LSU head coach Brian Kelly pounded his fist on the table after the Tigers’ Week 1 loss, out of sheer frustration over yet another defeat in the season opener.

It was the same old story for the program. The inability to pick up a win in the first weekend of the season continues to haunt LSU after they lost to the USC Trojans on Sunday.

The lack of creativity on offense in the second half, untimely penalties and inefficiency in the red zone were ultimately the culprits of the Las Vegas schedule.

“To be the kind of football team I want, we’ve got to eliminate the dumb mistakes,” Kelly said. “We’ve got to be able to have a mindset that when we have an opponent down, we’ve got to have that killer instinct and then we’ve got to be able to play together a lot better.”

Kelly addressed the media after the confrontation at Allegiant Stadium.

Opening Statement

“From a bigger picture, we haven’t played complementary football. We’ve done some good things on the attacking side of the ball, we haven’t complimented that defensively and vice versa. But what concerns me the most are the personal fouls. The penalties that are selfish. Both of those led to scores. They’re undisciplined penalties and they basically fall back on me. We pride ourselves on having a disciplined program, but we clearly haven’t done a good enough job because it affected the game.

“The other thing is, unfortunately, it’s clear that when we get up in a game, we don’t know how to conduct ourselves. You have to have a killer instinct in a game. We had the chance to get this team away and we get complacent when we’re ahead. We make mistakes.

“That’s disappointing. I’m upset about those things and I’ve got to do a better job of embodying that in this group. We had guys that played hard and wanted to win and were willing to win, but those two things just eat away at me. And they’ve got to be fixed.”

Challenges in the attack

“There’s a lot of situations. We had a couple of false start penalties. We started behind the chains a couple of times. It probably wasn’t our best execution. We don’t have a cutoff on the backside on one. We don’t run a route correctly. They were just based on not being able to execute at a high level. When our best offensive ability was needed, we weren’t able to deliver. You get inside the 15-yard line three times and you come away with six points, that’s going to beat you. We left a lot of points there.

Red zone inefficiency

“If you don’t score points when you’re down in the red zone like we were tonight, you’re losing a one-possession game. We’re pushing our defense way too hard to be something they’re not ready to be. We have warts and they don’t just go away. Our offense had to be better because we had to score on those possessions.”

Growth in Defense

“I thought our defensive tackle play was a lot better. I thought our edge play was better. We tackled pretty well. We were competitive. Overall, it’s more connected. It’s a cohesive, connected group that plays hard. They really played hard. They didn’t execute as well as we would have liked, but that’s probably all.”

No quick attack

“We could sit here and look at a million different things, but we had over 400 yards of total offense. We couldn’t get the ball in the end zone when we really needed to. This is a lot more about a much better and more efficient offense in the red zone than it is about the failure of the inability to run. We ran the ball well enough to set up the things we wanted to do. We ran the ball well enough to win this game, but you can’t win games if you come away with nothing from the 3-yard line.”

Penalties plague the Tigers

“I’ve already commented on the two personal fouls. They affected the game and they come from veterans, guys who know better and are leaders. I have to look at myself and say I have to do better because they’re not getting the message. It’s clear those two fouls affected the game. We had a couple of false starts. 10 (penalties) is too many, let’s put it that way. But two personal fouls that result in scores are unacceptable.”

Angry after loss

“We’ve had a few guys play their asses off tonight and we’re sitting here talking about the same old things about not finishing when you’ve got an opponent in a position to put them away. But what we’re doing on the sidelines is feeling like the game is over. I’m so angry about it that I’ve got to do something about it. I’m not doing a good enough job as a coach. I’ve got to coach them better because it’s unacceptable that we haven’t found a way to win this football game. It’s ridiculous. It’s insane.”

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