Lane Kiffin on Ole Miss' loss to LSU: 'We should've won that game'

Ole Miss lost their second game of the season in overtime last night at LSU. If the result wasn’t bad enough in Baton Rouge, it’s that much worse for the Rebels as they know it was there for them to win.

Lane Kiffin knew so too based on the answer to the first question of his postgame press conference after the 29-26 loss to the Tigers. Despite the environment in Death Valley, Kiffin felt that Ole Miss had it for most of the matchup. They just didn’t do enough to win what might be the most important game of their season.

“I don’t know. I don’t,” said Kiffin. “No disrespect. We commanded the game for the majority of the game. We were ahead of it in the last 30 seconds.”

“We’ve got to make the plays. I’ve got to coach better because we should have won that game,” Kiffin said. “I mean, you’re a good team, we’re a good team but we should have won that game.”

Kiffin isn’t wrong in that assessment to an extent considering how the scoring went throughout the night.

After no points in the opening quarter, Ole Miss took a 10-0 lead before extending it back to 10 with less than two minutes before halftime. However, a lost fumble allowed LSU to kick two field goals before half to get it back to just a four-point margin.

Still, the Rebels kept them away with a pair of field goals of their own in the second half.

That was before the final plays by the Tigers, though. Garrett Nussmeier tied it up with just seconds to go with a touchdown pass to Aaron Anderson. Then, in overtime, following a career-long kick for themselves, LSU ended it in a one-play response with another touchdown throw from Nussmeier to Kyren Lacy.

At 5-2 now, Ole Miss’ playoff plans aren’t what they used to be just two weeks ago. That’s why there’s a lot of wondering what could’ve been for them with both losses, including this one especially, being at hand in the end for the Rebels.