Tulane let one get away it easily could have won, getting no help from the officials on the final drive when they called offensive pass interference on Dontae Fleming. Fleming should have tried to disengage from the DB who grabbed him, but he did not, allowing the official to throw the flag and robbing Tulane of sending the game to overtime, assuming a made extra point. Tulane definitely was not going for 2 because the extra-point team started to run on the field.
The Wave, though, put itself in position to lose by getting beaten at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and making a few too many costly mistakes. Big plays in the passing game gave it a 10-point halftime lead--Darian Mensah's 342 passing yards was better than all but one of Michael Pratt's games--but Mensah's fumble that turned into a scoop and score proved to be the difference on the scoreboard.
Oklahoma is beatable next week, but Tulane will have to fix the sloppiness that has hurt it the past two weeks and manufacture a better pass rush to give itself the best chance to win.
Sumrall, Alex Bauman, Patrick Jenkins and Mensah talked after the game. '
SUMRALL
"Obviously a heartbreaking loss. I feel for our players because they've invested a lot into preparing to have an opportunity to win a game like this. It's also a bunch that's not going to hang their heads though. Losing a game stinks. Don't like it. It's not the standard and never will be. We're not OK with losing. But I also told them we are going to respond, I have no doubt. If you have a pulse, you have a chance, and we've got a pulse, so we've got a chance. We'll keep showing up. I promise you this team will not back down. Our kids fought hard. We didn't play some detail things a certain way we needed to at certain times. We've got to coach better. It starts with me. If you want to blame somebody for the loss, don't blame the guys. Blame me."
On what explanation of refs was on pass interference call:
"I didn't get very many good explanations in the second half from the officiating. It left a lot to be desired. That's probably about all I can say. Big 12 crew in case you were wondering."
On if they considered running the ball on first-and-goal from the 2 instead of passing:
"Yeah, there was. We had two timeouts in the pocket. We considered all things. You're in a fast situation making a quick call with little time left, but we felt like our best chance was trying to get it in the end zone. You never know how things are going to play out at the end. We probably could have run it. We thought about it, talked about it with the headsets, but just decided let's take our shots toward the end zone."
On Mensah's ability to bounce back from his errors:
"Yeah, you know, the fumble there he probably got a little careless with the ball. He's got really good poise in the pocket. That's part of what makes him special. He's just got to understand that you have to protect the ball. That was a critical play. The (interception) at the end I don't even really put a whole lot of stock into it. You're trying to win the game and make a throw and you can't take a sack probably. He could have taken one, but you move yourself back and we needed to try to stay in range of making a shot there. I'm proud of the kid. In that environment he played really admirably. Does he has to get some things better? Yeah, we all do."
On message to Mensah after his scoop and score fumble:
"We have a deal in our program, if good things happen, we say good, and if bad things happen, we say good. I just looked at him and said good, it's an opportunity to respond. He's got some grit. He's got some toughness. He was maybe a little fired up ready to go respond. He's a courageous young man, and he's got a bright future. His response was the right way and he's wired the right way."
On beating themselves rather than getting dominated by the opponent:
"It's frustrating to be honest because we talked the message all week just do your job, and the first half we did a pretty good job of that for the most part. There were a couple of things on defense I didn't think we did very well. We have to get a lot better on defense. That's on me and we'll get it fixed. Look, we're a good team. We're going to keep showing up. In this game you get every seven days to either get promoted or exposed. We had some things exposed today. We had an opportunity to get promoted. We put ourselves in some situations to have success, but against a team like that you can't give them anything. They are a really good team. They are a quality team and they took advantage of some things we didn't do well."
On what changed after halftime:
"There were some momentum things. They got the ball first. They punted. We went three-and-out. Early in the third quarter it felt like a stalemate a little bit and then they hit some plays. The one that really probably more to me than the fumble was the fourth down (45-yard touchdown pass). We had a decent call on. We just kind of busted something. It's not on the kids. We've got to coach them better. We probably should have had a stop there. If we get a stop there, the game feels a lot different because we're still up."
On not sacking Avery Johnson:
"He's a hard kid to get on the ground. He's very elusive. He's athletic. It's been documented he's the fastest guy on the team. He didn't kill us with like huge chunks that went for 40 or 50, but he found a way to keep the chains moving and keep the play alive. He's a hard guy to get down on the ground. That's one of his strengths is his mobility for sure. Good player. Hat's off to him. He made it hard on us today."
On Makhi Hughes:
"Better people make better football players. Makhi is a great person, very hard working, very tough, very dependable, very consistent. You don't have to worry about him bringing effort and being ready to go. We blocked some things up for him pretty good and he showed explosiveness. He caught the ball out of the backfield well today. That was probably the thing that stood out to me. He played like a big-time player because he is. It's amazing how guys that work really hard usually play really good, and I'm proud of him. He's hurting. He's the type of guy that always feels he could have done more, but I'm proud of his effort."
On what he learned about team:
"We've got fight. I told them there's going to be adversity. They are a good team we are playing and there's going to be some things that go sideways. In the third quarter things were kind of going sideways, and we had some guys step in front of the train and say the train isn't going to keep going down the track this way, we're going to try to slow that train down. The way they responded after the third quarter was encouraging. The way we started the game was encouraging to see. There were just a lot of little things that I'm probably stuck on right now that we have to do better, but I'm encouraged with our group. I've got a lot of hope in who we can be and who we can become, and like I said, I like our team. I like our locker room. I'm grateful to be a part of this team and I love these kids. I think they love each other. They'll keep showing up and they'll fight to a better end."
On high-fiving guys on their way into locker room:
"I love these guys whether we win or lose. Don't get it twisted. I want to win. I don't like losing, but these are all fantastic young men and they're hurting. Everybody's hurting and I wanted them to know like, hey, we've got your back, keep your head up, no pouting. Nobody's going to feel sorry for us. There's people in life that have real problems. We lost a game today. That sucks, but we'll move on, we'll get better from it and we'll bounce back. I'm not OK with losing, but we'll find out more about who we are by how we respond than losing a game today."
