Tulane’s Season in Real Danger After Mystifying Loss to Army

The Tulane Green Wave have yet to prove that they can execute to win games this season that they should.

Despite being slight underdogs to the Army Black Knights, the talent discrepancy leaned in the Green Wave’s favor.

The discipline in the game actually leaned in their favor as well when it came to avoiding penalties.

The Black Knights are one of the least penalized teams in the nation, and they incurred five to Tulane’s two penalties on the day.

Let’s be real here. A defense that holds an opponent to 20 points is one you can and should win with.

That was not the case in the first game that really mattered all season.

The problems that showed up in non-conference play didn’t seem to be fixed at all, despite an extra week of time as well to prepare for the unique opponent. New coach Will Hall has a lot to reckon with with what went wrong in this one.

Because the game was completely winnable up until the final moments.

As has been the case, it was a bit of a tale of two halves. The Wave trailed at halftime due to one of their consistent plaguing issues – dropped passes by receivers.

This time, it was a deflected pass by Destyn Hill that turned into an interception and later Bredell Richardson dropped a pass that hit him right in the hands on a crucial third down.

There’s an alarming number of failed third down conversions due to drops by receivers on balls that went right through their hands.

That’s tough to put on the quarterback. The rest of the malady in the passing game came down to playcalling and the quarterback executing them.

It’s clear that Kadin Semonza is not adept at the read option. Most, if not every single time he’s chosen not to hand it off, it’s been a bad call. He pulls it back too late and just doesn’t have the athleticism at the FBS G6 level he’s at in American play to pull that off.

So, that’s also a coaching point. It’s something that clearly is not in his strengths.

But then there were wide open players he simply missed, ones that would have gotten multiple first downs if not touchdowns in this contest.

Semonza seems to do alright when he has time to throw. He honestly had a solid pocket for a lot of the game.

But it feels like once that pressure gets to him a little, either by the opposing defense or the game situationally, he just sees ghosts and plays flighty.

The game can really be summed up by the decisions on fourth down. It felt like they should have gone for it the first time earlier in the day where they were in a lot less dire straits.

None of the players on offense have shown the consistency, toughness, and execution to have felt that confident converting a 4th-and-8 to get the win versus the high talent, high upside kicker in Cooper Helmke getting a shot there.

But that didn’t even seem to be a consideration postgame; it was either go for it or punt.

And that about summed it all up, folks. A defense down their best defensive tackle in Ed Smith and later losing their best defensive lineman on the team in Kam Hamilton late in the game really made things tough.

The defensive plan, for the most part, worked.

It’s getting to be too hard of an ask for them with an offense that has completely flipped from years prior in time of possession and scoring enough points to win.

The most points Tulane has scored on the year is 28, under an offensive minded head coach.

The game against the Black Knights didn’t feel like a “must win.”

A lot of that came from, frankly, a feeling that they weren’t really going to lose it.

Now, not a single game seems to be a given on this schedule anymore. Maybe one or two.

But the season feels like it entirely hinges on this next game against the Memphis Tigers on a short week.

The two games rivaled each other in importance, but Memphis is certainly the kingpin they have to take down.

There’s no reason, at this point, to believe that they should.

Earlier in the year, I wrote that this team had lost the benefit of the doubt, and that it was up to them to find a way to win without it.

That alarm bell is only magnified after that loss.

A win against the Tigers won’t really do much to assuage fans who have grown used to a consistent championship-caliber program.

But a loss will all but spell the end of this season’s hopes and the support of fans in the stands.

College football is a harsh world. Tulane’s facing the ugly truth of that right now.