re: Can we give USC and Lincoln Riley some credit?

Hell no. We gave that game away. F USC.

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agree but their QB was much better than Nuss.

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It's absurd to say he was "much" better. He was 27/36 (75%). Nuss was better at 30/39 (77%). Nuss had his WRs make some good catches for him (most notably Lacy's TD and a sideline catch by Thomas late in the game). The USC WRs had more. The highlight reel catch by #8, the great catch by the TE on a ball that was high and away. The one-handed snag that set up the GW TD. Moss was also sacked twice and threw two bubble screens that had the LSU DB been looking at the ball could have intercepted it for a TD.

Nussmeier threw nearly 40 passes and only had ONE really bad throw (the incompletion to Anderson). Unfortunately, it happed to be at a critical point late in the game. Otherwise, he played really, really well. His incompletions were: the Anderson miss; a pass on on 4th down where LSU allowed a free rusher up the middle; a ball to Taylor in the seam that was on target, but tipped before it got to Taylor; a pass that was on the money to a well covered Lacy in the endzone, but one where Lacy, the couldn't get a foot in bounds, 3rd down pass at the end of the game where their seemed to be confusion on the motion, and the meaningless INT.

Otherwise, Nuss never put the ball in danger. He was rarely off target. He made quick decisions. If you want to argue Miller was better there are points you can make. But to say "much better" is absolutely ridiculous. There are many things that contributed to LSU losing, but the overall play of Nussmeier is pretty far down that list.

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Credit to their d-line though, they didn’t back down from the hyped LSU front.

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What does this even mean?

The credit I’ll give him is, he had the balls to leave the ball in his QB’s hands. I’d rather lose trying to win and being aggressive than to lose trying not to lose and being ultra conservative for worry of turnover.

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Most are frustrated because that game was winnable down the stretch.

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this. I thought we played pretty good overall. Bad penalties and an inability to score on two drives made it more frustrating than normal

We probably win if:

Nuss doesn't panick on 4th and goal and after spinning away from the blitz steps up in the pocket which was secure and throws a TD to #4 who was breaking open in the back of the endzone

We don't get a defensive delay of game call (ridiculous call)

We recover 1 of the 2 fumbles

Weeks holds on to the batted ball that fell into his arms

Nuss hits a wide open Green

Nuss hits a wide open Anderson

USC receiver doesn't make 2 spectacular one handed catches ( first one hit the ground in my opinion)

Nuss keeps the ball and runs on a couple of the RPO's

2 or 3 of these plays go our way and we may be having a different conversation. My biggest concern coming out of this game is Nuss's affinity for throwing off his back foot. He needs to step into the pressure and throw the ball. This will hopefully get better with more PT.

I don’t think anyone is taking anything away from USC, they never panicked and executed a really good game plan. Riley is a A+ offensive mind and got the job done.

That being said, we made it easy for them and their defense. And that part is on us. And when it came down to coaching decisions, Lincoln out coached Kelly. It’s no mystery why they won the game. Hats off to them

This all sounds like the Roll Tide board. We beat ourselves they didn’t beat us. Lol

Riley out coached Kelly, as did Norvell the last two season openers. I swear I don’t know what Brian Kelly does to be called a master strategist.

Soy Latte was on a mission after we embarrassed the hell out of him in 2019.