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The LSU football team was eliminated from Southeastern Conference title contention Saturday afternoon, but the Tigers showed no signs of defeat Saturday night in Tiger Stadium.
The latest BCS rankings didn’t make LSU look like it was out of a race, either.
Shortly before LSU kicked off, Auburn defeated Georgia, 49-31. LSU (8-1), even with no hope of an SEC title, recorded its largest margin of victory since beating North Texas, 56-3, in 2005.
The Tigers’ 51-0 shutout of Louisiana-Monroe (4-6) Saturday allowed them to stay at No. 5 in the BCS rankings.
Junior quarterback Jordan Jefferson insinuated that LSU hasn’t ruled out a chance at making it to its first national championship game since 2007, however remote the possibility.
“Anything can happen at any moment. We just need to make sure that we finish out the season strong, and we’ll go from there,” Jefferson said. “Anything can happen in the SEC Championship. We’re just trying to put ourselves in a position that we want to be in. We’ve got to stay on our toes at all times and finish the season strong.”
Despite LSU’s high ranks in the BCS and the lopsided score Saturday, the LSU offense struggled with some familiar problems moving the football.
The offense, which outgained Alabama 433-325 last week, appeared to regress back into the season trend of underperforming. In the first half, the Tigers punted four times, kicked three field goals, were outgained 116-90 and failed on all eight third-down conversion attempts.
However, senior wide receiver Terrence Toliver said the outcome of the game was the important statistic.
“It was a great game. We put 50 on the board,” Toliver said. “The defense stepped it up, and they had two touchdowns. We came out with the victory. [The] offense could have done better, but we still came out with the victory.”
The only offensive touchdown in the first half was set up by junior cornerback Patrick Peterson’s 85-yard interception return to the ULM 12-yard line. The offense needed five plays, including a fourth-down conversion, before junior running back Stevan Ridley was finally able to punch in from a yard out to make it 20-0 in the early minutes of the second quarter.
Junior center T-Bob Hebert said the offense got better in the second half but acknowledged shortcomings to start the night.
“I think it’s just one of those situations where in the first half, I don’t know what it is, we couldn’t really seem to get in a rhythm, and we were kind of struggling,” Hebert said. “We’re going to look at it on film Monday, look to fix whatever mistakes we’ve made and improve because we can’t have that these next two weeks because we have two great opponents left.”
Senior kicker Josh Jasper booted three field goals, including a career-best 53-yarder that tied the longest in the SEC this season.
LSU managed only 251 total yards offensively and 156 rushing yards on 39 attempts.
Jefferson and fellow junior quarterback Jarrett Lee had a combined eight completions for 95 yards. Lee acknowledged the offense’s struggles.
“We did struggle a little bit tonight. We had some shots that we took and didn’t get, but we put up a lot of points tonight,” said Lee, who was 4-of-12 for 44 yards. “Our defense gave us a short field, so we just had to stay confident and keep things rolling.”
The LSU defense did its part to make up for the offense, collecting five turnovers — three interceptions and two fumble recoveries — to match its season high and contribute to 31 points.
Junior cornerback Ron Brooks’ first career interception for a 32-yard return coupled with sophomore defensive end Lavar Edward’s 29-yard fumble return marked the first time the Tigers have scored multiple defensive touchdowns since Oct. 12, 1991, against Arkansas State.
LSU coach Les Miles, who reached 60 wins at LSU with Saturday’s victory, said he felt the defense met his expectations.
“I don’t think we were perfect in any way, but I felt like we did the things we came to do, and that was to be a dominant team and to do so for four quarters,” Miles said. “Defensively, we were exactly that with two defensive touchdowns and several turnovers.”
Miles said the Tigers, who still need to beat Ole Miss and Arkansas to finish the regular season 11-1, are going to focus on what they can control — the outcome of the next two games.
“I think we are just going to continue to play and take one at a time, and we’ll see how it fares,” Miles said.
 
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Contact Erin Henley at [email protected]