Brian Kelly hammers LSU performance in first half against Florida State

After a rough first half against Florida State where they trailed 7-3, LSU coach Brian Kelly heavily criticized his team’s play. The coach spoke with the broadcast team coming onto the field for the second half and said the Tigers “can’t play any worse than that” first half.

Brian Kelly critical of first-half effort by LSU

“We can’t play any worse than that, I don’t think,” admitted Kelly. “I mean, it’s my first game, maybe we can. Just poor execution. Our guys just understand that — you can’t fumble a football on a punt like we did, though it was a good stop. We’ve had some, obviously, miscues offensively where we’ve stalled drives. Couldn’t get off the field on third down. The guys just gotta be free and go play and execute the way they’re playing. And now we’ve gotta overcome a little adversity in the second half and grow as a football team.”

The Tigers opened the second half by giving up a long drive to the Seminoles, but their defense buckled down in the red zone and gave up only a field goal — keeping it a one-score game.

The second half saw much more drama unfold as Florida State took a dominant lead following Jordan Travis’ second touchdown pass of the game. Travis completed a perfect pass to the end zone as he was hit in the helmet — resulting in a targeting penalty and ejection for LSU’s Ali Gaye.

Florida State nearly ended the game with just over two minutes remaining after recovering a muffed punt by the Tigers, before they fumbled the ball on the one-yard line. LSU took possession and drove 99-yards down the field to score the game-tying touchdown — only to have the Seminoles block the extra point attempt.

LSU ended up losing the game 24-23 despite the heroic comeback in Brian Kelly’s first game at the head of the program.