BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU knew it would take a few games for its inexperienced but highly talented offense to find its rhythm, but not even the most rabid Tiger fan believed defensive coordinator John Chavis’ lightning-quick defense would be flirting with school history.

The suffocating LSU defense pitched its second consecutive shutout Saturday night with a 31-0 rout of Louisiana-Monroe, the first time since 1941 that the Tigers have recorded back-to-back shutouts at home.

“Raise your hand if you were born before 1941,” LSU coach Les Miles said with a smile.

LSU (3-0) held the Warhawks (2-1) to just 93 yards on 48 plays, a 1.9-yard average.

“Offensively, we were just bad,” Louisiana-Monroe coach Todd Berry said. “I’ve been doing this a long time, been around a lot of offensive football. That’s about as bad as it gets. To LSU’s credit, they’re good. But we’re … it’s just bad. We got our tails whipped on everything. We couldn’t get open. We couldn’t block anybody. Offensively, that was an embarrassment.”

ULM, which had averaged 443 yards and 27.5 points in victories over Wake Forest and Idaho, punted on 10 of its 12 possessions. On the two other series, ULM ran out the clock at the end of the first half and lost a fumble.

ULM’s longest play of the game was a 12-yard screen pass from quarterback Pat Thomas to wide receiver Kenzee Jackson with 6:32 left. The Warhawks managed just six first downs and amassed just 16 yards rushing on 18 carries.

Even more incredibly, since a touchdown drive by Wisconsin early in the third quarter of the season opener, which put LSU in a 24-7 hole, LSU has outscored Wisconsin, Sam Houston State and Louisiana-Monroe 108-0.

LSU scored the final 21 points against Wisconsin to win 28-24, and last week it shut out Sam Houston State 56-0. Chavis’ defense has held its opponents scoreless over the last 31 possessions.

“Defensively, we’ve played dominant football,” Miles said, looking forward to next week’s SEC opener against Mississippi State in Baton Rouge. “I think we’re now in position to take on a very quality opponent. We’re needing to improve and take strides, but I like where we’re at.”

ULM quarterback Pete Johnson said LSU was too fast to give him time to look for weaknesses.

“They’ve got great athletes,” Johnson said. “They were a great defense and they challenged us man to man.”

Offensively, LSU relied mostly on its backfield-by-committee approach and not taking too many chances with the football.

Highly touted freshman running back Leonard Fournette broke open the game with a 24-yard burst around left end, putting LSU up 24-0 late in the third quarter, after the Tigers had played conservatively in a 10-0 first half.

Darrel Williams, another freshman runner, had a 22-yard run from the fullback slot in the first half and capped LSU’s first possession of the second half with a 1-yard dive. Senior running back Kenny Hilliard added a 4-yard touchdown in a 21-point spurt that put LSU up 31-0 with 12:19 left.

LSU spread the ball around its four-man backfield stable: Fournette had 10 carries for 54 yards, Hilliard 12 for 50, Terrence Magee 12 for 45 and Williams seven for 37.

“They’re ready to play ball, and I don’t think they’ll be shocked (by playing in big games),” Miles said. “We have four tailbacks that can take snaps in a game, which is real good.”

Sophomore quarterback Anthony Jennings had an average performance, completing 11 of 18 passes for 139 yards, but Miles was upset by Jennings’ decision to throw a deep pass into triple coverage late in the first half that resulted in his first interception of the season.

“Basically we were patient and ran the ball,” Miles said. “We had a miscue with the quarterback throwing the ball away in the middle of the field, but by and large we did the things we needed to do. Defensively, we played dominant football.”

NOTES: Miles is 38-0 against nonconference opponents in the regular season. … LSU recorded its 400th victory in 91 seasons at Tiger Stadium. The stadium opened in 1924. Over that stretch, LSU is 400-144-18 at home. … The 93 yards by Louisiana-Monroe were the fewest since LSU yielded 95 yards to Northwestern State in 2011.