LSU won the SEC West championship last weekend.

In 2 weeks it will play Georgia for the SEC Championship.

But this week the Tigers aren’t looking ahead, and if they glance backward, it won’t be to last weekend but to Thanksgiving weekend last year.

The No. 1 Tigers face Texas A&M on Saturday night in Tiger Stadium. The game is extremely important because if LSU wins it will complete an undefeated regular season, solidify its spot in the rankings and perhaps even immunize itself against a potential loss to Georgia with regards to earning a CFP spot.

But there’s more to it than that.

A lot more.

All that championship stuff has come into play since the start of the season. This game was already targeted by the Tigers as soon as they walked off the turf at Kyle Field at the end of the nearly 5-hour-long 2018 regular-season finale.

Texas A&M 74, LSU 72. Seven overtimes. Tied for the most overtimes in FBS history. Highest-scoring game in FBS history. A loss that cost the Tigers a 10-win regular season.

“We owe those guys a lot from last year,” running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire said after the Tigers’ 56-20 victory against Arkansas last Saturday. “The pain. Everything that we felt last year sitting in that stadium — however many hours we sat in that stadium — to understand that pain as a player, it doesn’t get any worse than that.”

But it wasn’t just the disappointment in losing a hard-fought, unusually long, unusually high-scoring game against a border rival that LSU hadn’t lost to in more than 20 years.

That was plenty.

But there was more.

A lot more.

Head coach Ed Orgeron received a Gatorade bath after Grant Delpit intercepted Kellen Mond in the final seconds to seemingly secure a Tigers victory in regulation.

He would go on to coach 7 overtimes while dripping with Gatorade.

“I stunk pretty well after the game, I can tell you that,” Orgeron said Monday.

Delpit’s interception was reviewed and it was ruled that Mond’s knee was down before he released the ball.

Given new life, Mond completed a 22-yard pass to Kendrick Rogers at the LSU 19 as the final seconds ticked away. Mond scrambled to the line of scrimmage and spiked the ball as time expired.

Only the 5 Aggies linemen were on the line of scrimmage when the ball was snapped, but no flag was thrown for illegal formation. That shouldn’t have mattered since time had expired, but after review A&M was given 1 second.

Given new life again, Mond threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Quartney Davis and off they went to overtime.

In the first extra period, Cole Tracy’s field goal gave the Tigers a three-point lead.

On the Aggies first play, Mond threw a pass to Jace Sternberger and the ball came loose when Sternberger was hit by Delpit and the Tigers fell on it. But the potential completion and fumble was ruled an incompletion.

Eventually A&M kicked a tying field and on they played.

In the 7th overtime, LSU scored a touchdown but failed on a 2-point conversion.

The Aggies scored a tying touchdown and Mond threw an incompletion on the 2-point conversion, apparently setting up an 8th overtime, but Greedy Williams was called for a controversial defensive pass interference penalty.

After an A&M false start, Mond threw a game-winning completion to Rogers.

“We thought that we won the game 3 or 4 times,” Orgeron said.

In the chaotic celebration that ensued, a nephew of Aggies coach Jimbo Fisher got into an altercation with LSU assistant Steve Kragthorpe.

When Orgeron and Tigers players spoke with reporters after Saturday’s win, there was more talk about the Aggies than the Razorbacks.

“It’s going to be on,” Orgeron said. “I’ll never forget that game last year. We’re going to be ready.”

It’ll be Saturday night in Tiger Stadium.

An undefeated No. 1 LSU team playing its regular-season finale for the highest of stakes – and revenge.

“Trust me,” safety JaCoby Stevens said. “I expect Tiger Stadium to be packed with a lot of angry fans, too.”

After Saturday night, LSU will have a lot of important business remaining this season. But first, there’s unfinished business from last season.

This week’s game can be considered the 8th overtime the Tigers never got to play.

“We just felt helpless and then we just felt that when our time comes we’re going to do something about it,” Orgeron said, “and now’s the time.”