STARKVILLE, Miss. – Leonard Fournette was gassed.

The LSU defense was on life support.

Tigers coach Les Miles was thinking way too hard.

But in the end, Mississippi State senior kicker Devon Bell was the unfortunate soul who fell to his knees in utter despair.

Fournette, LSU's Heisman Trophy candidate, carried the No. 14 Tigers on his longshoreman's back with a career-high 159 rushing yards and three touchdowns as LSU hung on for a 21-19 victory over No. 25 Mississippi State on Saturday night at Davis Wade Stadium.

LSU led 21-6 on Fournette's third touchdown of the night -- a nifty 18-yard sweep around right end on which he was untouched -- that put LSU up 21-6 with 6:48 left in the third quarter.

Fournette earlier had a 1-yard leap from the wildcat formation for LSU's first score and added a bulldozing 26-yard run in the first quarter to make it 14-0.

But the game ended in a blur as Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott, who completed 34 of 51 passes for 335 yards, led the Bulldogs on two touchdown drives to close the gap to 21-19.

Prescott's pass for a tying two-point conversion with 4:00 left was dropped by running back Ashton Shumpert in the end zone.

Still, Mississippi State had its chances. Prescott got the ball back at the Mississippi State 11 with 1:32 left and with a series of short passes drove the Bulldogs to the LSU 28.

After the delay of game penalty and an incompletion, Mississippi State sent in Bell to attempt a winning 52-yard field goal with three seconds left. Bell actually had two chances but hooked his first kick badly to the left and sailed the second kick wide right.

Bell's first miss did not count because Miles, hoping to rattle the senior whose longest field goal came from 40 yards, called his second consecutive timeout just before the snap. That strategy seemed to doom the Tigers because Bell kicked the ball anyway and missed woefully to the left.

Had Miles not called timeout, LSU would have won right there.

"I'm not clairvoyant," Miles said

Given the reprieve, Bell probably tried too hard to compensate. His second kick never had a chance, starting right of the right upright and slicing even farther away.

"I dropped down to my knees and started praying," Fournette said. "I had my eyes closed on the first kick. I watched the second one."

In the end, Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen was kicking himself for not doing more to get his team closer to the goal in the final seconds.

With eight seconds left and Mississippi State at the LSU 28, Prescott failed to get the snap off on time, resulting in a critical delay of game penalty that moved the ball back to the 34 (the officials moved the ball back six yards instead of five).

"It's my job to get us inside the 25-yard line in that situation to attempt a field goal," Mullen said. "(The delay of game penalty) was 100 percent on me. ... Losing absolutely sucks."

LSU won despite committing 10 penalties for 110 yards. Two holding calls -- one on guard Josh Boutte and the other on wide receiver John Diarse -- wiped out a 37-yard touchdown catch by Travin Dural and a stunning 89-yard reverse by Dural for another score.

"Obviously, it cost us two touchdowns," Miles said. "How do you give up 100 yards in penalties and win a game? It's very difficult, and our team understands that. I kind of felt like we did some first-game things that we would have liked to have gotten rid of. All in all, it's a very satisfying win."

LSU sophomore quarterback Brandon Harris completed 9 of 14 passes for 71 yards and came up with several third-down throws to keep drives alive. But with Fournette in the backfield, the Tigers decided to put the ball in the hands of their leading rusher.

LSU outrushed Mississippi State 266-43.

NOTES: Mississippi State played its first home game in recently expanded Davis Wade Stadium, which added 16,000 seats (complete with the Bulldogs' trademark cowbells) in the north end zone to increase capacity to 61,337. ... Freshman DE Arden Key, a top LSU recruit from Georgia, had a sack on his first defensive series. ... After dropping to 1-1, Mississippi coach Dan Mullen said, "We've got to get better. It's game two of a very long season." ... LSU has defeated Mississippi State in 22 of the schools' last 24 meetings.