Sincere Haynesworth did not participate in the last 45 minutes of practice today after getting a leg injury in the fourth quarter against East Carolina (he returned in that game), but Willie Fritz said he had done some work earlier and would be ready for Saturday's game against Army, which barely hung on in the coaches' poll at No. 25 this week after having its game against Air Force postponed due to Air Force's coronavirus issues. Corey Dublin shifted to center today, with Josh Remetich replacing Dublin at left guard. The rest of the offensive line was the same as last week, with Joey Claybrook at left tackle, Ben Knutson at right tackle and Tim Shafter at right guard.
Linebacker Marvin Moody returned to practice today after missing the last two games, so Tulane's defense should be close to full strength against an Army offense that struggled mightily against Cincinnati and The Citadel but put up good numbers otherwise against sub-standard competition. The defense will need to be on point Saturday because Army's defense has been outstanding, holding Cincinnati to fewer than 70 rushing yards in a 24-10 loss and ranking 15th nationally in rushing defense (103.6 yards per game). This version is much more like the ones in 2017 and 2018 under coach Jeff Monken than the sieve Tulane exploited in 2019.
One area in which Tulane has improved significantly this season is penalties. A year after ranking 123rd out of 130 FBS teams in penalties per game (7.92) and 118th in penalty yards per game (67.92), the Green Wave has reduced those totals to 6.5 penalties per game (ranking 71st) and 53.88 yards per game (ranking 58th). The AAC refs are flag happy, with six of the league's teams ranking 80th or worst in flags, and Tulane has racked up the fourth fewest penalty yards per game out of 11 teams (the official league stats have the Wave third, but they have an incorrect total for penalty yards).
Here are several observations after I charted every acceptedpenalty--25 on offense, 17 on defense and 10 on special teams.
--Willie Fritz harps on pre-snap and post-snap penalties the most, believing anything that occurs during the play is a judgment call, and Tulane has done pretty well there. By my count, the Wave has been flagged 10 times for false starts
--Tyrick James twice
--Claybrook
--Caleb Thomas
--Tuggle,
--Duece Watts,
--Shafter
--Remetich (the official box lists no one but I wrote it down at the time in the USM game)
--two unidentified, one of which came on a punt,
Tulane has been flagged six times for offside
--Jeffery Johnson twice,
--De'Andre Williams
--Marvin Moody
--Eric Hicks
--one unidentified
Tulane has been called twice for delay of game, and one of those was on an extra point).
--The unsportsmanlike conduct call on Amare Jones for slapping at an opponent post-play against East Carolina was the first of the year, as the Wave has done a good job of not losing its cool. Personal fouls, which often are live-ball penalties but not necessarily, are down, too, with only five, two of which were Chase Kuerschen on punts and another on Larry Brooks at the end of a 2-point conversion.
--The only game in which Tulane racked up double-digit penalties was SMU (11 for 86), with four offensive penalties on one drive that ended in a touchdown anyway, so the flags did not end up hurting the Wave as much as they could have.
--Ten of the penalties have come on special teams, which appears to be the biggest lingering problem.
--Maybe auditioning for a role with the Saints, Jaylon Monroe has been called for pass interference six times. The only other interference call came against Willie Langham.
--There have been 12 holding calls. The culprit was not identified in the stats on four occasions (twice against Southern Miss, where the stats crew had a rough day). the others were Claybrook twice, Dublin twice, James, Tuggle, Thomas and Kuerschen on a punt. Haynesworth has been penalized once all year, with an ineligible man downfield call against Temple.
--Defensive end Cam Sample has not drawn a flag all year. Patrick Johnson's only penalty was for roughing the passer in the opener at South Alabama. Jeffery Johnson drew Tulane's only two penalties at UCF on offside calls in an uncharacteristic game when UCF, which ranks second to last nationally in penalties, did not get flagged in the first half.
"That's something coach Fritz was pretty mad about last year," Patrick Johnson said. "He took it personal and really drove it to us like we've got to fix this because we would have won a lot more games if we didn't have a lot of stupid penalties. This year we've done a great job but I feel like we can do a whole lot better than we are. He talks about it every single Sunday or Monday when we come in (to review the weekend's game). The first thing he says is we have stuff to clean up because we had some penalties. No matter if we beat somebody 50-0 or we lose 50-0, he's going to teach us the same exact way because little things are going to matter."
--How much do penalties hurt? Consider this: Other than giving up a field goal after Johnson's roughing flag, Tulane's defense did not get off the field without allowing a touchdown on any drive it had an accepted penalty until the first half against UCF, which was the sixth game. The offense has been much better at overcoming penalties, which is a testament to Michael Pratt's passing. The Wave is much more capable of getting out of bad down and distance situations that it used to be.
Linebacker Marvin Moody returned to practice today after missing the last two games, so Tulane's defense should be close to full strength against an Army offense that struggled mightily against Cincinnati and The Citadel but put up good numbers otherwise against sub-standard competition. The defense will need to be on point Saturday because Army's defense has been outstanding, holding Cincinnati to fewer than 70 rushing yards in a 24-10 loss and ranking 15th nationally in rushing defense (103.6 yards per game). This version is much more like the ones in 2017 and 2018 under coach Jeff Monken than the sieve Tulane exploited in 2019.
One area in which Tulane has improved significantly this season is penalties. A year after ranking 123rd out of 130 FBS teams in penalties per game (7.92) and 118th in penalty yards per game (67.92), the Green Wave has reduced those totals to 6.5 penalties per game (ranking 71st) and 53.88 yards per game (ranking 58th). The AAC refs are flag happy, with six of the league's teams ranking 80th or worst in flags, and Tulane has racked up the fourth fewest penalty yards per game out of 11 teams (the official league stats have the Wave third, but they have an incorrect total for penalty yards).
Here are several observations after I charted every acceptedpenalty--25 on offense, 17 on defense and 10 on special teams.
--Willie Fritz harps on pre-snap and post-snap penalties the most, believing anything that occurs during the play is a judgment call, and Tulane has done pretty well there. By my count, the Wave has been flagged 10 times for false starts
--Tyrick James twice
--Claybrook
--Caleb Thomas
--Tuggle,
--Duece Watts,
--Shafter
--Remetich (the official box lists no one but I wrote it down at the time in the USM game)
--two unidentified, one of which came on a punt,
Tulane has been flagged six times for offside
--Jeffery Johnson twice,
--De'Andre Williams
--Marvin Moody
--Eric Hicks
--one unidentified
Tulane has been called twice for delay of game, and one of those was on an extra point).
--The unsportsmanlike conduct call on Amare Jones for slapping at an opponent post-play against East Carolina was the first of the year, as the Wave has done a good job of not losing its cool. Personal fouls, which often are live-ball penalties but not necessarily, are down, too, with only five, two of which were Chase Kuerschen on punts and another on Larry Brooks at the end of a 2-point conversion.
--The only game in which Tulane racked up double-digit penalties was SMU (11 for 86), with four offensive penalties on one drive that ended in a touchdown anyway, so the flags did not end up hurting the Wave as much as they could have.
--Ten of the penalties have come on special teams, which appears to be the biggest lingering problem.
--Maybe auditioning for a role with the Saints, Jaylon Monroe has been called for pass interference six times. The only other interference call came against Willie Langham.
--There have been 12 holding calls. The culprit was not identified in the stats on four occasions (twice against Southern Miss, where the stats crew had a rough day). the others were Claybrook twice, Dublin twice, James, Tuggle, Thomas and Kuerschen on a punt. Haynesworth has been penalized once all year, with an ineligible man downfield call against Temple.
--Defensive end Cam Sample has not drawn a flag all year. Patrick Johnson's only penalty was for roughing the passer in the opener at South Alabama. Jeffery Johnson drew Tulane's only two penalties at UCF on offside calls in an uncharacteristic game when UCF, which ranks second to last nationally in penalties, did not get flagged in the first half.
"That's something coach Fritz was pretty mad about last year," Patrick Johnson said. "He took it personal and really drove it to us like we've got to fix this because we would have won a lot more games if we didn't have a lot of stupid penalties. This year we've done a great job but I feel like we can do a whole lot better than we are. He talks about it every single Sunday or Monday when we come in (to review the weekend's game). The first thing he says is we have stuff to clean up because we had some penalties. No matter if we beat somebody 50-0 or we lose 50-0, he's going to teach us the same exact way because little things are going to matter."
--How much do penalties hurt? Consider this: Other than giving up a field goal after Johnson's roughing flag, Tulane's defense did not get off the field without allowing a touchdown on any drive it had an accepted penalty until the first half against UCF, which was the sixth game. The offense has been much better at overcoming penalties, which is a testament to Michael Pratt's passing. The Wave is much more capable of getting out of bad down and distance situations that it used to be.
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