The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - Tulane vs UTSA
In this story:
In a nationally televised game on Thursday night, Tulane got walloped by Texas-San Antonio, 48-26. With the loss, the Green Wave falls to 6-2 on the year, 3-1 in American Conference play.
The Good
Nothing. Really. Nothing. We purposely didn't write this piece until two days afterwards so we could search for something good that happened for the Wave. We came up empty.
The offense piled up 434 yards! Yeah, but they turned the ball over four times, we lost track of how many times Tulane quarterbacks and receivers weren't on the same page, and the running game just isn't jiving right now.
The defense stopped UTSA's vaunted running game! But, they gave up big play after big play through the air (something we'll cover in a bit) as the Road Runner quarterback had a day for the record books.
Tulane only punted twice! Because four drives ended with a turnover and another on downs. Even the sure-footed Patrick Durkin missed a 23-yard dinker of a field goal.
Add to that, going for two twice (including the one after Tulane's first TD) and failing and a failed onside kick attempt and there is not a lot of good that happened for the Wave.
The Bad
See the above category attempting to find the good.
The offense was not in sync all game long, with short burst runs, but no big splashes we are so used to seeing from a Jon Sumrall offense, passes that landed in nowhere land or in the other team's hands, and no rhythm, although the pace did pick up hoping to find some success.
The defense did stop the run. UTSA's Robert Henry was an almost nonfactor in the game, However, he and Will Henderson still ended up piling up 139-yards between them.
The Ugly
The Tulane defense now has a pattern: it gives up big pass plays. Examples: against South Alabama, a 65-yard completion; versus Ole Miss, a 53-yard completion; playing Tulsa, a 72-yard pass play; against East Carolina, a 49-yard completion; in the Army game, a run-almost-always attack had a 39-yard complete pass (and another much longer attempt that should have been caught for a TD but was dropped); and Thursday versus UTSA a 44-yarder. When your defense is giving up almost half the field (or more) on one play, something is wrong.
Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall said a few times this year that there is no such thing as a bad win. He's right. He even referred to his teams winning ugly and that when they start to win pretty, look out. However, the Green Wave now has LOST ugly against Texas-San Antonio. Losing ugly brings up a question that wasn't asked before when the Wave was winning ugly. What was the cause?
We do know this: UTSA had a VERY ugly loss to North Texas two weeks before their Tulane matchup. In fact, that loss by the Road Runners very much mirrors what happened to Tulane in their loss to those very same Birds. So we know a turnaround can be done.
Doug has covered a gamut of sporting events in his fifty-plus years in the field. He started doing sideline reporting for Louisiana Tech football games for the student radio station. Doug was Sports Director for KNOE-AM/FM in Monroe in the mid-80s, winning numerous awards from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association for Best Sportscast and Best Play-by-Play. High school play-by-play for teams in Monroe, Natchitoches, New Orleans, and Thibodaux, LA dot his resume. He did college play-by-play for Northwestern State University in Natchitoches for nine years. Then, moving to the Crescent City, Doug did television PBP of Tulane games and even filled in for legendary Tulane broadcaster, Ken Berthelot in the only game Kenny ever missed while doing the Green Wave games. His father was an alumnus of Tulane in the 1940s, so Doug has attended Tulane football games in old Tulane Stadium, the Superdome, and Yulman. He was one of the 86,000 plus on December 1, 1973, sitting in the North End Zone to seeTulane shutout the LSU Tigers, 14-0. He was there when the Posse ruled Fogelman and in Turchin when the Wave made it to the World Series. He currently is the public address voice of the Tulane baseball team.