It wasn’t pretty, but it was a an SEC victory.
The LSU Tigers used a strong defensive effort to defeat the South Carolina Gamecocks 20-10 Saturday night in Tiger Stadium.
LSU, ranked No. 11 in the nation, improved to 5-1 overall and 2-1 in the SEC. Unranked South Carolina dropped to 3-3 and 1-3.
“We won the game,” LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly said before answering questions at his postgame press conference. “Winning games is a good thing.”
The Tigers overcame some issues with their goalline offense. LSU was held out of the end zone four times inside the 10, twice after having a first down at the 1. The result was two field goals.
“I was pleased with some things that we did that we hadn’t been doing,” Kelly said. “We ran the ball with much more effectiveness. We got the ball to Trey’Dez Green. I was pleased about that.”
Kelly obviously wasn’t pleased with his offense’s performance near the goalline.
“But what I loved was our compete,” he said. “I loved the way our guys competed for four quarters. Our fans stayed in there with us.
“It is what it is. Find a way to win and tonight we found a way to win even though we had some mistakes out there that could at some time be catastrophic and we’re going to have to eliminate them. But the bottom line is I loved the way the kids competed.”
LSU’s second field goal was a 22-yarder by Damian Ramos that put the Tigers up 20-10 with 1:47 left.
That came after a 24-yard pass from Garrett Nussmeier to Green that gave LSU a first down at the 1.
The 6-foot-7 Green had a big game with eight catches for 119 yards and a touchdown. He leaped high over a defender to make the 6-yard TD grab early in the second quarter.
“Clearly he’s a mismatch,” Kelly said. “You can throw fade balls to him. He can catch the ball on quick game. He’s a unique talent. We need to continue to feature him in our offense. He’s got to be part of it.
LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier completed 20-of-33 passes for 254 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions.
His 43-yard TD pass to Kyle Parker running a slant route broke a 10-10 tie with 2:01 left in the third quarter.
His second interception came with LSU up 17-10 and the Tigers facing a second-and-8 at the South Carolina 9. That ended an 83-.yard drive.
Nussmeier also rushed for 30 yards on four carries, including a 21-yard run on the drive that ended with the interception at the 1.
“I thought he had that kind of demeanor that you’re looking for in your quarterback,” Kelly said. “We’re going to clean up some things, obviously, the misshandled snaps and we can’t turn the ball over when we’re down there but look, he’s competing his tail off for us.”
LSU rushed for 166 yards. Caden Durham led the Tigers with 70 yards on 15 carries. Ju’Juan Johnson had 66 on five with most of that coming on a 56-yard run on the drive that ended with the interception.
Johnson also fumbled on second down from 1 when it looked like the Tigers were going to go up 10-0 in the first quarter.
South Carolina took advantage. Matt Fuller raced 72 yards to give the Gamecocks a 7-3 lead.
“We’re a work in progress,” Kelly said. “We’ll have to be better next week but again I kind of look at it as, we know what our issues are. They’re not hidden. We can’t give up a 72-yard run, right. We’ve got to hit that the right way.
“We’ve got to be better position obviously on some of the things we did in terms of the running game, but bottom line is against an SEC opponent we held them to 10 points and really, except for our own mistakes, we controlled the flow of the game.”
South Carolina finished with 317 total yards. The Tigers did a good job of containing quarterback LaNorris Sellers, an effective runner.
Sellers gained just 19 yards on 22 carries. He completed competed 15-of-27 passes for just 124 yards.
“He felt our defense and we made it tough for him,” Kelly said. “We made it a physical game. We got after him and he did some really good things as well but at the end of the day we kept them to 10 points and I think that’s what we were hoping for.”
LSU travels to Nashville Saturday to face Vanderbilt at 11 a.m. (ABC). The Commodores (5-1, 1-1) had a bye week.