Brian Kelly ponders why LSU's offense couldn't put USC away

Brian Kelly was not a happy camper Sunday night following LSU‘s loss to USC in Las Vegas. After months of wondering if the Tigers’ defense would improve, it was the offense sputtering in the season opener. Just 20 points for LSU, lower than any total from last season with Jayden Daniels running the show.

But there were certainly opportunities for Kelly’s team to get on the board and even maybe put USC away. Up 17-13 in the second half, there were two possessions where LSU could have gone up double digits with touchdowns. Instead, two punts before USC eventually took the lead via a Miller Moss touchdown throw to Ja’Kobi Lane.

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Kelly assessed why LSU was not able to put the game away, citing penalties to put the offense behind the sticks and not executing well in big moments.

“There’s a host of situations,” Kelly said. “We had a couple false start penalties. We started behind the chains a couple of times. Was it probably our best execution? We don’t have a cut-off on the backside on one, we don’t run the route correctly. There was a number of different things and it was based solely on the inability to execute at a high level when our best was needed offensively. We were not able to deliver.”

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One thought Kelly had was the inability to score once deep in the red zone. LSU got inside the 15-yard line on three different occasions but settled for a field goal twice and then turned the ball over on downs — the game’s very first possession.

“You get inside the 15-yard line three times and you come away with six points, that’s going to come back and beat you,” Kelly said. “We can talk about missed blocks and not executing and not doing this and not doing that — we left a lot of points out there.

“We went up and down the field but if you don’t score points when you’re down inside the red zone, like we did not do tonight, you’re going to lose a one-possession game like we did tonight.”

This is the third straight season-opening loss for Kelly at LSU and fourth overall for the program. Starting the year 0-1 has become all too familiar and has Kelly playing from behind instantly.

Getting back to the drawing board offensively should take place this week ahead of Nicholls — not something we expected to say about LSU heading into the season.