LSU’s Brian Kelly seemed unusually pleased with this Tigers after a 34-10 victory over Arkansas Saturday night.

If it wasn’t complete domination, it was close enough in a game that much of America thought was a good Arkansas upset choice for your parlay card.

Unless you’re Vanderbilt beating Alabama, I never have liked it when a team carps about “Nobody gave us a chance to win this game.”

Kelly, thankfully, stopped short of such gibberish.

Still, he called it the most complete game of the year. Notice he said “most complete.” Not (totally) complete.

If that elusive carrot on a stick is out there, he’d best keep it in his pocket for the coming weeks.

But Saturday’s performance will do for now.

If it wasn’t complete, it was certainly complementary, which is really what Kelly has been looking for.

Equal parts offense and defense, each having the other’s back. And near-perfect special teams.

A kicker got the game ball from Kelly. If Damian Ramos had missed any of his four tries, two from longer than 45 yards, you’d probably have known his name.

Kelly had little to quibble about and will travel to Texas A&M for a bigger showdown with the SEC’s only other undefeated team.

“Now they got to go earn it again on the road, but there’s clearly a different way that they perceive the next six weeks,” Kelly said. “They believe they’re getting better, and I believe they’re getting better each and every week, and this is a good time to get better.”

The offensive stats didn’t jump out at you — Garrett Nussmeier threw for a season-low 224 yards and didn’t have a touchdown pass for the first time in his career — but any more would almost have been overkill.

“Nussmeier was really good,” Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman said. “He took what we gave him.”

Even there, there was a complementary excuse.

LSU’s defense was like a fast and efficient wait staff at an über-upscale restaurant, frantically clearing debris and setting up a spot for a valued customer.

Right this way, Mr. Nussmeier!, Your table is now waiting!

It was quite a spread.

Courtesy of three forced turnovers, the Tigers defense set up the offense for scoring drives of 7, 42 and 2 yards. Three sacks for 24 yards seemed to stymie whatever comeback notions the Razorbacks had.

None were cheap.

“There were some physical hits out there,” Kelly said. “We jarred the ball loose. They weren’t sloppy, they were physical hits.”

That 2-yard drive was what Kelly called, the “backbreaker” in the third quarter with the Tigers probably wondering why they were only leading 16-10.

It was set up by — don’t everybody answer at once — Whit Weeks, rushing the quarterback, tipping Taylen Green’s pass, wrestling it out the air himself and tumbling to the 2-yard line to set up Caden Durham’s easy score.

That was Weeks’ best highlight, of course. He was all over the field like a recurring Arkansas nightmare.

“What stands out is he’s active in virtually all the plays you see out there,” Kelly said.

The offensive story was the continued upgrade of the running game.

Some teams might giggle at 158 yards on the ground, including 101 yards and three touchdowns from Durham, but it’s a major upgrade from where the Tigers were a few weeks ago.

LSU knows it can throw the ball with — or against — anybody. The running game has been a work in progress at best.

Still, the game’s real story — are you sitting down? — is that defense probably won this game.

Weeks did have help.

“We’re getting those big plays, and now we’re turning those into turnovers,” Kelly said. “It starts with controlling the line of scrimmage. They could not run the ball.”

Only 38 yards, in fact, for a team that averaging more than 200 per game going in.

Not to be Debbie Downer, but it wasn’t perfect, which brings us to the week’s likely point of emphasis.

LSU’s defense did not commit a penalty. Go figure. Again, the offense was there to pick up the slack with 11 flags for 80 yards.

That’s not exactly the kind of complementary football you want to see.

The amazing part? Eight of the 11 were pre-snap foolishness, your false starts, illegal formations, etc.

If there’s an unforced football error, that’s the one.

There’s not real explanation. Surely they know the snap count.

“It’s not one person,” Kelly said, and it did seem like every offensive lineman got in on mischief.

But, he added, “Sometimes we have to get into a better rhythm and that’s getting the receivers lined up quicker. Sometimes it’s a fire drill out there … We got to clean it up, because that stuff can’t continue to happen.”

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Scooter Hobbs covers LSU athletics. Email him at scooter.hobbs@americanpress.com