Breaking Down Tulsa's Win Over Tulane

Originally Published: Oct 17, 2010 10:36 PM CDT

Bobby Lewis
Oklahoma Sports Reporter

TULSA, Oklahoma – Home cooking must be the key to winning for the Golden Hurricane. T-U crushed Tulane last night 52-24 and racked up 538 yards of offense. It was the biggest outpouring of the season and just what the doctor ordered heading into a much needed bye week.

OFFENSE: A
Not much to complain about. 3-for-3 on scoring chances in the red zone, zero interceptions and ?

wait for it ...

332 yards rushing. The Golden Hurricane was a scoring machine against the Green Wave. They scored seven touchdowns, including five from 25 yards or more away. Quarterback G.J. Kinne threw for a pair of scores and Damaris Johnson racked up nearly 150 total yards. During a stretch that spanned from the second to fourth quarter, TU scored on 7-of-8 possessions. That kind of efficiency is what was lacking on the road a week ago against SMU.

They had a lot of versatility in the play calling as well. Ten different players ran the football and eight made catches. The team has now gone three straight games without turning the ball over.

DEFENSE: C+
Tulane’s 24 points is the most Tulsa has allowed at home this season. They held Tulane to just 7 points in the first two quarters, but by their own admission after the game, the Golden Hurricane wasn’t pleased with the overall effort.

The Green Wave passed for 446 yards, the second most allowed all year by Todd Graham’s team, and missed on a couple of interception chances. (Brian Moore did come up with a huge pick in his own endzone in the third quarter and returned it 39 yards.)

Tulsa did force two fumbles and recovered one. The most impressive stat of the night was Tulsa’s run defense. The Green Wave only managed 81 yards on the ground, an average of just 2.3 yards per rush. The Golden Hurricane did all of that without Odrick Ray, arguably the team’s top run-stopper.

Tanner Antle (11) and Marco Nelson (9) led the way in tackles for Tulsa. Antle picked up his fifth and sixth tackles for loss this season.

SPECIAL TEAMS: B+
Tulsa punter Michael Such dropped two punts inside the 20 yard line against the Green Wave and helped Tulsa dominate the field position game. The Golden Hurricane was stellar on kickoffs as well, averaging over 63 yards per kick by Kevin Fitzpatrick.

The thing the coaches loved about way the special teams played was the hitting. TU picked up a couple of hard hits on punt coverage, especially Cody Wilson.

The Green Wave was noticeably afraid to kick the ball deep to Damaris Johnson and booted kickoffs away from him for most of the day. The ball eventually made its way back to D.J. on punts, and the junior was able to pick up 34 yards on three returns.

OVERALL: B
Overall, it was a good, solid win. It was something they needed heading into a bye week. The ‘W’ gets Tulsa to 2-2 in Conference USA play now. The only downside to the game was an injury to backup quarterback Shavodrick Beaver.

He slid after a 12-yard run in the second quarter. Nobody touched him as he went to the ground but Beaver immediately got up and started hopping toward the Tulsa sideline. The sophomore left the field to be checked out and came back out of the locker room in the third quarter wearing a protective boot on his foot.

The bye week will give Beaver and the rest of the team a chance to heal those midseason bumps and bruises. The Golden Hurricane also has two weeks to prepare for a game Kinne called the biggest in the history of the program: A matchup with Notre Dame on the road in historic South Bend, Indiana.