BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU defenders had their hands in the air even before they started celebrating interception returns for touchdowns.

Safety Ronald Martin and defensive end Lavar Edwards each snagged deflected passes and returned them for scores, helping LSU pull away for a 63-14 victory over Idaho on Saturday night.

The victory gave LSU (3-0) an NCAA FBS record 40th straight nonconference regular season victory, surpassing Kansas State’s 39 from 1993 to 2003. LSU also set a Tiger Stadium mark with 20 straight home wins, while extending its nation-long regular-season winning streak to 16 games.

LSU led 28-14 at halftime — then it got ugly in the second half because of penalties and turnovers.

“In the first half,” Idaho coach Robb Akey said, “our team did a better job of competing and finding a way to make plays. It was a battle at that point in time.’’

LSU intercepted Idaho quarterback Dominique Blackman four times, but he also tossed second quarter touchdown passes to Michael LaGrone (4 yards) and Jahrie Level (22).

LaGrone’s touchdown was set up by Gary Walker’s 94-yard interception return for the Vandals (0-3).

The second touchdown ended a seven-play, 81-yard drive.

Idaho then sacked Zach Mettenberger twice to stall LSU’s next drive, getting the ball back for a potential game-tying drive on its own 12. That’s when the Vandals got the Death Valley jitters, committing three straight false starts before punting from their end zone.

Mettenberger then hit Shepard for 23 yards to the Idaho 7, and found Landry to make it 28-14 just before halftime.

LSU finished by outgaining Idaho 472-213 in offensive yards. Ryan Bass had 11 carries for 19 yards.

“You can’t turn the ball over to a team that good the way we did it,’’ Akey said. “Their size and mass took over.’’