Everything Lane Kiffin said about Ole Miss’ loss to LSU: ‘We should have won that game’

Ole Miss controlled much of Saturday night’s game against LSU , but the Rebels couldn’t hold on, as quarterback Garrett Nussmeier led a late comeback. Nussmeier marched the Tigers down the field to tie the game with 30 seconds left in regulation, then sealed the victory in overtime with a game-winning touchdown pass to Kyren Lacey.

It’s a loss that Lane Kiffin won’t ever forget.

Here’s everything the Rebels head coach had to say in his postgame press conference about the atmosphere in Tiger Stadium, how he thought the Rebels controlled the game and LSU’s improved defense.

Kiffin’s opening statement : That’s a hard one, obviously. I feel for the players in the locker room; played really hard. Made some plays at the end. Give them credit too. That last drive in regulation, we led the whole game until the last 30 seconds. To come here and led the whole game, we were doing some things right. They made some really big plays. Quarterback played great. Scramble play, a couple of 4th down conversions put us in overtime. Should have never got there. We should have finished it when we had the ball up 4 with a chance to go up two scores. We didn’t do that and put ourselves in a much harder situation.

I’m disappointed, obviously. We should win that game. We kind of commanded the game for majority of it, but credit them for making plays late in the 4th quarter and overtime. I told our guys we have to make plays, coach better and sometimes you get breaks sometimes — that’s the sport.

In my opinion, Juice (Wells) is running a post for a touchdown and the corner grabbed him and he can’t run his post, so Jaxson (Dart) throws an interception and there’s no penalty. That’s a pretty big swing going in to score or throwing an interception. I’m not saying that’s why we lost the game but that was a hard one to deal with at the time … tough one.

Question : How tough was the environment to coach in tonight?

LK : I don’t know. No disrespect, we commanded the game the majority of it. We were ahead until the last 30 seconds. In my opinion, this is an electric atmosphere, great crowd, but they don’t block, they don’t tackle, they don’t drop the ball, they don’t miss kicks. We have to make the plays. I have to coach better. We should have won that game. They’re a good team, we’re a good team, but we should have won that game.

Q : Do you feel like you left points on the board and could have had a bigger lead going into halftime?

LK : Yeah. Those things catch up with you. You miss a field goal … we hand them a 3-point fumble at the end of the half. Again, that’s why I really felt like we were outplaying them. We were the better team for majority of the game. Got to close them out. We left a lot of points. Tough one. Sometimes things just suck.

Q : Did the offense change not having Tre (Harris) in the second half?

LK : It’s a hard loss. Like I said, the interception should be pass interference. You’re battling with great players and everything and then we don’t have Tre again. It changes what they do on defense. That sucks too.

Q : Did your OL get Jaxson enough time?

LK : I think we put him in some hard situations where we threw the ball a lot. … we had to take some shots and that puts it tough on the offensive line, and that is the one part that environment matters a little bit.

Q : What’s the message after this?

LK : This sucks, guys. I feel for you, and you have a bye so you don’t get to play again. I don’t have a lot of positive for you. It’s easier to get beat by a couple of scores but this is like our game over half of the game and we let it slip away. These are hard. This one will be around forever.

Q : Thoughts on your RB rotation?

LK : Great job of (Ulysses) Bentley stepping up. He had a good game, played really well. Points matter. We fumbled the ball and gave them 3 points at the end of the half, we can’t do that stuff. It came back to bite us.

Q : Discuss the two losses with five games to go…

LK : It’s tough because we handed two games away. Both games we had the ball, we’re ahead and find a way to lose. We could very easily be undefeated. That’s tough. We’re still a really good team. One stop or one ball or one pass interference call and we’re sitting here saying ‘what a great team to find a way to win,’ but I’m not going to overreact to that.

Q : Do you think they were tougher on defense than expected or did you just shoot yourself in the foot?

LK : I thought we were moving pretty well. I thought we were screwing up. They did a good job, much improved with a better coach. No disrespect to the last staff. The end rushed really well. Still think we had matchups on the corners; saw Tre run by them and drop a touchdown. Tre got hurt then they obviously got coached and went to a lot of Cover 2.

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