NEW ORLEANS — BYU’s trip to New Orleans was anything but Big Easy.

LSU star running back Derrius Guice ran for 120 yards and two touchdowns, and the Tigers’ defense shut out the Cougars 27-0 in front of 53,826 mostly purple-clad fans at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.

LSU held the Cougars to just 97 yards of total offense, including -5 rushing yards. The Tigers (1-0) piled up 481 yards of offense, including 296 on the ground.

“I’m really disappointed in the outcome, but more than anything, I am disappointed in a lot of things we did as a team,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake told reporters after the game.

“It’s my fault as a coach; I’ve got to do a better job of getting this team ready. A lot of credit to LSU; that defense can fly around, and the offense was really efficient in the run and the pass.”

Tanner Mangum completed 12-of-24 passes for 102 yards with an interception.

LSU opened the scoring with a 13-play, 66-yard drive that chewed up more than 7 minutes of game time and ended in Guice’s 4-yard TD plunge with 14:22 left in the first half.

The Tigers wasted little time putting another score on the board, capitalizing on Andraez Williams first career interception with a 1-yard TD scamper by Guice — and the rout was on.

The Cougars (1-1) did not cross the 50-yard line, hearkening back to memories of LSU’s 21-0 loss to Alabama in the 2012 national championship game.

Below are three option-takes on the worst offensive performance at BYU since LaVell Edwards was named coached in 1972.

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Can’t stop the run

BYU couldn’t run the ball, but they couldn’t stop the Tigers’ strength either. Quarterback Danny Etling attempted just 17 passes, completing 14 of them for 173 yards — but he did it without a turnover.

On the ground, LSU piled up 258 yards with two 100-yard rushers and more than 50 attempts on the ground. BYU, in contrast, ran the ball just 12 times — including a failed fake punt by Jonny Linehan 12 yards from their goal-line in the fourth quarter.

“It was hard reps. They were on the field quite a bit, but we didn’t help ourselves by getting out of third downs,” Sitake said.

“We gave up way too many first downs. It was very frustrating.”

The Tigers took advantage early, when they ran 11-of-13 plays on the ground prior to Guice’s first touchdown scamper.

Guice lived up to his All-American, Heisman Trophy hype — and LSU took advantage of a tired BYU defense in the win.

“When you have 38 plays in an entire game, it’s hard to generate anything,” Sitake said. “We’re going to look at everything, and see what we can do to keep the chains moving. I know that we weren’t as good as we should’ve been — but man, they’re a really good defense.”

But can he dunk?

With all the run plays from LSU, the front seven of BYU were going to get a lot of chances to make a stop.

And a few of them did.

Corbin Kaufusi, the converted basketball player, had a career-high seven tackles for the Cougars, Marvin Hifo had a team-high 10 tackles, and Troy Warner made nine stops. Sione Takitaki continued to be a menace in the backfield with five tackles and a tackle for loss.

Freshman Khyiris Tonga recorded his first career tackle for loss when the Cougars stopped the Tigers on fourth-and-goal in the final quarter.

“Our defense hung in there … but they had trouble. A lot of guys were just missing tackles,” Sitake said. “Defensively, we can do things a little bit better. But it was good for us to see that physical football, because I don’t know how much we’ll see that from here on out.”

In a game of moral victories — like the Cougars not allowing a second-half touchdown until Darrel Williams’ 1-yard TD plunge with 8:12 remaining — there were few.

Nursing wounds

If the loss wasn’t bad enough, the Cougars exited the game with several significant injuries.

KJ Hall exited the game clutching his arm after a special teams tackle, Kavika Fonua left in the third quarter with an apparent knee injury, and Riley Burt was out with an undisclosed injury.

BYU’s running back committee shrunk, and Squally Canada ran for a team-high 8 yards on 5 carries.

BYU safety Micah Hannemann was also ejected in the third quarter for a targeting call on Guice, meaning he will be ruled ineligible for the first half of next week’s rivalry game against Utah. Hannemann missed the first half against Portland State in the season opener following a targeting ejection in last year’s Poinsettia Bowl.

“This is adversity for us, and we’ve got to get better and get ready for next week,” Sitake said.

“We’re going to review everything, and it’s my job to figure it out,” he later added.

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