'You could kind of see this coming:' Everything Lane Kiffin said after Ole Miss' loss against LSU
BATON ROUGE — Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin isn't giving up on the season after one loss.
Kiffin's Rebels dropped their first game of the year Saturday at Tiger Stadium, losing 45-20 versus LSU. Ole Miss (7-1, 3-1 SEC) had no answers to slow down LSU's offense, which gained 500 yards, and struggled to put up its usual offensive success, rushing for just 116 yards and scoring only six points in the final three quarters.
Despite being outscored 42-3 in the final two and a half quarters, Ole Miss is still tied atop the SEC West standings and can play its way back into conference title contention if it cleans up some of its mistakes, which Kiffin explained related to missed tackles, struggles in pass protection and more.
Here's everything Kiffin said after Ole Miss' loss to LSU.
Opening statement
It was a game of missed opportunities. We came out and started well. We did some good things in a tough place to play against elite players, so if you are going to come in here and win against these guys, you're going to have to do a lot of things right. We did early and then it just felt like it was 24-20 and we were going in to score and after that (interception) everything just went downhill on both sides. Now we've got to regroup, handle a loss like a lot of other teams in the country. There's not a lot of time to sit around and mope. We've got to go play another elite group of players next week in another hard place to play. Give (LSU) credit, those guys played really well. Their quarterback (Jayden Daniels) played great, they have really good players like (linebacker Harold Perkins Jr.) who played some good time. Can't come in and lose a turnover battle and give up 35 first downs in a game.
LSU's adjustments?
Yeah, they did a good job. I don't think it was a lot of schematics. They played (Perkins) more, which we eventually thought they would do because he doesn't look like anybody else out there. Once you get behind on them, any of their rushers can rush. It got a little lopsided there and that can happen, especially on the road.
Key problem on defense?
A lot of things. Missed tackles. We got pushed around. We had some injuries up there throughout the game. A couple of starters came out of the game, which obviously doesn’t help. But those guys did a really good job. We didn’t do a lot right defensively. That was not a good feeling at the end of the game obviously.
Evaluation of the pass protection?
I think that is what happens if you get out of balance, which we did especially once we got down. They have really good rushers. They usually always do. They have a lot of good D-linemen. You're going to have issues on the road in this place with two freshman tackles and a freshman running back. We've got to do better.
Level of concern in the defense?
That would be as high as you can be. We had a run of playing really good defense early on and now we haven’t for the last two weeks. I know we got a stop at the end of last week. But you could kind of see this coming from the end of last week if we didn’t improve on tackling. Another big rushing day against us.
Impact of hostile environment?
It was a great environment. One that I thought we did well in early. A lot of times it kind of happens the other way, you struggle when you first come into it. I thought we had it under control. But once it started going the other way it became a factor. You don't get any turnovers, you turn the ball over, you give up that many first downs and then get crucial penalties when it felt like we had momentum — or first downs on strange penalties, timing-wise, like you throw a screen and you say a guy was downfield or an offensive pass interference. There were really some untimely penalties that really killed some momentum.
What to improve upon for next week?
Well, it’s one loss. Even though the score is lopsided, it’s still one loss. You don’t get two losses in a game. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ll have to go back and get to 1-0 next week.