The LSU offense has been a little shaky so far this season: No. 94 in passing efficiency, No. 91 in total offense , N0. 115 in passing offense. The Tigers are 9-for-12 in the red zone with four touchdowns and five field goals.

They also have explanations to remind people the numbers could be better.

Shepard said he dropped two passes he should have caught, one of which would have resulted in a touchdown.

“There’s two throws that Jordan made that would have put him over 100 yards, that would have gave him that touchdown,” Shepard said. “I had to put that (on) myself. … As a receiving corps, we have things we have to work on. It’s not all Jordan.”

Another potential touchdown toss against the Bulldogs dropped incomplete when receiver Terrence Toliver struggled to find what looked like a catchable fade pass.

“We threw a couple of balls that we would have liked to have had completed, and two more touchdowns in the air would have been a nice day,” Miles said. “There will be games as we go forward that will rely on our tall, capable receiving corps and will count on the quarterback’s ability to make those throws.”

After going 8 of 20 for 96 yards against Vanderbilt, Jefferson finished 10 of 16 for 97 against Mississippi State. Shepard noted that Jefferson’s completion percentage against the Bulldogs would have been in the 80 percent range if not for receivers’ mistakes.

Jefferson also noted that, “It’s kind of difficult to throw for 300-plus yards when you only throw the ball 16 times.”

LSU still wins games, something that’s happened through the Les Miles years, sometimes in spite of offensive or quarterback woes. The Tigers are always solid in multiple aspects. Already this season they’ve won games with special teams and with defense and just enough offense.

Cornerback Patrick Peterson had an 87-yard punt return touchdown and 257 yards in returns to make for short fields in the UNC game. Kicker Josh Jasper made five field goals against Mississippi State. The defense had six sacks, forced two turnovers and allowed two conversions on 13 third downs against Vanderbilt. Peterson had two (ridiculous) interceptions and his teammates added three more against MSU.

Sounds silly, but WVU’s best chance may be to make LSU’s offense outscore its offense.