Tulane Loses to Memphis on Thanksgiving, College Football Playoff Dream Ends
It was hard not feel good about the state of Tulane's program the way they had been playing recently.
After suffering two losses in a row to Power 4 schools, the Green Wave got things rolling in conference play and established themselves as not just one of the best teams in the AAC, but the entire Group of 5 level.
That was huge for College Football Playoff implications.
In the latest CFP rankings, Tulane was able to get up to No. 17, positioning themselves on the heels of Boise State for the automatic berth if the Broncos were to falter in their final game or during the Mountain West Conference championship game.
All the Green Wave had to do was get past Memphis and get ready for their showdown against Army for the AAC title.
Unfortunately, Thanksgiving night wasn't kind to Tulane.
The Green Wave suffered their first loss in conference play, falling to Memphis, 34-24.
This was always going to be a tough test, even off a bye, since the Tigers were seen as preseason favorites to not only win the conference, but also be the Group of 5 representative in the College Football Playoff.
Memphis received the ball first after the coin flip and went down and scored a touchdown on their first possession to take a 7-0 lead.
Tulane was able to answer with a score of their own, but was only able to muster up a field goal.
Still, they were in the game after giving up the opening score, and their defense, who has been so good in conference play, forced a three-and-out to give the ball back to the offense who went down and scored a touchdown of their own to take a 10-7 lead.
That's where the momentum ended, though.
Memphis scored 10 straight points to go into halftime up, 17-10, and coming out of the locker room, the Green Wave fumbled on their first possession to set the Tigers up for another touchdown to score 17 unanswered points.
Tulane looked to be on the ropes when they went three-and-out to give the ball back to the red-hot Memphis offense, but after a 16-play drive put the Tigers on the one-yard line, the Green Wave defense held them to a field goal to put the score, 27-10, with a full quarter to play.
That's when Tulane tried to make things interesting.
Their offense put together a drive, going 78 yards to score a touchdown, and after their defense forced a three-and-out, the Green Wave had a chance to making things a one-score game.
It looked like that was going to be the case.
Darian Mensah threw a 55-yard bomb to Mario Williams that would have set themselves up in a position to score, but when the star wide receiver was going to ground, he fumbled right before his knee hit.
Despite that unfortunate turn of events, Tulane didn't go away.
They again forced a three-and-out to give their offense another chance pull closer with 7:34 left in the contest, but after Shaadie Clayton-Johnson ran for 13 yards, Mensah took a deep shot to score a touchdown and threw an interception.
That was the end of things for the Green Wave.
Memphis, starting on their own one-yard line, scored a touchdown seven plays later on a Mario Anderson Jr. 47-yard run to make the score, 34-17.
Tulane was able to score late, going eight plays in 1:33 for a touchdown, but that was just window dressing for the scoreboard.
It was a tough game all around for the Green Wave.
They came in with a dominant defense, ranking 10th in the country with 17.0 points allowed per contest, 14th in passing defense with 177.1 yards allowed, and 24th in rushing defense with just 113.3 yards given up.
But Memphis carved Tulane, scoring 34 points, totaling 218 through the air with Seth Henigan going 22-of-29 with two touchdowns and also gashing the Green Wave for 236 yards on the ground.
Tulane's rushing offense, who had been so great coming into this contest by being ranked 10th with 227.1 yards per game, only mustered up 57 yards with their star Makhi Hughes getting bottled up for just 15 yards on nine carries.
It's a disappointing end to the regular season for the Green Wave, but they will still have an opportunity to win the American Athletic Conference championship under Jon Sumrall for the first time.
