#23 Tulane Survives Tulsa in 24-22 Win

The Tulane Green Wave continued their AAC campaign on Saturday, hosting the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. The #23 team in the nation secured yet another win by a slim margin, 24-22.

Willie Fritz’s team moved to 9-1 on the season, while Tulsa fall to 3-7 on the season. 

These were the important takeaways from their latest meeting in New Orleans.

Makhi Hughes Gets Better and Better

Tulane’s Freshman running back shows his continued improvement every week. Saturday proved to be his second-highest rushing total of the season with 131 yards. Hughes averaged an impressive 6.9 yards per carry with 19 rushes. 

His prowess is a huge reason why the Wave have reached this record this season.

Short, But Not So Sweet

Tulane struggled to sustain drives all day. The Green Wave had just three drives longer than six plays. 

Explosive plays obviously help teams win games, but Tulane plays their best football when they put together multiple long scoring drives. Doing more of that would have greatly helped their cause and widened their margin of victory.

Survive and Advance

On one hand, ranked teams do typically need to be concerned with “style points” this time of year. However, right now, Tulane remains the only G5 team in the Top 25 and as long as they keep winning for these last two weeks, they’ll likely return to the New Year’s Six. 

A two-point victory over a bad Tulsa team isn’t an amazing look, but surviving is good enough in November. The committee referenced that last week when Tulane beat ECU. It may factor into point differential. however, which could determine who hosts the AAC title game.