Tough loss. Willie Fritz has dropped two games in his career when his team was plus-two or better in turnover margin, and both of them were against Navy the last two years. His decision to try to run the punt return team on the field at the end was a huge mistake, but really this game was lost because of the Wave's placekicking situation. He did not even think about trying a 48-yard field goal that could have put Tulane ahead late, going for it on fourth-and-5, because he knew the chance of making the kick was very low. Tulane does not have enough margin for error to be that bad at making field goals.
This was a game past Tulane teams would have lost 44-13 after all the adversity (injuries, bad luck and self-inflicted), so the way the team fought back was encouraging. The defense, which held Navy to its second-lowest yardage total in 17 AAC regular season games (Tulane also is No. 1 on that list from its last visit to Annapolis), will be good all year. But they have to start winning games like this, and the offense has to get better.
Here is what everyone said after the game:
WILLIE FRITZ
You had your defense on the field for fourth-and-6 and then tried to run the punt return team when Navy brought its punt team on. What happened there?
"It was a bad job by me. We were waiting for them (the officials) to allow us to match and they didn't allow us to match. We ran out there on the field and boy, they went quick. It was a timeout situation and we hustled out on the field. We should have just kept the defense out there on the field. MIscommunication."
And then what happened with Navy declining the penalty and then accepting the penalty?
"I don't know. It took forever. They accepted it for us to have the ball there, and all of a sudden they changed it and then they couldn't spot it and mark it. The play before, too, with the timeout we weren't quite sure if it was a long one or a short one. We didn't get a communication on that as well, but we should have just kept the defense out there."
What positives can you take out of this game considering the way you handled adversity and put yourself in position to win?
"Well, there's a lot of good things. We took a lot of chances and we converted on some fourth-and-shorts. We had to kind of get ourselves back in the game and we did with a few conversions. We'd have liked to have had an opportunity to see if we could go 80 yards in two minutes rather than giving up the first down.It would have been tough, but we would have liked to have had the opportunity. I thought our guys really fought back. I'm proud of the guys and their effort."
What is Banks' status?
"I'm not 100-percent sure, but he's going to be OK."
How would you assess Johnathan Banks' play?
"Johnathan came out and played really well. He really did a good job coming in with a tough situation. He did a lot of good things."
Coby Neenan missed another extra point, and then you went for two in an unconventional spot the next time you scored. What was the thought process?
"We have to make those (kicks) obviously. We went for 2 just to give our guys an opportunity to know whether we needed to score a touchdown or win with an extra point. Analytically, it was not a game we wanted to go to overtime, and it would have been nice to have a chance to kick a field goal for the win. We just didn't get it done."
How significant was the holding call on Keyshawn McLeod?
"Yeah, that was a tough one. We were driving the ball pretty well and it put us in first-and-20. That hurt us. Hindsight's 20-20, but I would have liked to have continued running the ball there and see if they could stop us."
Brantley said he made a bad read on the fourth-down pass that got batted down. What happened there?
"It was a slant and he went to that side. I think he wishes he would have gone to the other side of the field. It was a nice slant route. The linebacker dropped into the slant area and made the play."
This is the second straight year you've won the turnover battle by two and lost to Navy. How frustrating is that?
"Well, they've got a culture of winning, and we've got to get that same thing going. There's a lot of close plays. A fumble in the end zone, it would have been great if we would have recovered that ball, but give them the credit. They did a good job."
Do you have an update on Rod Teamer, who limped off the field in the third quarter.?
"I don't know. I think he's going to be all right. I hadn't really gotten a report yet."
ADE ARUNA
How tough is it to come out with a loss when you played this hard?
'It was pretty tough. We didn't play as well as we wanted to play. We played hard out there, but we needed to come out with more big plays and have more three-and-outs."
You overcame injuries and gave yourself a shot at the end. Is that encouraging?
"To me, it's next man up. That's our mentality. Coach has been saying that since he got here. When somebody goes down, somebody has to step in. That's no excuse for us to lose this game."
After some big plays early, you guys handled their running attack. How did you feel about that part of the game?
"We feel pretty good about that. We knew they were going to come out with a bunch of tricks, so we weren't surprised. We were ready for what they did."
RAE JUAN MARBLEY
How would you assess the play of the defense?
"The defense played a really good game. I'm proud of the way we all played. We knew we had to come out this game and be really physical and really nasty and gritty, and I feel my guys did a good job of doing that. We had a real good scheme this week going against those guys. We executed our scheme pretty good."
What does it say that you fought back after Navy's 16-0 spurt when everything appeared to be going wrong?
"We just know in life and anything in football, you have adversities, so we just have to keep plugging and those guys are going to come in and play different spots when those guys go down. We have to make sure we band together and are communicating with them and everybody is on the same page with the same goal."
What happened on the fumble you caused that Rod Teamer returned for a touchdown?
"It was just making a play. I'm trying to rally for my guys and do as much as I can. The ball just popped out. I hit the quarterback and I heard the crowd and I looked down the field and Rod was running with the ball. I was like, go, go, go. It was a pretty exciting feeling."
How frustrating was the penalty and the first down at the end?
"I feel like you can't really narrow the game down to one single play. There were certain plays we could have made better tackles or the offensive line could have made better blocks. It's everything in general just coming together that gave us the outcome of the game. We definitely have some things to go back and work on."
What were your impressions of Johnathan Brantley?
"He's capable of doing those things. He's a very smart guy. Sometimes I go talk to him and ask him what they are doing on offense just to pick his brain and stuff like that. He's capable of making those plays."
You have come close before. What will it take to win this type of game in the future?
"You've got to just finish. You can't just single out one play. Every play you've got to make sure you're executing. Little things add up. You can't build a house with one big thing. It's one brick here, one brick there, so we have to make sure we're doing all those things to go in the right direction."
You were really stuffing their running game at the end. What adjustments did you make?
"We just knew we had to pick up our play. Coach always tells us during the week the more physical team wins, and we came out and had to be more physical."
JOHNATHAN BRANTLEY
What were your thoughts when Jonathan Banks went down?
"I was surprised but I had to be ready. My job as a backup was to step in if he goes down. I was ready."
You had a huge run right off the bat that set up your own TD. How much did that help you get comfortable?
"it did give me a comfort level to just get into the game. That's all."
What happened on the fourth-down pass that got batted down?
"That's all on me. It was a bad read. Just a bad read. I thought he was blitzing. I was throwing to (Terren) Encalade. I thought the backer was blitzing and he ended up dropping, so it was a bad read."
You fought back but couldn't get the win. How tough is that?
"Extremely tough. It comes down to the small mistakes in close games. They made less mistakes than us."
The penalty and the fourth-down conversion kept you from getting a final chance. How frustrating was that?
"Very frustrating. It's just frustrating not to have the ball in my hands on the last play to try to win for my team. So that was pretty frustrating."
This was a game past Tulane teams would have lost 44-13 after all the adversity (injuries, bad luck and self-inflicted), so the way the team fought back was encouraging. The defense, which held Navy to its second-lowest yardage total in 17 AAC regular season games (Tulane also is No. 1 on that list from its last visit to Annapolis), will be good all year. But they have to start winning games like this, and the offense has to get better.
Here is what everyone said after the game:
WILLIE FRITZ
You had your defense on the field for fourth-and-6 and then tried to run the punt return team when Navy brought its punt team on. What happened there?
"It was a bad job by me. We were waiting for them (the officials) to allow us to match and they didn't allow us to match. We ran out there on the field and boy, they went quick. It was a timeout situation and we hustled out on the field. We should have just kept the defense out there on the field. MIscommunication."
And then what happened with Navy declining the penalty and then accepting the penalty?
"I don't know. It took forever. They accepted it for us to have the ball there, and all of a sudden they changed it and then they couldn't spot it and mark it. The play before, too, with the timeout we weren't quite sure if it was a long one or a short one. We didn't get a communication on that as well, but we should have just kept the defense out there."
What positives can you take out of this game considering the way you handled adversity and put yourself in position to win?
"Well, there's a lot of good things. We took a lot of chances and we converted on some fourth-and-shorts. We had to kind of get ourselves back in the game and we did with a few conversions. We'd have liked to have had an opportunity to see if we could go 80 yards in two minutes rather than giving up the first down.It would have been tough, but we would have liked to have had the opportunity. I thought our guys really fought back. I'm proud of the guys and their effort."
What is Banks' status?
"I'm not 100-percent sure, but he's going to be OK."
How would you assess Johnathan Banks' play?
"Johnathan came out and played really well. He really did a good job coming in with a tough situation. He did a lot of good things."
Coby Neenan missed another extra point, and then you went for two in an unconventional spot the next time you scored. What was the thought process?
"We have to make those (kicks) obviously. We went for 2 just to give our guys an opportunity to know whether we needed to score a touchdown or win with an extra point. Analytically, it was not a game we wanted to go to overtime, and it would have been nice to have a chance to kick a field goal for the win. We just didn't get it done."
How significant was the holding call on Keyshawn McLeod?
"Yeah, that was a tough one. We were driving the ball pretty well and it put us in first-and-20. That hurt us. Hindsight's 20-20, but I would have liked to have continued running the ball there and see if they could stop us."
Brantley said he made a bad read on the fourth-down pass that got batted down. What happened there?
"It was a slant and he went to that side. I think he wishes he would have gone to the other side of the field. It was a nice slant route. The linebacker dropped into the slant area and made the play."
This is the second straight year you've won the turnover battle by two and lost to Navy. How frustrating is that?
"Well, they've got a culture of winning, and we've got to get that same thing going. There's a lot of close plays. A fumble in the end zone, it would have been great if we would have recovered that ball, but give them the credit. They did a good job."
Do you have an update on Rod Teamer, who limped off the field in the third quarter.?
"I don't know. I think he's going to be all right. I hadn't really gotten a report yet."
ADE ARUNA
How tough is it to come out with a loss when you played this hard?
'It was pretty tough. We didn't play as well as we wanted to play. We played hard out there, but we needed to come out with more big plays and have more three-and-outs."
You overcame injuries and gave yourself a shot at the end. Is that encouraging?
"To me, it's next man up. That's our mentality. Coach has been saying that since he got here. When somebody goes down, somebody has to step in. That's no excuse for us to lose this game."
After some big plays early, you guys handled their running attack. How did you feel about that part of the game?
"We feel pretty good about that. We knew they were going to come out with a bunch of tricks, so we weren't surprised. We were ready for what they did."
RAE JUAN MARBLEY
How would you assess the play of the defense?
"The defense played a really good game. I'm proud of the way we all played. We knew we had to come out this game and be really physical and really nasty and gritty, and I feel my guys did a good job of doing that. We had a real good scheme this week going against those guys. We executed our scheme pretty good."
What does it say that you fought back after Navy's 16-0 spurt when everything appeared to be going wrong?
"We just know in life and anything in football, you have adversities, so we just have to keep plugging and those guys are going to come in and play different spots when those guys go down. We have to make sure we band together and are communicating with them and everybody is on the same page with the same goal."
What happened on the fumble you caused that Rod Teamer returned for a touchdown?
"It was just making a play. I'm trying to rally for my guys and do as much as I can. The ball just popped out. I hit the quarterback and I heard the crowd and I looked down the field and Rod was running with the ball. I was like, go, go, go. It was a pretty exciting feeling."
How frustrating was the penalty and the first down at the end?
"I feel like you can't really narrow the game down to one single play. There were certain plays we could have made better tackles or the offensive line could have made better blocks. It's everything in general just coming together that gave us the outcome of the game. We definitely have some things to go back and work on."
What were your impressions of Johnathan Brantley?
"He's capable of doing those things. He's a very smart guy. Sometimes I go talk to him and ask him what they are doing on offense just to pick his brain and stuff like that. He's capable of making those plays."
You have come close before. What will it take to win this type of game in the future?
"You've got to just finish. You can't just single out one play. Every play you've got to make sure you're executing. Little things add up. You can't build a house with one big thing. It's one brick here, one brick there, so we have to make sure we're doing all those things to go in the right direction."
You were really stuffing their running game at the end. What adjustments did you make?
"We just knew we had to pick up our play. Coach always tells us during the week the more physical team wins, and we came out and had to be more physical."
JOHNATHAN BRANTLEY
What were your thoughts when Jonathan Banks went down?
"I was surprised but I had to be ready. My job as a backup was to step in if he goes down. I was ready."
You had a huge run right off the bat that set up your own TD. How much did that help you get comfortable?
"it did give me a comfort level to just get into the game. That's all."
What happened on the fourth-down pass that got batted down?
"That's all on me. It was a bad read. Just a bad read. I thought he was blitzing. I was throwing to (Terren) Encalade. I thought the backer was blitzing and he ended up dropping, so it was a bad read."
You fought back but couldn't get the win. How tough is that?
"Extremely tough. It comes down to the small mistakes in close games. They made less mistakes than us."
The penalty and the fourth-down conversion kept you from getting a final chance. How frustrating was that?
"Very frustrating. It's just frustrating not to have the ball in my hands on the last play to try to win for my team. So that was pretty frustrating."
