Five best quotes from Jeff Lebby's post-game press conference

A lot of things went wrong for Mississippi State in its loss to Missouri on Saturday and the Bulldogs' coach talked about those struggles.

Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Jeff Lebby on field against the Missouri Tigers during the first half of the game at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium. | Denny Medley-Imagn Images

Perhaps using "best" in the headline here isn't entirely accurate.

Best implies a good, positive feeling about something and there isn't much to feel good about for Mississippi State after a crushing 49-27 loss to Missouri on Saturday night.

That attitude was evident in Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby's post-game press conference. Here are the five most interesting quotes from Lebby:

On large number of quarterback runs...

I felt like it gave us some answers the way their defense is structured and they play with a heavy box. So having the ability to play 11 on 11 was something that was necessary. Depending on what the C-gap did, that was going to dictate whether we were handing the ball or pulling the ball. That way we had the ability to have hats in the run game.

On why Blake Shapen remains the starting quarterback...

It is his decision-making and having the ability to not waste a play. We knew we had to come in here and not play perfect but give ourselves a chance to not waste plays. That is the reality of it. No. 1 (KaMario Taylor) does some great things and we all understand what kind of player he is going to be. In a setting like this I don’t think it is fair to have him go play 75 snaps. Blake gives us the opportunity to not waste a play. Frustrated at both interceptions and both interceptions for touchdowns that end up in their hands and end up spotting them 14 points. That is a huge piece of the game.

On pass protection struggles...

For us, we tried to continue to change it up today with a lot of different chis, changing the picture on those guys, changing so many different things throughout the week than we’ve done in the past to try to give us a chance. We ended up moving Albert (Reese) back out to tackle and not playing Jimothy (Lewis) there in the second half because of some things that went on.

On the missed field goal attempt...

Just a really bad snap. Got to find a way to handle it and then get the guy on the ground. To me, obviously, an unbelievable huge momentum swing inside the game. We snap the ball seven times down there, don’t get in the end zone. So many errors inside that drive that keep us from scoring a touchdown. We’re not good enough to not score touchdowns right there against a good football team.

On difficulties stopping the run...

We’ve all got a part in it. I’ve talked about that non-stop. When things are really good it is because of everybody. When things are not it is because of everybody. We talked about it to our football team. To a man, we got to have a great talk with ourself and see if we are doing everything we possibly can to leave no doubt. You got to be obsessed with it Monday through Friday. Really frustrated with the explosive runs we gave up after we talked non-stop about it. I thought we had a physical week of practice and did not execute the way we need to.