coming out here and playing," Flynn said. "I haven't been out there that much - just got a little of the dust off."
LSU (1-0) brought the fifth-year signal-caller along slowly in the hostile Davis Wade Stadium crowd calling 13 running plays to just eight passes on its first three drives of the contest.
Flynn completed just three of those first eight attempts.
"I think there was a period that we had to become comfortable," Flynn said.
Flynn showed off his escapability and running skills with eight carries for 29 yards in the first half.
"He moves well in the pocket," Miles said. "And when he moves to throw he avoids negative yardage."
But Flynn often looked hesitant to throw in long-yardage situations, scrambling instead for minimal gains.
"We struggled to get some good drives going in the first half," Flynn said. "It felt like we were moving the ball just had a couple of mistakes here and there and penalties that hurt us, but we felt good about it."
"It was tough to put some yards together, but we went out there and kept fighting and that's a credit to this LSU team."
A tremendous defensive effort including four first-half interceptions kept the Tigers constantly on the Mississippi State side of the field and led to two one-yard scores for sophomore running back Keiland Williams.
"What can I say about the defense?" Flynn said. "They played incredible."
Flynn finished a shaky first half 8-of-13 for 89 yards and no scores.
A new and more focused Flynn took the field in the second half marching the Tigers down the field on a 6-play, 73-yard scoring drive taking just 2:01 off the clock.
Flynn was a perfect 3-for-3 on the drive for 34 yards including a 21-yard scamper and an 11-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Early Doucet, his favorite target on the night.
"We didn't make any adjustments at all," Flynn said. We went out there and we executed and moved the ball."
Doucet credited the early sloppy play to first-time jitters for some first-time starters.
"That's expected," Doucet said. "We got a lot of guys that's there first time out there as starters. It's things that we can improve on. It's not like it's things that's not fixable. We can go back to practice and correct those mistakes that we made so we can try to improve on that."
With 2:10 left in the third quarter and the game no longer in doubt, Flynn threw his second touchdown on 11-yard shovel pass to sophomore running back Charles Scott and called it a night.
Flynn finished the day going 12-for-19 with 128 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed 11 times for 63 yards.
After a long, hard, first start in the conference Flynn had two words to sum up the day.
"Experience helps," he said.
---- Contact Keith Claverie at kclaverie@lsureveille.com
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