LAS VEGAS — Brian Kelly slammed his left fist down on the information convention desk so laborious his water bottle almost toppled over.
After No. 13 LSU held a four-point lead with just below six minutes left of their season opener and misplaced 27-20 to No. 23 USC on Sunday night time, Kelly did not maintain again when discussing his frustrations.
“We had some guys play their butts off tonight and we’re sitting right here once more, we’re sitting right here once more speaking about the identical issues!” Kelly mentioned as he slammed the desk. “About not ending when you’ve an opponent able to place them away. However what we’re doing on the sideline is feeling like the sport is over.”
Kelly mentioned that is the primary time throughout his tenure at LSU when he has been “indignant” at his crew and added that it lacked a “killer intuition.”
“I am so indignant about it that I’ve received to do one thing about it. I am not doing a ok job as a coach,” Kelly mentioned. “I’ve received to educate them higher as a result of it is unacceptable for us to not have discovered a approach to win this soccer sport. It is ridiculous. It is loopy.”
Regardless of totaling 421 yards of offense and controlling the time of possession by six minutes, Kelly’s crew didn’t capitalize. Their first drive of the sport traveled 74 yards on 13 performs in over seven minutes, but it resulted in zero factors. Although they trailed for a lot of the first half, LSU was in a position to seize the lead twice within the third quarter.
“Sadly, it is clear that, after we stand up in a sport, we have no idea methods to deal with ourselves,” Kelly mentioned. “You have to put groups away. We had a chance to place this crew away. We get complacent, we make extra errors after we’re forward as a substitute of getting a, you recognize, higher focus and a steely eyed killer intuition. That is disappointing.”
To Kelly’s level, the Tigers had 10 penalties for 99 yards to the Trojans’ six and some occurred in essential moments. On USC’s game-winning drive, a focusing on penalty on LSU put the Trojans contained in the pink zone, the place they promptly scored with eight seconds left.
It wasn’t simply penalties that put LSU able to return up quick. The Tigers’ floor sport additionally struggled. Earlier within the week, LSU offensive lineman Will Campbell had mentioned the Tigers would run the ball in opposition to the Trojans.
“That is not one thing we’re attempting to maintain quiet,” Campbell mentioned Tuesday. “I am telling all people proper now. We will run the soccer.”
By the top of the night time, nevertheless, LSU had solely 117 yards on the bottom and needed to depend on quarterback Garrett Nussmeier to gas the offense. Nussmeier almost did, throwing for over 300 yards and two touchdowns, however after scoring the go-ahead TD within the third quarter, LSU’s offense stalled and allowed USC’s new-look protection beneath coordinator D’Anton Lynn to maintain the Trojans within the sport with a number of key third-down stops.
“That they had each proper to be assured,” Lincoln Riley mentioned of LSU’s offensive line. “However so did we. We simply did not speak about it within the media.”
Of the 13 third downs the Tigers confronted, they transformed a primary down solely 5 instances. After they scored a go-ahead landing within the third quarter, the subsequent 4 LSU drives resulted in two punts, a area aim and an interception by Nussmeier that sealed the consequence.
“For us to be the type of soccer crew I need, we now have to eradicate the silly errors,” Kelly mentioned. “Lastly, we now have to have the ability to play off of one another a lot better.”