Game 5: LSU 34, Tulane 9

• Published: Jan 3, 2008

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Les Miles said he didn’t see it coming.

LSU’s football coach said there was no hint of the “array of circumstances” that combined to flatten his No. 2-ranked team’s competitive pulse early and delay the fact of its 34-9 victory over an unranked Tulane team.

What Miles said he saw coming, at halftime, was the way things should have been from the start: big plays, proper execution and ultimate victory.

The unheralded Green Wave took a 9-7 lead in the second quarter, moments before LSU clawed its way to a 10-9 halftime lead and a big second half.

The flat first half didn’t bother the voters. LSU vaulted over Southern California to reach No. 1 in the AP poll the next day.

Quotable

“Guys were thinking a little ahead, trying to dress all fancy because we got new uniforms, and their minds weren’t in the game in the first quarter.”

BRANDON LAFELL, LSU receiver

Play of the game

LSU scored a field goal to extend its lead to 13-9 early in the third quarter. Tulane got the ball back and moved from its 19 to its 40 when tailback Matt Forté took a toss around left end. Forte was credited with a gain to the 48 but he was stripped by linebacker Luke Sanders, the ball recovered by defensive tackle Al Woods. LSU scored on Jacob Hester’s 1-yard run five plays later, and up 20-9 the Tigers were never threatened again.

Game ball

To LSU sophomore tailback Charles Scott, who led LSU with six carries for 53 yards and two fourth-quarter touchdowns. Scott’s first score came on a nifty 35-yard run that was one of LSU’s best plays all day.

Game statistics