Mississippi State’s DC wants to tackle his team’s tackling issues (so, at least, someone is tackling something)

Mississippi State defensive coordinator Chris Wilson is not happy. And why should he be? In the Bulldogs' past two games against Alabama and Texas A&M, they have given up 1,107 total yards of offense. That's nearly one-third of the total offense the Bulldogs have allowed all season.

Mississippi State also allowed 38 points to both teams, which was more than any other team had scored.

"We had a poor day collectively and it's something you have to go back and fix," Wilson said after Monday's practice. "We are not playing Little Sisters of the Poor. These are big-time programs. We have to go show that we are capable of making plays. We have empirical data showing we have done that in the past. We just have to go back to work."

Wilson said he estimated his team missed more than 30 tackles against A&M, which contributed to the 38-13 loss and dropped the Bulldogs in the national rankings. Mississippi State was 7-0 before heading into this tough stretch.

Unfortunately, the Bulldogs won't have a respite this week against an LSU team that seemingly found its offense against Alabama last week.

But Wilson said it starts with identifying the problems and getting back to fundamentals — like tackling — if the Bulldogs want to turn things around in the final three games of the regular season.

"You've got to go back and be critical from how you're teaching, how guys are preparing," Wilson said. "So when you see things that are exposed to you, you've got to go address them, you can't run from them. That's the only way you can fix it."

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