A thorough beating as Tulane wins back-to-back AAC games by double digits in the same season for the first time since joining the league in 2014. The Wave whipped ECU at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Even though the last three opponents are a combined 13-4, all three games are very winnable--Army, at Tulsa, Memphis.
WILLIE FRITZ
"I'm really proud of the guys. I thought we played really well at times. We didn't close the door as much as I wish we would have, but there were long periods of times we played extremely well on offense, defense and kicking game. I just wish we would have closed the door a little bit more, but great job anytime you win on the road. This was a team that woulda, coulda, shoulda won at Tulsa last week, which is a good team, so we had to come out and play well in order to win. I'm also proud of old Patrick Johnson. He's the all-time sack leader in school history. That's a heck of a deal. They've been playing football here at Tulane for I think 127 yares, so that's a heck of a job by Patrick to be the all-time sack leader."
This is the second straight week you've really dominated a team on both sides of the line of scrimmage. How much easier does that make it?
"It makes it really easy. Our defensive line really did a great job not getting knocked off the ball, doing a great job of pressure, and we brought some second-level guys. Macon Clark had a real nice sack in there. The defensive line dominated the front and our offensive line was pretty darn firm in protection. Michael (Pratt) got sacked a couple of times, but he was holding the ball for a little bit. Most of the time he had a really clean pocket back in there. You see what happens, if he has a nice, clean pocket, he's very accurate. He did a great job throwing the ball downfield."
The first five plays were passes, but you still ended up running for close to 300 yards. How much does that passing dimension make the whole offense better?
"It was a great game plan by coach (Will) Hall and the offensive staff. They were blitzing and we had some good tips when they were going to blitz and where from, and he had some great calls dialed up. When you can run, it's hard to blitz a whole lot because you're giving up some gaps with second-level and third-level defenders. That's when the big plays happened. Cam (Carroll) had it and (Stephon) Hud (erson) had a few of them as well. One helps the other. This is what we've wanted to do with Mike and protecting it. Our wide receivers did an excellent job of getting open and making plays. It was a great job by the offense."
The secondary gave us some big plays late, but when the game was being decided, how well do you feel like those guys played?
"They did a good job. There were probably five or six really contested catches that they had in the first half where our guys were all over them. No.5 (C.J. Johnson) made a couple of spectacular catches against us. You've got to live with that just as long as you get them down and you don't give them a big one. For the most part we matched up favorably against them out on the perimeter with our DBs."
Cam Carroll had three long runs and two touchdowns. What about his performance impressed you the most?
"He hit the hole hard and he has great speed. Everybody knows he's got great size, but he's one of the fastest guys on our team. When he gets a crease, it's going to be hard for a guy to catch him in the open field. He played a very good game."
Near the end of the first half, you were up 14-7 and the defense came up with a stop and the offense scored to go ahead 21-7. How pivotal was that stretch?
"That was huge for us because they were receiving the second-half kickoff. That was really big to go on with those points to pad our lead."
Is it easier to game plan offensively as Michael Pratt's experience grows?
"Yeah, it certainly is. He's in coach Hall's hip pocket all week, watching a ton of tape. There were some really good keys that we had on what they were going to do. If you see all that pre-snap, the game slows down for you. It makes it easier to know where you're going to go to. He's getting better and better each week."
"ECU's running back had had three straight 100-yard games but was a total non-factor today. How important was that?
"We did a good job tackling. That was one of the better tackling games that we've had. We didn't tackle well early in the year. Part of that is my fault. I don't scrimmage as much maybe as some other people do, but our guys are doing a good job of playing with leverage, angles and not letting the ball cross their face. There were probably four or five times they blocked it up and our second-level or third-level guy came up and tackled him for a gain of 6. Early in the season we weren't getting that. They were breaking a tackle and getting a long run out of it. I don't think they had a run over 12 yards today."
Just like two years ago when you were 2-5, you could have gone in the wrong direction but the team stuck together. Do you like where this team is right now?
"I like where we are right now. It sure looks a lot better than it did two weeks ago, but it's a tough league. You've got to be on point and ready to play every single week and you have to play four quarters, so I'm glad the guys are playing better. We're getting better every week, and that's our goal to finish at the end of the season and be a better team than we were in week 10 and week 9 and week 8, so a good job by the guys fighting through a lot of adversity and getting back to even right now. We've got a tough one this week. Army is very good. Air Force wasn't able to play this week, so Army got a couple more days to prepare for us. I'm glad it's at home, and we just need to flip the page and get ready for that tough triple option they have."
WILLIE FRITZ
"I'm really proud of the guys. I thought we played really well at times. We didn't close the door as much as I wish we would have, but there were long periods of times we played extremely well on offense, defense and kicking game. I just wish we would have closed the door a little bit more, but great job anytime you win on the road. This was a team that woulda, coulda, shoulda won at Tulsa last week, which is a good team, so we had to come out and play well in order to win. I'm also proud of old Patrick Johnson. He's the all-time sack leader in school history. That's a heck of a deal. They've been playing football here at Tulane for I think 127 yares, so that's a heck of a job by Patrick to be the all-time sack leader."
This is the second straight week you've really dominated a team on both sides of the line of scrimmage. How much easier does that make it?
"It makes it really easy. Our defensive line really did a great job not getting knocked off the ball, doing a great job of pressure, and we brought some second-level guys. Macon Clark had a real nice sack in there. The defensive line dominated the front and our offensive line was pretty darn firm in protection. Michael (Pratt) got sacked a couple of times, but he was holding the ball for a little bit. Most of the time he had a really clean pocket back in there. You see what happens, if he has a nice, clean pocket, he's very accurate. He did a great job throwing the ball downfield."
The first five plays were passes, but you still ended up running for close to 300 yards. How much does that passing dimension make the whole offense better?
"It was a great game plan by coach (Will) Hall and the offensive staff. They were blitzing and we had some good tips when they were going to blitz and where from, and he had some great calls dialed up. When you can run, it's hard to blitz a whole lot because you're giving up some gaps with second-level and third-level defenders. That's when the big plays happened. Cam (Carroll) had it and (Stephon) Hud (erson) had a few of them as well. One helps the other. This is what we've wanted to do with Mike and protecting it. Our wide receivers did an excellent job of getting open and making plays. It was a great job by the offense."
The secondary gave us some big plays late, but when the game was being decided, how well do you feel like those guys played?
"They did a good job. There were probably five or six really contested catches that they had in the first half where our guys were all over them. No.5 (C.J. Johnson) made a couple of spectacular catches against us. You've got to live with that just as long as you get them down and you don't give them a big one. For the most part we matched up favorably against them out on the perimeter with our DBs."
Cam Carroll had three long runs and two touchdowns. What about his performance impressed you the most?
"He hit the hole hard and he has great speed. Everybody knows he's got great size, but he's one of the fastest guys on our team. When he gets a crease, it's going to be hard for a guy to catch him in the open field. He played a very good game."
Near the end of the first half, you were up 14-7 and the defense came up with a stop and the offense scored to go ahead 21-7. How pivotal was that stretch?
"That was huge for us because they were receiving the second-half kickoff. That was really big to go on with those points to pad our lead."
Is it easier to game plan offensively as Michael Pratt's experience grows?
"Yeah, it certainly is. He's in coach Hall's hip pocket all week, watching a ton of tape. There were some really good keys that we had on what they were going to do. If you see all that pre-snap, the game slows down for you. It makes it easier to know where you're going to go to. He's getting better and better each week."
"ECU's running back had had three straight 100-yard games but was a total non-factor today. How important was that?
"We did a good job tackling. That was one of the better tackling games that we've had. We didn't tackle well early in the year. Part of that is my fault. I don't scrimmage as much maybe as some other people do, but our guys are doing a good job of playing with leverage, angles and not letting the ball cross their face. There were probably four or five times they blocked it up and our second-level or third-level guy came up and tackled him for a gain of 6. Early in the season we weren't getting that. They were breaking a tackle and getting a long run out of it. I don't think they had a run over 12 yards today."
Just like two years ago when you were 2-5, you could have gone in the wrong direction but the team stuck together. Do you like where this team is right now?
"I like where we are right now. It sure looks a lot better than it did two weeks ago, but it's a tough league. You've got to be on point and ready to play every single week and you have to play four quarters, so I'm glad the guys are playing better. We're getting better every week, and that's our goal to finish at the end of the season and be a better team than we were in week 10 and week 9 and week 8, so a good job by the guys fighting through a lot of adversity and getting back to even right now. We've got a tough one this week. Army is very good. Air Force wasn't able to play this week, so Army got a couple more days to prepare for us. I'm glad it's at home, and we just need to flip the page and get ready for that tough triple option they have."