Tulane’s opportunity to shake up the American Athletic Conference standings ultimately suffered the same fate as many of its drives Saturday.
The Green Wave (3-4, 1-2) had some promising flashes at times, but ultimately stalled and fumbled away a 42-19 loss to UTSA (7-1, 4-0) with six turnovers and other costly miscues.
“That was a good butt-whippin’, man,” coach Will Hall said. “They kicked our butt two years in a row. And I really give a lot of credit to coach (Jeff) Traylor. I’ve got a lot of respect for him. I think the world of him. I thought they played their butt off. I thought they played extremely well outside of the first play of the game. We obviously did not play well. All the turnovers, it was a bunch of ’em, and some of ’em were really critical.”
Just eight days after six takeaways and a plus-four turnover margin had provided such a spark in Tulane’s bounce-back defeat of Memphis on the same field, some of that momentum appeared to be carrying over against the league-leading Roadrunners.
The Green Wave couldn’t have asked for a much better start, deferring the opening kickoff and then immediately snatching a lead anyway on a well-read screen play sophomore corner Anthony Rogers III picked and returned for a 22-yard touchdown.
“I was just trying to do my job,” Rogers said. “(Cornerbacks) coach J.J. (McCleskey) told me, ‘If they run this formation and tight end motion, it’s gonna be a screen play, and I just listened to coach J.J. and trusted.”
But an inability to get a run game going, a couple costly penalties and, most glaringly, three straight fumbles gradually squandered that early advantage into a 21-7 deficit.
The first fumble came on an errant option pitch that missed its targeted back. The next was punched out by UTSA senior defensive tackle Jameian “Big Baby” Buxton, a Louisiana native and former Thibodaux and Warren Easton standout. And the the third was forced by sophomore defensive tackle Eddy Smith on a run play on which he and Buxton blew up the blocking and exchange.
The Roadrunners turned consistently good field position — first after a kick-catch interference and then twice after fumbles — into a trio of rushing touchdowns: two for junior running back A’Marion Peterson and the first of the season for fifth-year senior quarterback Owen McCown.
“No. 1, we’ve gotta not turn the ball over, you know what I mean?” Hall said. “We lost six possessions. Six drives were stopped with turnovers tonight. So that was six opportunities where we were moving the ball and had a chance to keep progressing and keep our defense off the field and score. We’ve been really good at not turning it over all year long until tonight, and that’s disappointing.”
And the promising flashes shown by freshman quarterback Trace Johnson and the Green Wave passing game in that span ultimately slipped into turnovers.
Tulane’s offense finally mustered its first points late in the half with a drive that stalled at 51 yards and settled for a 38-yard field goal by St. Martin’s Episcopal product Cooper Helmke.
But Rogers intercepted another pass three plays later on a reckless heave by McCown under pressure, and Johnson and company quickly positioned Helmke for another kick, this time from 33 yards, as time expired to pull back within 21-13.
The Green Wave’s opening possession of the second half managed just 15 yards before being forced to punt, though, and the Roadrunners marched seven plays and 72 yards right back down the field for a 9-yard touchdown dash by sophomore back Will Henderson III.
Subsequent possessions didn’t go much better.
“As the game kinda strung out, we had to play the game in a way that’s not really conducive for us, much like the Duke game earlier this year,” Hall said. “I take full responsibility for it. We did not play well offensively. We are not playing well offensively, and that’s got to change. That’s got to be fixed, and it starts with me. They out-rushed us tonight, and I thought they really, really wore us down defensively. A lot of that has to do with the full effect of being on the field too much. But, man, they really got after us. They did.”
The Roadrunners tacked on a 5-yard Brandon High Jr. rushing touchdown and a Willie Nelson III diving interception of a deflected pass deep down the field to push the margin to 35-13 and tighten the grip heading into the fourth quarter.
Tulane continued to fight, even as matters appeared to be spiraling farther away.
UTSA pounced on a muffed punt for its fifth takeaway and starting field position in the red zone.
But junior safety Jack Tchienchou swiped away a fumble inside the 5-yard line four plays later, and senior running back Johnnie Daniels popped a subsequent fourth-and-1 into an 81-yard dash to set up a 7-yard touchdown the next play to trim the deficit to 35-19.
“We play extremely hard,” Hall said. “Our guys play hard, and they play for each other. We’ve got an unbelievable culture. We’re a player-led team. Jack Tchienchou made that play. Everybody knows what he’s about. Our kids didn’t quit tonight. We just didn’t play well early, and they played really well. And they got a lead on us, and it kinda snowballed there when we had to try to come back. You saw we didn’t quit. We got it down to the two-score game. We just didn’t play well. We played a really good football team that’s really well-coached and played exceptional tonight that’s kicked our butt two years in a row.”
An interception by senior corner Zach Morris for the Roadrunners’ sixth takeaway with 3:41 remaining and then goal-line keeper by backup quarterback Mark Wiepert effectively provided the final dagger in any Green Wave comeback hopes, though.
And Tulane suffered its first home loss of the season and third loss in four meetings with UTSA all-time.
Johnson finished 24-for-44 for 265 yards and two picks.
Hometown products Garrett Mmahat (Brother Martin) with two catches for 62 yards, Destyn “Fatt” Hill (Edna Karr) with five for 54 yards and Oliver Mitchell Jr. (Edna Karr) with four for 46 yards led 11 Green Wave players with receptions.
“I’ve gotta watch the film back, but I just think we shot ourselves in the foot multiple times whether it was penalties, whether I made a mistake — it doesn’t really matter,” Johnson said. “At the end of the day, we didn’t make plays in the second half. And in the first half we shot ourselves in the foot. I’m sure we did the same in the second half. But we’ve just got to clean that up.”
Daniels surpassed the century mark with eight carries for 104 yards and the touchdown because of the two fourth-down highlights.
But the Green Wave had totaled -5 rushing yards on 19 attempts prior to that point on their way to 67 yards on 22 attempts for the night buoyed by the explosive.
