There’s certainly a lot to unpack when analyzing UL’s 41-33 loss to Tulane on Saturday at Cajun Field.
Off the field, the game should never have been played at 11 a.m. in September. To my knowledge, UL’s athletic department requested a 7 p.m. kickoff.
Regardless, the decision-makers at ESPN and/or the Sun Belt Conference have got to show more wisdom than that. Shame on every person responsible for sacrificing the fans in making that call.
It would have been bad decision to do it before the renovation project. With it, it was downright unacceptable.
OK, on to the football.
The first thing to consider on that front is Tulane might be the best team the Cajuns play all season long.
In no way was UL prepared for that level of football after playing Grambling and Kennesaw State, the Cajuns made numerous costly mistakes helping the Green Wave score two non-offensive touchdowns and they lost by eight points.
In that way, it shouldn’t take much of an imagination to get some encouragement out of that.
With that said, there are definitely issues that must be addressed.
If I knew Tulane would only pass for 83 yards, I might have predicted a Cajun victory. UL forced the Green Wave to be patient and to its credit, Tulane rushed for 272 yards. Tulane had scoring drives of 15, 13 and 13 plays.
“I felt like we had a good plan and I felt like we had guys there,” UL coach Michael Desormeaux said. “You have to knock-back tackle. You have to strike, run your feet, wrap up and knock people backwards and we didn’t do it tonight.”
Makhi Hughes was a bull in the sauna with 166 yards on 23 carries.
“Most of the time, it was straight downhill,” UL defensive end Jordan Lawson said. “He ran hard. It wasn’t anything crazy. He was just a hard runner. We had a little bit of trouble wrapping up, finishing tackles, finishing plays and it came back to bite us.”
We’ll see how many future opponents can run it that well, but stopping the run was a major emphasis in the offseason that’s yet to be fixed.
Leading tackler K.C. Ossai left the game injured in the second quarter. Perhaps he’s even more valuable than we thought.
If he’s out long, it’s a big hole to fill.
The other big issue is the kicking game. Three games and two red flags for the special teams units. In these parts, that’s pas bon.
UL’s staff is determined to cover kicks. It can work, but you can’t have to cover. After listening to Desormeaux’s postgame, it sounds like changes will be made there.
Another kickoff went out of bounds, though. That can’t happen either.
There were also game management issues.
Chasing points by going for a two-point conversion down five two minutes in the second half is not sound. That’s too early to be chasing points.
If the second half had been the stalemate the first half was, the decision wouldn’t have looked as bad. Either way, there was too much football to be played to take that path.
Also making it worse was the offense’s options on third-and-medium in the first half. Most of them were virtual jump balls hoping the receiver won the battle. In other words, if you think you need a reverse to get three yards, kick the extra point.
A less obvious snafu was wasting a timeout in the fourth quarter because UL had 12 men on the field as Tulane played a second and goal from the 1. When you’re trailing in the second half, timeouts are gold. Most timeouts outrank a 5-yard penalty, but they’re definitely more valuable than a half-yard penalty against a running game that was already over 230 yards at the time.
Hopefully, conversion-play options will improve against future opponents and Ben Wooldridge will have more accurate passing days, the offense still posted 22 first downs and 421 total yards.
That’s a lot to build on.
Yes, there were positives, starting with the running game.
With Dre’lyn Washington still not 100%, the Cajuns ran for 183 yards at 6.8 yards a carry.
Leading the way was redshirt freshman Bill Davis with 103 yards on nine carries.
“I just trust my O-line,” Davis said. “We’re a tight group. I trust that they’re going to block it right and they trust that I’m going to read it right.
“Just being confident, that’s the biggest thing.”
Naturally, Davis was hoping for a 75-yard touchdown run on the first offensive play of the third quarter, but he settled for a 73-yarder two plays before a 1-yard TD toss to tight end Caden Jensen.
“Coming out of the half, we knew we had to get things going,” Davis said. “That obviously was a really good drive-starter. Shoutout to Caden Jensen, I got caught at the end … so we were able to capitalize off that drive.”
The pass defense was excellent except for one third-and-14 conversion for Tulane that’s likely the most significant play many won’t discuss moving forward.
Looking ahead, most teams are pass happy in this era, so being able to defend the forward pass will come in very handy.
Obviously, you can’t have pick-six interceptions, but after that disaster, you could see what tight end Terrance Carter could bring to the offense with four catches for a career-high 79 yards and a score. The staff needs to build on that quickly.
And as bad as UL’s run defense was in that heat, it still had enough left in the tank to force a field goal attempt after a turnover on downs at the UL 26. to keep UL’s hopes alive with 4:08 left to play. That was good to see as well.
“We knew it was a measuring stick for us and we’re not where we want to be,” Desormeaux said.