LAS-VEGAS — The LSU football team’s season-opening speeches are changing, but the results remain painfully familiar.

Tiger Stadium. The Rose Bowl. Caesars Superdome. Orlando, Florida. And now Allegiant Stadium.

Loss.

Loss.

Loss.

Loss.

And loss.

On Sunday night, the Tigers behaved like a player at a craps table in Las Vegas, chasing his losses with ever-higher bets, desperately trying to get even with the house.

It never works. That’s why “the houses” in this city are 5,000-room casino resorts.

Here was the handicap line for LSU entering the 2024 season: new offensive coordinator and quarterback, all-new defensive personnel, but enough talent to earn the respect of voters in the preseason AP poll and rank the Tigers No. 13. That means LSU was at least a worthy contender for the new 12-team College Football Playoff.

Maybe the Tigers still are. But they’re still the same team with the same problems to start the season. Literally, false start problems. A team that doesn’t come out of the gate with a win to give itself something positive. A team that started the year with a loss for the fifth year in a row – a sad streak not seen since the days of Curley Hallman and Gerry DiNardo from 1991-1995 – this time by a score of 27-20.

All of these defeats add up to one unbearable morass for an LSU program that, despite money, despite players, despite state-of-the-art facilities like cryogenic chambers and sleep pods, and despite harsh words (Will Campbell: “We know what we’re here for… to get in a fight.”), is unable to flip the switch when the season starts.

There were some promising moments for LSU. You have to admit that. A pass from Garrett Nussmeier here. A lightning-quick sprint from sixth-year running back John Emery there. Throughout the game, passes from players like cornerback Ashton Stamps and defensive end Sai’vion Jones were heavily deflected. They were like winning numbers on a giant green Keno board.

Just not enough. Not enough long passes. Certainly not enough good runs for LSU to claim to have dictated terms against a USC defense that was even worse than the Tigers’ pathetic defense in 2023 (if you subtract Emery’s 39-yard run, LSU averaged 3.1 yards per carry). And certainly not enough good stops by the defense when the game is on the line.

It was, as expected, a tough battle. It went back and forth for nearly three quarters until LSU seemed to seize the momentum with a nifty 13-yard touchdown pass and run from Nussmeier to Aaron Anderson, giving the Tigers a 17-13 lead with 3:42 minutes left in the third quarter.

Once the ball was back on USC’s field, the Trojans could do nothing about it. In fact, they nearly suffered a costly turnover when Greg Penn ripped the ball loose from tailback Woody Marks, who was covered by USC’s left tackle Elijah Paige at his 15-yard line.

A foul and two more plays, and the Men of Troy were three points and out. The Tigers got the ball back at their own 23-yard line, a chance to put the Trojans behind by two points and cause a lot of trouble.

LSU gained 23 yards, but its drive fizzled. Both offenses faltered a bit before Miller Moss found Ja’Kobi Lane for a 28-yard touchdown pass to give USC a 20-17 lead. The Tigers tied the game with a field goal with 1:47 left, but they gave USC enough time to score the game-winning touchdown: a 13-yard run by Marks with eight seconds left, set up by a 20-yard pass to Kyron Hudson and a 15-yard targeting call on junior safety Jardin Gilbert.

No, not everything was bad for the Tigers. But as an angry Brian Kelly said after the game — visibly angrier than he was in his three seasons as LSU coach — the mistakes that cost his team the most were things that were repeated, like two personal fouls that helped USC’s scoring chances.

“Some of our guys worked their asses off and we’re still sitting here talking about the same things,” Kelly said, pounding on the postgame press conference table. “Not finishing when the opponent is in position to shut them down.”

“We’re standing on the sidelines feeling like the game is over. It makes me so angry. I need to try better. It’s just ridiculous.”

LSU hasn’t lost to winning teams in this five-year losing streak: Mississippi State, UCLA, Florida State twice and now USC. But the Tigers are in the same old situation. They’re trying to figure out what’s wrong with the Boeing Starliner, which has already flown and docked at the International Space Station.

LSU has learned enough in the last two seasons under Kelly to reach the SEC Championship game in 2022 and post two 10-win seasons. But more is expected of him and his program. Ultimately, LSU must prove it can be a national title contender again.

If the Tigers were absolutely terrible, that would be one thing. But they seem to be caught in a loop of being good but not great, and every time the big money is on the line, they chase their losses.