HOUSTON — On the other hand, look at this way.

If LSU can win THAT game, with THAT first half performance, then you would think that just about anything is possible for these Tigers.

They certainly are a resilient bunch.

Not much for style points, perhaps. But the hordes of LSU fans went home from Houston’s NRG Stadium happy, even if alternately breathing a sigh of relief and scratching their heads again. The Tigers shook off a miserable start, scored the season opener’s final 21 points and beat Wisconsin 28-24.

Heady stuff.

Then again, maybe the Tigers were just lucky.

Who knows?

The Wisconsin version would be that the Badgers lost two defensive linemen to injury (where they could least afford it), they inexplicably ignored star running back Melvin Gordon in the second half and their new safety-turned-quarterback couldn’t hit the side of a barn door with a forward pass (and yet he played on with last year’s starter chilling on the bench).

At any rate, it’s early yet.

So let’s don’t over analyze the second half.

Meanwhile we can all spend the next few days chewing on this quote, trying once again to decipher Miles.

This time he was trying to explain the theory of “growing pains,” that awkward adjustment period the entire LSU brain trust assured everybody all August that the Tigers planned to skip.

It was evident early that that was a wishful thinking.

“Well the growing pains are just very slight tremors in a very light infection when you win,” Miles said.

You mean, like, it was as simple as taking some antibiotics at halftime?

“The growing pains when you finish second (a Les-ism for losing) are operable,” he went on to explain. “We’re better. We’re better beyond that experience and I think we’ll do the things that we need to do. So the growing pains, we want to avoid them as much as we can.”

I think he meant that LSU showed some progress in the second half.

It’s all related to quarterback, just as you suspected.

Don’t be fooled by freshman Brandon Harris getting just a cameo appearance, three and out as it were.

By then the situation was too dire to live with freshman foolishness at the position. So that project got put on hold for a week.

And LSU took the baby steps Anthony Jennings was taking and tried to make the best of them.

He has now led two fourth-quarter comebacks in the three times he’s had meaningful playing time.

It would be stretching it to say he came of age in this second half.

But you could see, gradually, where maybe it’s doable.

The passing numbers weren’t that much different from half to half, but the passing game certainly was.

The first half was one fluke ­— one out-of-nowhere 80-yard bomb ­— while in the second there seemed to be some plan to it.

It’s obvious they’ve got to let him roam around a bit back there.

He’s not Zach Mettenberger.

But when they let him move around by design more in the second half, Jennings seemed to gain some confidence. More importantly, he seemed to see the field a little bit when on the move. When dropping straight back in the pocket it appeared to be as big of a blur to him as it was in the Outback Bowl last January.

And it was only when Jennings seemed to get some confidence and get into a rhythm that the running game opened up.

It even looked like the Tigers were were at least kind of showing hints of maybe thinking about considering joining the 21st Century with their offense.

Eventually, as the game wore on they were spreading the field to open up the running game, as opposed to that Neanderthal “jumbo package” trying to stubbornly push people around.

There was traces of the trendy read option.

It’s a work in progress.

But, if the second half was any indication, Jennings — or, who knows, Harris — may eventually have some reliable weapons around them, despite the youth.

Travin Dural hinted that he wasn’t just a one-catch wonder, perhaps even a go-to receiver.

Fellow receiver John Diarse had a bit of a coming out party in the second half.

It’s obvious they’re going to find a lot for Trey Quinn to do as a freshman and we’ve yet to hear from Malachi Dupre, the freshman who missed the game with a nagging injury.

For that matter, I wouldn’t give up on Leonard Fournette at running back after one game.

Hype can be a terrible thing to waste.

Fournette will be fine. But it’s got to be reassuring to know that the August tales of a slimmer, quicker Kenny Hilliard — all but ignored amidst the Fournette hoopla — were on display.

Defensively, the Tigers basically got gashed in the first half. After they promptly gave up a 63-yard run to open the second half and a quick scoring drive to dig a 24-7 hole, however, LSU allowed only 37 more yards over the final 27 minutes.

If that doesn’t happen, LSU doesn’t get back in the game, let alone win it.

At some point, probably soon, the Tigers will face a quarterback familiar with the forward pass.

But if there was a strength to that defense, it was the way the secondary blanketed Wisconsin’s (admittedly inexperienced) receivers.

“I think we can be better,” Miles said. “I think this football team can take this experience and realize that to do the things that we want to do, to have the ambition that we really have, we’re going to have to play better. The good news is after victory it’s just a lot more fun to go to work.”

Just don’t expect it to always be a smooth ride.

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Scooter Hobbs covers LSU sports. Email him at shobbs@americanpress.com(Rick Hickman/American Press)