Coach Ed Orgeron details mistakes in home opener loss.

With Covid-19 changing the landscape of college football and many other sports alike, the LSU tigers came out looking to start the year 1-0. Unfortunately, there were too many hills to overcome and inexperience and missed assignments added to the trouble. 

Obviously, expectations were not to recreate the undefeated champion season, seeing as they lost a record 14 players to the NFL and four players opting out for the season (most notably junior wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase).

But with first overall pick of the 2020 NFL Draft and Hesiman trophy winner Joe Burrow at the helm for the Cincinnati Bengals, both sides of the ball were not clicking enough to score when they needed it or stop the Mississippi States’ new pass-happy offense.

LSU head coach Ed Orgeron summed up the lost in a nutshell: “just way too many mistakes.”

Defensively, LSU missed Sophomore cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. as LSU defense, which historically is what LSU holds their hat on, was torched by the Bulldogs new air-raid offense led by new head coach Mike Leach. 

The Bulldogs transfer quarterback K.J. Costello threw for an SEC record 623 yards in his first game for Mississippi State. The Tigers couldn’t find a way to stop Costello and the Bulldogs new highflying offense. 

Costello dealt damage throughout the entirety of the game, but the real pain for Tiger fans came on third down. The Bulldogs converted 50 percent of their third downs and couldn’t hold up in man-to-man situations. To top it off, the Tiger’s defense seemed like they forgot how to tackle.   

“We pressured the quarterback well,” said LSU’s head coach. “We got some turnovers; we just didn’t play a man-to-man well.”

Junior quarterback Myles Brennan had little bit of a rough start with some glimpses of promise throughout the game, but couldn’t hold it together when needed most. This was Brennan’s first game as a starter and the expectations for some was for LSU to continue to where it left off. 

Brennan had some moments where it looked like he froze, didn’t seem comfortable in the pocket or just plain mental blunders; Brennan looked a lot better after the end of the second and going into the third, seeing as he threw for 345 yards and two touchdowns in the game.

The momentum couldn’t carry going into the fourth. Orgeron noticed, it saying his quarterback was displaying “some inconsistency.” 

All the blame can’t be put on Brennan’s bad play because the Bulldogs rush was getting in the backfield often and beat LSU off the line. 

“You know what? It’s all got to start with protection,” Orgeron said. “We got to protect, we got to run the football better. We got beat up front.”

Orgeron also put some blame on himself, saying there were some aspects of the game he could have done better in. 

“Coach Leach had his team ready to play. They beat us. We have no excuses,” Orgeron said. “I told the team to put this on me. I’ve got to coach better.”

Expect to see LSU drop from sixth ranking in the AP Top 25 into the high teens or even twenties after their defense gave up more than 630 yards. 

LSU will go to Tennessee to play Vanderbilt on Saturday in hopes to break even after the second game of the season. 

Video: Fanatics View