Tulane Green Wave Fall Short in Scrappy Loss to Oklahoma Sooners
The Tulane Green Wave had their second straight Top 25 test on Saturday as they took on the Oklahoma Sooners.
It was the first road test for the young Green Wave quarterback Darian Mensah, and the growing pains were clear.
Mensah went just 14-of-33 through the air for 166 yards with one touchdown and a crucial interception on a tipped pass that led to a dagger touchdown.
They just couldn't get much of anything going on offense outside of a couple of big plays.
Before the last drive of the game, Dontae Fleming was the only receiver to have more than one catch on the day.
The run game also struggling to get going with Makhi Hughes picking up 71 yards on 19 attempts. He also got banged up, but returned to play.
Tulane's defensive performance was a tale of two halves.
The Sooners drove down the field with relative ease in the first half, but were completely shut down in the second half which kept the Green Wave in the game.
Inarguably the most important defensive play of the came from linebacker Tyler Grubbs as an interception return for a touchdown brought Tulane back within just one score while the offense was looking shaky.
Jackson Arnold and the Oklahoma offense had the last laugh, though, as Arnold ran his second touchdown of the day on a 24-yard run to push the game back to two possessions.
He shined a light on some issues against mobile quarterbacks in the defense with 100 yards and a long one of 47.
Transfer quarterback Ty Thompson checked into the game for one of Tulane's goal-to-go chances.
While he's mostly worked as a rushing threat in the red zone this season, he threw a nice toss up ball to senior tight end Reggie Brown for his second career touchdown reception.
Thompson entered the season with hopes of being the starter, but he's still carved out an intriguing role for the Green Wave. He also looks like someone who would be able to run the offense if he had to down the road.
There was an interesting special teams issue in this one as Tulane's kicker Ethan Head kicked a line drive PAT that went under the goalpost after their first touchdown of the day.
Jacob Barnes also missed a 50-yard field goal in the second quarter.
While that was always going to be a hard one to convert, it added insult to injury for a rough special teams day.
Attention turns towards the Louisiana-Lafyette Ragin' Cajuns next week as the last game before American Conference play starts up.
