Brian Kelly's Thoughts: Breaking Down What Went Wrong Against the Texas A&M Aggies

Brian Kelly and Co. unable to piece together a strong second half, collapse in the final two quarters.

Oct 26, 2024; College Station, Texas, USA; LSU Tigers head coach Brian Kelly speaks with the officials during a time out in the second quarter against the LSU Tigers at Kyle Field. Mandatory Credit: Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images. / Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

Brian Kelly and the LSU Tigers imploded on Saturday night in College Station after falling 38-23 to the Texas A&M Aggies in a pivotal Southeastern Conference showdown.

With a chance to cement their status as the No. 1 team in the SEC, the Bayou Bengals' second half collapse gave the Aggies the edge down the stretch.

LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier tossed three interceptions, the defense had no answer for Texas A&M backup signal-caller Marcel Reed and special teams woes ultimately held the Tigers back on Saturday night.

Kelly broke down what went wrong in College Station:

What He Said: Brian Kelly Discusses Week 9 Loss

Miscues Plague the Bayou Bengals:

“I mean, we’ve lost our margin, right? We have no margin for error. We have to go back and look at some of the things I just talked about, right? We have to build balance within the offense. We have to be able to handle the running quarterback. The silliness of the field-goal stuff, that has got to end. That is just ridiculous. We’ll clean that up in short order. But those two things in particular."

Tale of Two Halves: Inability to Adjust Defensively

“We played such good defense. The first half, it was so good to see our defense playing. And then we go to a running quarterback, and it just goes away from us. And so we know what we need to get better at there. And then we know what we need to continue to work on from an offensive standpoint. We need to build some balance so (quarterback) Garrett (Nussmeier) is not out there trying to make a play every flippin’ down. And that’s what we’re gonna work on.”

Turnovers Tumble the Tigers:

“These are interceptions that led to points and it’s easy to point those out as important times in the game, but we had an opportunity to rally on defense and we couldn’t do that. You can’t make a living with 33 yards rushing. We’ve got to help Garrett out quite frankly. We have to give him a more balanced offense. He can’t be that guy that has to throw for 365 yards. There has to be more balance within the offense. We can go all night and gang up on Garrett Nussmeier if we want, but the reality of it is, we have to put him in a better situation and get more balance on the offense.”

Lack of Playbook Diversity:

“It was disappointing. I’m disappointed. I know Brad Davis, Joe Sloan, and Frank Wilson are disappointed. That’s not what we expected. We spent a lot of time on our run game. We feel like we should be better there. We thought we made the progress necessary against a good front in Arkansas and we just did not see that come to fruition tonight. It’s hard for me to sit here right now and give you a detailed evaluation of what happened, but we did not get the kind of production that would keep Garrett Nussmeier from standing on his freaking head at the quarterback position and making plays. He feels like he has to. I get it, he’s going to be the guy we all blame. I just don’t think we give him enough balance within the offense and it makes him vulnerable because he has to do so much.”

Back to the Drawing Board:

“We need to be really good at a few things, and that’s what we do, and let’s get really good at it. We’ve got the bye week. We’ll clean some things up. We’ve got a good football team. Tonight was a bad half of football for us. And we’ll go back to work on ourselves, and we’ll get ourselves ready to play better football.”

LSU will have a bye week next Saturday before returning to Tiger Stadium on Nov. 9 to host No. 15 Alabama. Kickoff, which has not been announced yet by the league office, is expected to be between 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. CT.

More LSU News:

Instant Takeaways: No. 8 LSU Falls to No. 14 Texas A&M in College Station

LSU Dishes Out Offer to No. 1 Quarterback in America

Nick Saban Calls LSU Quarterback Garrett Nussmeier a "Sleeper" Ahead of 2024 Season

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