The Weekly Look at PFF Scores for the Green Wave in its Game vs Duke
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It was not a pretty game for the Tulane Green Wave this past Saturday. The Wave fell to Duke in the season opener, 17-3 in a game that the Blue Devils owned from the opening drive.
Each week, Pro Football Focus (PFF), grades teams and individual players on their performances. The scale is a simple 0-100. PFF is a sports analytics website and company that specializes in in-depth data, advanced statistics, and performance grades for every player on every play of every game in the NFL and NCAA.
If got to see any of the game, you will notice that you and PFF are probably on the same page as to what the Greenies did well and what they didn't.
Offense Barely above Average
The Wave offense hurt itself seemingly more often than not, piling up penalties and, in one instance, losing the ball after a long gain. PFF graded the Tulane O at an overall 56.5, probably higher than you might have expected.
The highest score was given to the Tulane passing game, getting a 68.1 from PFF, while the running game was given a solid 63.0. The lowest was given for pass blocking, a bleak 26.1 grade from PFF.
Scoring the highest individually for the Green Wave was running back Johnnie Daniels, who played for 27 snaps, less than half of the total Tulane had offensively. The transfer topped the entire Tulane offense with a 74.3 overall grade, most of which came from his 75 in the run game.
Center Gavin Marks and guards Gresham Perry and Reese Baker played the most snaps on the offense with sixty apiece.
Defense a Little, Not Much Better
We thought the Tulane D did better after the first drive, and PFF agreed, giving the Wave defense an overall score of 59.6 for the game. The highest grade was for the Tulane pass rush, given a 62.8 by PFF. Coach Will Hall said after the game he was disappointed in his defense's tackling in that first series. So was PFF, giving that side of the ball a 29.9 score for tackling.
Playing only 23 snaps in the game, outside linebacker Warren Roberts Jr scored over twenty-points higher on the PFF scale than any defender for the Green Wave, hitting a score of 89.2 for the game, his run defense scoring the highest at 87.7.
The player with the most defensive snaps was cornerback E'zaiah Shine who was on the field for 74 snaps, all but three of the times Duke had the ball on offense.
How 'bout Duke?
For funzies, let's look at Duke, the team that most of us were saying dominated Tulane from start to finish:
- Overall Offense - 74.6
- Overall Defense - 81.1
This weekend, Tulane opens its home season with South Alabama coming to Yulman Stadium for a Saturday, 6:00 p.m. CT kickoff.
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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.