Another issue: LSU Tiger had sad news..

The loss was caused by missed tackles, inexperienced players, a new secondary, and a host of other problems, but how long can the Tigers keep blaming themselves for this kind of thing?

Kelly and the other members of the coaching staff took the brunt of the blame following LSU’s initial defeat at the hands of Florida State University.

But as the season progresses, the Tigers’ list of justifications for errors in judgment and subpar play is growing.

Following LSU’s Saturday loss to Ole Miss, the team, coaches, and supporters were all clearly dissatisfied with the way the team performed as a whole. Despite scoring 49 points on the road, the Tigers’ offense was unable to overcome the Rebels by a touchdown.

The Tigers had now fallen short against a team that was ranked higher than them twice.

It was said that the defense play of LSU was at its lowest point during the game. Ole Miss’ offense gained an extra 288 yards as a result of the team missing 38 tackles.

Kelly stated, “We’re playing with young, inexperienced players, and that’s who we have; nobody else is coming in.” “These are the players who must perform for us.”

Ashton Stamps, a rookie cornerback who made his first career start for the Tigers, is one of the young players he was mentioning. The cornerback found it difficult to contain Ole Miss’ receivers throughout the game, despite recording six tackles.

Stamps wasn’t the only rookie playing defense, though.

Whit Weeks was still a standout player in LSU’s matchup with Ole Miss. Nine tackles, a new season high, with one for a 1.5-yard loss, were made by the true freshman.

With its demanding schedule, LSU will find it difficult to succeed consistently if they play with inexperienced players. But the Tigers are not the only team that has rookies on the field during games. For instance, in the season opener against the Tigers, Florida State started rookie Omar Graham Jr. at linebacker.

In the end, Stamps wasn’t solely to blame for the Tigers’ defeat.

“Old Miss was superior,” Kelly declared. “We didn’t make the plays that we needed to; we were in position.”

Since the start of the season, there have been disagreements regarding LSU’s secondary. Kelly and his coaching staff knew that it would take some time for the defensive backs to chemistry because they were new players from the transfer portal. However, the excuse of “new faces” is running out.

Other than Stamps, juniors and seniors make up the secondary, so previous game experience shouldn’t be a problem.

The season of guaranteed games will be halfway through on Saturday when LSU plays Missouri. Many find it hard to believe that the defense still hasn’t found a reliable way to perform, especially in light of their performance against Mississippi State, where they gave up just two touchdowns to the Bulldogs during the whole contest.

Having said that, the defense cannot be solely held accountable for the Rebels’ defeat because there are two sides to every ball.

Although LSU’s offense missed a few scoring opportunities, it is difficult to hold quarterback Jayden Daniels accountable given his performance.

“You could blame the offense for everything. We win the game if we convert a few drives there in the second half, Kelly stated. “Having said that, they clearly played well.”

The Tigers have a lot of work ahead of them if they hope to make it far in the playoffs.

“That’s not an acceptable standard of play,” Kelly remarked. “We anticipate that they will return on Monday prepared to ensure that they address the things we, as coaches, need to do better.”

This week, the Tigers travel to Missouri to play them. Should LSU’s defense fail to contain Missouri’s offense, particularly its highly skilled receivers, there’s a good chance LSU’s dreams of returning to the SEC championship game will be dashed.

The Tigers will have to make a decision at the halfway point of the season: Do they want to win another championship and keep making excuses, or do they want to make history?