This one was bad. Really bad. Personally, I think Tulane lost it on the opening two possessions when it failed to pick up a first down after the defense stuffed Houston and sacked D'Eriq King twice. Tulane needed to get on top of Houston and run the ball down its throat from the start.
That did not happen, and Tulane is not equipped to win against good teams without a dominant running game. The Wave proceeded to play poorly in just about every possible way, and it is not automatic that this will rebound emotionally against Navy next Saturday. Unlike Houston, Navy cannot out-athlete Tulane, but the focus has to be there from start to finish to avoid a second consecutive 5-7 season.
Here's what Willie Fritz, Darius Bradwell and Zach Harris had to say aftter the lopsided loss that took Tulane out of the running for the AAC championship game:
FRITZ
"Congratulations to Houston. They did a great job. I thought they were well prepared and really played well in all three phases, particularly offensively and I thought they did a good job defensively. I'm disappointed in how we played. We obviously didn't have our guys prepared as well as we needed to. I thought we had some really shoddy tackling defensively. We lost leverage and didn't fit up run plays well. The pace hurt us. We've seen some teams with fast pace, and we didn't match it. Offensively a couple of times we needed to convert and put ourselves back in the game. We couldn't. That was a big fourth-and-1 we didn't get (on the opening drive of the third quarter). When we get behind, we just don't have the type of offense that can score points quickly.
"So we didn't coach real well and we didn't play real well."
Justin McMillan struggled as a passer. What did you see?
"As I've said many times before, it's a combination of a lot of things. When the quarterback doesn't have a great game, sometimes it might be the quarterback and sometimes the routes we're running aren't exactly the depth they were supposed to be run at and we didn't have great protection, whatever the case me be. You have to go back and look at it to really be able to give an honest assessment."
You'd faced up tempo offenses in some other games this year. Was it something about Houston?
"They did a nice job of getting the play in there and ran the ball effectively. I thought they were going to have a tough time running the ball on us. We knew they were going to do it with their quarterback, but not the conventional one-back running plays."
You still have a chance to go to a bowl game. What do you tell the team?
"We've gotta regroup. We just have to regroup. We have to learn from this, we have to put it aside, flush it down the toilet and go on to the next game. It's a part of football and a part of life. When you get adversity, you have to fight through it, improve yourself and learn from your mistakes."
There were a couple of crucial penalties that cost you more points in the first half. How frustrating was that?
"It was disappointing. We've talked about that many times. We've got some young guys playing for us, but they are not young anymore. We're quite a few games into the season. We've played 11 games. Believe me, we don't coach it. We preach the heck out of it, but sometimes you get out there in the moment and don't make the proper decision. We've got to do a better job of that."
The sequence where you were trading scores early, did you feel you had the offense to compete?
"Yeah, we had the big pass play to Terren (Encalade), but after that we just didn't match very well. We had some minus plays that hurt us."
Was Cam Sample close to playing?
"He went out there and warmed up and we just didn't think he was quite ready to go."
D'Eriq King got carted off at halftime, but what did he do in the first half?
"He's an awesome quarterback. He can beat you with his feet, his arm and he's smart. He doesn't have many minus plays. He's a really dynamic quarterback."
How disappointed were you with the tackling and not just on KIng?
"It was disappointing. We tackled really poorly. We didn't play with the physicality we needed to."
What's the reason for the poor tackling?
"We were going against some pretty good players, number one. And number two, you have to have the mindset. You can usually tell that first series or two the way the guys tackle how you're going to play defensively. We do a good job of working on it like crazy, and tonight we didn't do a good job at all. There were a lot of one-on-one situations. Obviously those are more difficult tackles, but we've made our share of those this season."
BRADWELL
What did you feel like you were doing well early when you stayed close?
"Just running the ball downhill, finish our blocks and everything. At the beginning of the game that's what we were doing."
Did that change?
"Just turnovers. We can't turn over the ball. We're not that good of a team to turn over the ball. We have to take care of the ball."
Fritz said you are the type of offense, when you fall behind it's tough for you to come back and start quickly.
"Yeah, our offense has to start off fast. When we got behind, we didn't start off fast and make good blocks and everything."
How tough was halftime? You didn't expect to be down 31-9.
"I don't think it was tough. Things just didn't go our way this game, and when it didn't go our way, some people got their heads down and everything. The emphasis for the rest of the week is just keep pushing. We have one more game."
That game is for a bowl. How hard or how easy will it be to flush this one?
"It's hard, but you have to. You can't stay in the past. You have to keep move forward. We've got one more game. We've got another opportunity to reach our goal. Obviously we didn't reach our goal to play in the conference championship, but we still can keep a bowl game. We just have to regroup and know that our goal is still ahead of us to play in a bowl game."
When you were 2-5, you won three in a row. Is there anything to draw on from that experience?
"We've got a bunch of fighters on this team, so that's our mentality. It's crazy that we are in the same predicament we were in last year going down to the last game. Since we've been in this position before, we know what to do. We've got to execute and have confidence in what we're doing."
What did the defense do to stop you in the passing game?
"They just played hard. Jumping off the ball. We made some wrong reads, but they were just playing hard. They were fighting for the same thing we were fighting for."
The tipped interception could have gone either way.
"It could have gone any way. It could have hit the ground. Plenty of times this year a ball got tipped and one of our guys caught it. We just have to regroup, get back to the fundamentals of what got us in this position in the first place, compete for the bowl game. If we do that, we can still accomplish our goals."
What was the message from coach Fritz after the game?
"Stay together. Pull together. We have a couple of days to regroup, get healed up and everything since this was a short week. Just stay together and be a winner. No matter what the score is on that board, you can be a winner every day of your life. He does a great job teaching us to be a winner on the field and off the field. That's what we got to do--be a team, love each other and love this game, and if we do that, we'll have good results."
That did not happen, and Tulane is not equipped to win against good teams without a dominant running game. The Wave proceeded to play poorly in just about every possible way, and it is not automatic that this will rebound emotionally against Navy next Saturday. Unlike Houston, Navy cannot out-athlete Tulane, but the focus has to be there from start to finish to avoid a second consecutive 5-7 season.
Here's what Willie Fritz, Darius Bradwell and Zach Harris had to say aftter the lopsided loss that took Tulane out of the running for the AAC championship game:
FRITZ
"Congratulations to Houston. They did a great job. I thought they were well prepared and really played well in all three phases, particularly offensively and I thought they did a good job defensively. I'm disappointed in how we played. We obviously didn't have our guys prepared as well as we needed to. I thought we had some really shoddy tackling defensively. We lost leverage and didn't fit up run plays well. The pace hurt us. We've seen some teams with fast pace, and we didn't match it. Offensively a couple of times we needed to convert and put ourselves back in the game. We couldn't. That was a big fourth-and-1 we didn't get (on the opening drive of the third quarter). When we get behind, we just don't have the type of offense that can score points quickly.
"So we didn't coach real well and we didn't play real well."
Justin McMillan struggled as a passer. What did you see?
"As I've said many times before, it's a combination of a lot of things. When the quarterback doesn't have a great game, sometimes it might be the quarterback and sometimes the routes we're running aren't exactly the depth they were supposed to be run at and we didn't have great protection, whatever the case me be. You have to go back and look at it to really be able to give an honest assessment."
You'd faced up tempo offenses in some other games this year. Was it something about Houston?
"They did a nice job of getting the play in there and ran the ball effectively. I thought they were going to have a tough time running the ball on us. We knew they were going to do it with their quarterback, but not the conventional one-back running plays."
You still have a chance to go to a bowl game. What do you tell the team?
"We've gotta regroup. We just have to regroup. We have to learn from this, we have to put it aside, flush it down the toilet and go on to the next game. It's a part of football and a part of life. When you get adversity, you have to fight through it, improve yourself and learn from your mistakes."
There were a couple of crucial penalties that cost you more points in the first half. How frustrating was that?
"It was disappointing. We've talked about that many times. We've got some young guys playing for us, but they are not young anymore. We're quite a few games into the season. We've played 11 games. Believe me, we don't coach it. We preach the heck out of it, but sometimes you get out there in the moment and don't make the proper decision. We've got to do a better job of that."
The sequence where you were trading scores early, did you feel you had the offense to compete?
"Yeah, we had the big pass play to Terren (Encalade), but after that we just didn't match very well. We had some minus plays that hurt us."
Was Cam Sample close to playing?
"He went out there and warmed up and we just didn't think he was quite ready to go."
D'Eriq King got carted off at halftime, but what did he do in the first half?
"He's an awesome quarterback. He can beat you with his feet, his arm and he's smart. He doesn't have many minus plays. He's a really dynamic quarterback."
How disappointed were you with the tackling and not just on KIng?
"It was disappointing. We tackled really poorly. We didn't play with the physicality we needed to."
What's the reason for the poor tackling?
"We were going against some pretty good players, number one. And number two, you have to have the mindset. You can usually tell that first series or two the way the guys tackle how you're going to play defensively. We do a good job of working on it like crazy, and tonight we didn't do a good job at all. There were a lot of one-on-one situations. Obviously those are more difficult tackles, but we've made our share of those this season."
BRADWELL
What did you feel like you were doing well early when you stayed close?
"Just running the ball downhill, finish our blocks and everything. At the beginning of the game that's what we were doing."
Did that change?
"Just turnovers. We can't turn over the ball. We're not that good of a team to turn over the ball. We have to take care of the ball."
Fritz said you are the type of offense, when you fall behind it's tough for you to come back and start quickly.
"Yeah, our offense has to start off fast. When we got behind, we didn't start off fast and make good blocks and everything."
How tough was halftime? You didn't expect to be down 31-9.
"I don't think it was tough. Things just didn't go our way this game, and when it didn't go our way, some people got their heads down and everything. The emphasis for the rest of the week is just keep pushing. We have one more game."
That game is for a bowl. How hard or how easy will it be to flush this one?
"It's hard, but you have to. You can't stay in the past. You have to keep move forward. We've got one more game. We've got another opportunity to reach our goal. Obviously we didn't reach our goal to play in the conference championship, but we still can keep a bowl game. We just have to regroup and know that our goal is still ahead of us to play in a bowl game."
When you were 2-5, you won three in a row. Is there anything to draw on from that experience?
"We've got a bunch of fighters on this team, so that's our mentality. It's crazy that we are in the same predicament we were in last year going down to the last game. Since we've been in this position before, we know what to do. We've got to execute and have confidence in what we're doing."
What did the defense do to stop you in the passing game?
"They just played hard. Jumping off the ball. We made some wrong reads, but they were just playing hard. They were fighting for the same thing we were fighting for."
The tipped interception could have gone either way.
"It could have gone any way. It could have hit the ground. Plenty of times this year a ball got tipped and one of our guys caught it. We just have to regroup, get back to the fundamentals of what got us in this position in the first place, compete for the bowl game. If we do that, we can still accomplish our goals."
What was the message from coach Fritz after the game?
"Stay together. Pull together. We have a couple of days to regroup, get healed up and everything since this was a short week. Just stay together and be a winner. No matter what the score is on that board, you can be a winner every day of your life. He does a great job teaching us to be a winner on the field and off the field. That's what we got to do--be a team, love each other and love this game, and if we do that, we'll have good results."