It didn’t come down to a blocked extra point this time.

One year after LSU lost its opener by 1 point to Florida State after an extra-point attempt that came with no time remaining was blocked and prevented overtime, the Tigers were embarrassed by the Seminoles 45-24 on Sunday night.

LSU led at halftime, but FSU scored 31 straight points before the Tigers managed a meaningless score with 75 seconds left.

Now it’s Tell the Truth Monday – Labor Day edition.

And the truth is the Tigers gave a performance that might have been understandable for head coach Brian Kelly’s first team’s first game a year ago.

But the truth is the performance was a head-scratcher coming from a team ranked No. 5 in the preseason poll.

Sure, this group of Seminoles finished last season with a 6-game winning streak and entered the opener Sunday night in Orlando just 3 spots below LSU in the preseason poll.

But this outcome had as much to do with the Tigers playing like a team that was vastly overrated as it had to do with a mostly impressive performance by the Seminoles, who overcome a slew of penalties and a few dropped passes to push LSU around.

Tell the Truth Monday requires a dispassionate look at wins and losses – not sugar-coating shortcomings that are revealed even in wins and not overlooking good stuff that happens in losses.

But it’s going to be really hard to find good LSU stuff in this loss.

Let’s start with the most salient numbers.

The Tigers allowed the Seminoles to convert 9-of-14 3rd downs as well as the only 4th-down try they attempted.

One of the Tigers’ top priorities in preseason preparations was to get better at 3rd-down and 4th-down defense.

They failed badly in their first opportunity to show improvement.

On the opening defensive possession of the season they allowed the Noles to go 2-for-2 on 3rd downs – when they needed 5 and 13 yards – as key plays in an 86-yard touchdown drive.

After an FSU field goal tied the score on the opening possession of the 3rd quarter, the Noles faced a 4th-and-1 at the LSU 42 and Jordan Travis passed to Lawrance Toafili for a 41-yard completion that set up Travis’ 1-yard touchdown run.

That gave FSU the lead for good.

The Tigers added a twist to their 3rd- and 4th-down travails by being equally bad at them on offense. They converted just 3-of-10 attempts on 3rd down and failed on all 3 attempts on 4th down.

Two of the 4th down failures were LSU’s Achilles’ heel in the first half.

The first 2 plays of the season produced Jayden Daniels pass completions that gained 55 and 15 yards as well as a 1st-and-goal at the 5.

The Tigers ran 6 plays from the 5 and closer, including 4 from the 1, the last of which had Daniels getting sacked for a 13-yard loss on 4th-and-goal.

LSU had another major red-zone failure when they reached the FSU 13 in the 2nd quarter and Daniels was stopped for a 2-yard loss on 4th-and-1.

Not only did the 4th-down failures deny the Tigers in areas of the field where 3 points should have been guaranteed and 7 points probable, they also highlighted 3 major problems: Harold Perkins was a non-factor, and the offensive line and secondary struggled.

Rather than point the finger at Perkins, it’s wiser to blame the scheme. Last year, Perkins was a monster off the edge. Kelly talked all offseason about moving Perkins around this season, but having him spy Travis instead of rushing him was a mistake that shouldn’t be repeated.

LSU’s vaunted offensive line did not play like the strength it is supposed to be.

When the offense reached the goal area on the opening possession, the Seminoles stiffened and whipped the LSU blockers.

The Tigers are supposed to have far superior running back depth compared to last season, when Daniels led the team in rushing. But Daniels had the most carries (15) and rushing yards (64) while 3 running backs combined for 12 carries and 49 yards.

The early goal-line problem was exacerbated by Daniels’ indecisiveness, which surely was due at least in part to the breakdowns up front.

Along the way Daniels was plagued by a few drops from his wide receivers.

And speaking of wide receivers, FSU has 1 of the best groups in the country – a group that was bound to be a very difficult challenge for the Tigers’ new group of cornerbacks.

The Seminoles’ wide receivers won that battle handily – not just because the LSU corners were beaten periodically but also because the pass catchers made numerous contested catches when the Tigers weren’t beaten.

Three of Travis’ 4 touchdown passes, 9 of his 23 completions and 122 of his 342 passing yards went to Keon Coleman, a transfer from Michigan State who played high school ball in Opelousas, La., some 50 miles from Tiger Stadium.

The game got out of hand when the Noles scored 4 touchdowns in barely 15 minutes of action down the stretch.

The way they pushed LSU around and the Tigers seemed willing to accept it at the end was reminiscent of the bullying in a 42-21 loss at Kentucky in the middle of the 2021 season.

It turned out that was the final straw in the school’s decision to fire Ed Orgeron, which eventually led to Kelly leaving Notre Dame for LSU.

Despite what happened Sunday night, the Tigers are in better hands now than they were in 2021 and 2023 could still be a very good season.

And that’s about all there is to fulfill the Tell The Truth Monday requirement of finding something positive in defeat.