Brian Kelly calls out LSU offense, coaching staff after Ole Miss loss: 'You can't have a one-sided display like that'

Brian Kelly is angry at himself and his coaching staff following this past weekend’s loss to Ole Miss. The LSU coach joined The Paul Finebaum Show on Monday following the 24-19 defeat against the Rebels and vented some of those frustrations.

Kelly began by expressing his disappointment in the way that he and his staff prepared for the game. He shouldered most of the blame for himself but made it clear it was a team-wide issue.

“We’ve got to get better,” he said. “I think everybody’s angry. I’m angry at myself for not having the details in this game that we needed and that starts with us coaching. That starts with teaching, preparing your football team. Then, at the end of the day, your players have to be disciplined and execute. But I think there’s a lot of disappointment in the way we prepared our team and I take full responsibility for that.”

Much had been made of the Tigers’ questionable consistency on offense entering Saturday’s game, even though the team was 4-0 to that point. However, those inconsistencies finally caught up with LSU against Ole Miss as the offense was bottled up for the most part.

The Rebels kept the Tigers in check with their run defense, holding them to just 57 yards rushing and 2.6 yards per carry. Overall for the season, LSU is 121st in the country in rushing yards per game and 81st in points per game.

In particular, Brian Kelly pointed to their inability to stay on the field in the first half as eventually leading to the defense getting worn down later in the game. LSU had three drives in the first half that went three-and-out, as well as another that ended in an interception.

“I felt like our football team had the personnel to win that game and we did not at any time play complementary football,” Kelly said. “Our defense was on the field for 50 plays in the first half against 24 for our offense. That just can’t happen. You can’t have a one-sided display like that. Our offense has been ineffective in terms of our consistency. We’ve had bits and pieces that have looked well but we haven’t been able to put together that consistent performance.

“Then as you get to the second half, your defense is exposed being on the field that long. Certainly kept the points down, but again, as our offense was starting to get in sync, our defense now had been exposed too long. So that’s the disappointing part. We just haven’t been able to play consistent football. And it starts with, for the most part, we haven’t been consistent on offense.”

LSU trailed only 17-13 entering the fourth quarter, but gave up a touchdown to the Rebels that made it a two-possession game. The Tigers followed up with arguably their best drive all game, marching 80 yards downfield in 15 plays to score and make it 24-19.

Unfortunately, they never got the ball back after that as the defense, likely from being “exposed” as Kelly mentioned, couldn’t come up with a stop. Ole Miss ran down the remaining five minutes on the clock to win the game.

The loss from Saturday leaves LSU with a lot to think about heading into a bye week, but there’s still plenty of football left to be played this season. Brian Kelly and the rest of the coaching staff will look to get the issues sorted out before a matchup against South Carolina in Week 7.