The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly

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Saturday night’s 28-24 victory over South Alabama showed drastic improvement in a Tulane football team that needed to show exactly that. Coach Will Hall addressed that in his postgame media conference. Here is what we saw from the press box in the Green Wave’s home opening, Mardi Gras victory in Yulman.

The Good

Less Penalties…Much, Much Less Penalties

It was almost like a different team had taken the field Saturday night in comparison to the season opener at Duke.

Last week, Tulane piled up 15-penalties against the Blue Devils, and those were just the ones that were accepted. This time, the Wave had four flags thrown against them, totaling 30-yards. In fact, the Greenies did not have a false start penalty until the second half (when they had back-to-back flags thrown).

This was much more disciplined Tulane team than what we saw in Durham.

Jaylin Lucas

The Senior from Edna Karr showed what he is in this contest: a game changer. He is the first Tulane rusher to run for over 200-yards in Yulman Stadium history. His 19.5-yards per carry set a new all-time American Conference record. His 80-yard touchdown bolt made everyone on the South Alabama team look like they were playing in slow motion.

Did you see the distance between Lucas and the nearest USA defender? We chose this angle because it showed the difference between what we saw last week against Duke and what we saw this week: much better blocking and that explosion we knew was there from Lucas when he got a small gap.

“Without the O-line, I’m not able to make those runs,” Lucas shared after the game. “I just think we came with the ‘one-play’ mindset. Just take each play and just keep driving.”

For him, his 80-yard TD dash was simple.

“On that play, all I saw was them (USA) being slow to their gaps, so I just tempoed it, kept riding the wave, hit it, and stayed vertical (running north and south).”

Jaylin Lucas, welcome back home.

Offensive Blocking

We saw an offensive line jell, live, as a game progressed. Things didn’t start off too well in the beginning, as Tulane running backs (mostly Johnnie Daniels and Mo Turner) could find nothing of substance to run through. That changed when Lucas was running the ball, and it was something that got better as the contest wore on.

The runs by Lucas? Credit to not just the offensive line, but also to wide receivers, tight ends, and fellow running backs.

The TDs by Johnnie Daniels? The Mississippi State transfer was able to find the gaps to get into the end zone. When it wasn’t where he expected, Daniels made the shift and found huge holes to run through.

Green Wave quarterback Kaden Semonza was rarely under pressure as the game evolved. His long passes to Fat Hill and Kadin’s little brother Cash (we guess spending all that time in the backyard throwing with your sibling pays off). Throwing passes deep down the field take time to develop. Semonza had that, and, truth be told, he showed a pocket presence we had seen in the Spring and Fall, giving him the opportunity to finagle his way out of trouble.

As an aside, and getting a little ahead of our Pro Football Forum (PFF) grading story on Monday, Tulane more than tripled its pass blocking grade. We’d say that’s improvement.

Consistent Quarterback Play

Semonza was the model of poise in the pocket. When under pressure, he would glide a bit to a different spot and continue his progressions. His throws to Fat Hill down the middle to the USA 3, then to Semonza’s little brother, Cash, on the game-winning drive, showed the kind of deep-pass touch we, and his coaches, have been waiting for. But his game-winning back-shoulder throw to Hill was a thing of beauty.

That shows the kind of communications Hill and Semonza have with each other, which will bode well in the future.

The Bad

Chris Rodgers’ Injury

This is the star of the Tulane linebacking corps. During the first South Alabama possession, Rodgers goes to the sideline, then to the locker room. He returns with no pads on and a boot on his left foot. No word from the Tulane athletic training staff yet as to how severe the injury is to the senior ‘backer, and we did see him walking around on the sidelines a bit, so good news, maybe?

Missed Tackles

Although tackling improved over last week against Duke (could it have gotten worse?), it’s still not there. We started keeping track of missed tackles during the game, and, honestly, got caught up in the big Lucas runs and Semonza to Hill and Garrett Mmahat passes and lost count. We did have them at well over a dozen before the 1st half was over.

This is something that is surprising. As Hall said to us last week, this is a Tulane team that practices tackling and practices it hard every day. We’ve seen it in person. To see a defensive back try to bump down a running back with his shoulder and not have his arms out to tackle is NOT what we see allowed during the weekday.

The Ugly

We are not here to argue rules. The new NCAA rule on protecting the quarterback when he goes into a slide (like what is done in the NFL) is not the argument. We believe this is an important rule and one that should be enforced.

That is not what happened on the USA quarterback Bishop Davenport play in the 4th quarter. Let us set the stage:
– Facing a 3rd and 9 at their own 19-yard line with 8:41 to go in the game, Davenport rushes up the middle for a 13-yard gain to the USA 32. On his way to the ground, Tulane linebacker Dickson Agu punches out the ball, which is recovered by Joshua Moore and returned 32-yards for an apparent Green Wave touchdown.
– Officials go to the review tablet to see what happened. Most of us in the press box were thinking it was to see if the ball came out before Davenport hit the ground. Replay showed it did. That’s not what the officials were reviewing.
– The announcement came over the new, very loud speaker system at Yulman that Davenport was sliding to the ground, thus giving himself up and that the ball was dead.
– Fair enough. Then, these should have been a penalty on the play for Agu’s tackle. Here it is from the NCAA’s rules:

When a quarterback begins a feet-first slide, the ball is immediately declared dead at that exact spot, and any forcible contact by a defender afterward should result in a personal foul penalty for a late hit.

There was no penalty flag thrown. An official can rule incidental contact if it is truly unavoidable, but punching out a football to force a fumble is not incidental. It is purposeful.

If this was a slide by Davenport and the ball was dead, then there should have been a penalty flag thrown. There wasn’t.

This was ugly.

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