LSU head coach Brian Kelly pretty well summed up his Tigers’ latest Saturday roller coaster.

“It’s not perfect, by any means.”

Of course it wasn’t. Football was never meant to be perfect.

If you’re even anticipating the possibility of perfection, try gymnastics.

True, LSU could have played a lot better in a 36-33 win over South Carolina Saturday.

The Tigers could have rolled into a rollicking, high-octane  Williams Brice Stadium, stuffed South Carolina and marched up and down the field all day, boldly announcing their intentions for the rest of the season.

That reference point will just have to wait. The Tigers don’t seemed interesting in making anything easy.

But keep working on it, coach. And lots of luck with that football perfection goal.

Football — one more time — is not about eliminating mistakes. It’s about overcoming the inevitable.

LSU did plenty wrong Saturday, tons of stuff to, as coaches say, “get cleaned up,” — before the next wave of misfires demands their attention.

But there’s something to be said for sneaking out of a hostile environment, leaving an expectant home crowd scratching their collective heads — huh, wait, what just happened here?

The home folks had to be staring at the scoreboard — LSU 36, South Carolina 33 — and demanding a trip to instant replay, some sort of further review.

So, yes, that was LSU, over there grinning like that proverbial Cheshire cat — had ‘em all the way — and getting out of town under cover of darkness in broad daylight.

Not to worry.

The Tigers need not apologize for spoiling the Gamecocks’ party.

That measuring stick for what may be needed down the road for LSU, how good this team can be,  is still out there.

But, in lieu of that elusive flawless game, it must be nice to know that you are capable of overcoming a 17-0 deficit and win a Southeastern Conference road game in a hostile environment against a fiery-eyed opponent when not everything is going right.

That’s a pretty good reference point to have in your back pocket, too.

It might come in handy should another mistake-filled day rear its head.

Kelly attributed the comeback to “the grit and the perseverance of our football team.”

Of course, Kelly also said that “nobody thought we would win this game,” perhaps unaware that the wise guys in Vegas had LSU as a touchdown favorite coming in.

So, take his exuberance with a grain of salt.

But, OK. There was some “grit” involved and more than a few sightings of “perseverance.”

And also …

Kelly never mentioned “luck” but, it’s football, so there has to be some involved when:

You get a punt blocked to set up a touchdown.

The first bad LSU snap in most of out lifetimes sabotages an extra point.

The defense gets far enough out of position to give up scoring runs of 75 and 66 yards— giving them three of over 66 yards in the last two games.

And, of course, if it wasn’t blatant luck, then certainly it was  convenient, shall we say, that LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier threw two pick-sixes that resulted in zero points for the Gamecocks.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen two defensive touchdowns called  back because of penalties,” South Carolina coach Sean Beamer said.

Neat trick there. But both got called back by personal foul penalties — a horse-collar foul on the first and a blind-side block on the second.

And, not to discount all that grit and perseverance, but in the end LSU avoided overtime only when South Carolina’s last-second field goal attempt curled inches to the left, no good.

Sometimes when your own game is filled with miscues, you just have to count on your opponent saying, “Hold my beer.”

South Carolina fans, of course, were left to blame the officiating — a postmortem parlor game that LSU fans are not unfamiliar with. They have been there, done that — can feel the Gamecocks’ pain.

Still, the horse collar on Nussmeier was pretty much the way they teach you to horse-collar at the horse-collar clinic — and the interception would not have happened without it.

The second was more questionable, perhaps, but the blind-side block behind the play on Nussmeier after the interception is one of those things that teams have been warned would be looked at more carefully this season. Sort of like the defensive delay-of-game penalties that LSU doesn’t seem to be able to avoid.

You know what they always say: Take what the refs giveth you — they can also taketh away.

Good fortune, perhaps.

But that same Nussmeier, in just the fourth start of his career, has now directed two game-winning drives in the final two minutes of play.

Bottom line: LSU can worry about the aesthetics later.

When you know you can overcome a 17-0 deficit, it may not be the finished product, but it’s something to build on.