ORLANDO, Fla. -- Les Miles' perfect bowl record as LSU coach ended in a muddy mess. The 13th-ranked Tigers flopped on a rain-soaked field, falling 19-17 to No. 11 Penn State in the Capital One Bowl on Friday after another clock-management blunder. They dropped passes and would-be interceptions. They put hardly any pressure on the quarterback and the Tigers' offense had little traction on a field full of patches and puddles. "This is not the way I wanted to end my career at LSU," senior receiver Brandon LaFell said. "There was no fun about this." All the things the Tigers had done so well in their first four bowl under Miles washed away. Perhaps no missed opportunity stood out more than when a tipped pass popped up and into the hands of receiver Rueben Randle, only to roll off his fingertips with nothing but a wide-open field in front of him. He could only put his head down, unclip his helmet and throw his hands in the air as if he didn't know what happened. "I just figured we'd end up getting some of those," Miles said. "Those drops happen, certainly on a wet field. So that's not something we enjoy." The worst mistake might have come on LSU's final possession. Starting at its 41 with 48 seconds remaining and no timeouts, LSU let too much time tick away. The second play from scrimmage netted only 4 yards -- a screen over the middle to LaFell -- that cost the Tigers precious seconds. It was reminiscent of LSU's loss to Mississippi, when wasted time on the Tigers' final drive proved costly. A 15-yard penalty for a late hit by guard Lyle Hitt before the next play pushed LSU out of Penn State territory and all but sealed their hopes of a come back. LaFell said Hitt was trying to get linebacker Navorro Bowman off him. "I was like, 'Ref, ref. Look.' He told the defender to get off him then threw the flag on us," LaFell said. "It's kind of like, 'How could you do that to us after you just told him to get off him?' It don't make no sense." Bowman agreed. "He didn't deserve that penalty," Bowman said. "It was because of what I was doing. My reasoning for what I was doing wasn't a positive. It wasn't a good thing. It was to help my team win." The Tigers lost their four biggest games of the season-- to Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Penn State. A nine-win season probably never felt more disappointing to LSU fans. The Tigers rallied in the second half against Penn State to take the lead. LaFell had a 24-yard touchdown catch late in the third quarter, and then a 39-yard reception by Terrance Toliver not even 3 minutes later setup another score to give LSU a 17-16 lead. It wouldn't last. The Nittany Lions followed that with a 12-play, 65-yard drive that ended with the winning 21-yard field goal by Collin Wagner. The Tigers desperately tried to lateral the ball on their final offensive play, only to miss the catches and get planted in the sloppy turf. "Worst field I've ever played on in my life," cornerback Patrick Peterson said. Miles defended his strategy and lamented the officials for the penalty. "I don't know that helping a guy off the ground could really be considered a discipline problem," he said. "Had he punched him, certainly, I probably would have come unglued. But I sit there and I watch it and I'm going, 'What's he going to call?' He's helping the guy off the ground. I mean, what's he going to call?" (Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
