Tulane 35 - Southeastern 20

[IM42lane]

A win is a win, but I wouldn't make too much of a victory over a 1-AA team.

Troll.

This is a much better FCS team than most, as a matter of fact, they're 3rd in the nation. They're better than many FBS teams, and I think they'd give UL-L and Tulsa a run for their money. Not picking on those teams, just think that SLU is every bit as good as two of our last 3 opponents.

CJ and Price need to find a way to balance the offense, while at the same time not becoming so predictable. It seems that the scripted plays that start the game are a nice mix, but the play calling really deteriorates after they get through the script. And we all know how poorly the clock management has been. Lets correct the things we can and have our best effort to date in Durham this Saturday.

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/polls?poll=7

[tpstulane]

Highlights

I had a few people call me and said the lights are ok for watching live in the stadium but are not up to TV quality. If you watch the highlights here you might agree.
Same thing if you watched the coaches show. It looks dark. "Looks like Friday Night Football" highlights.

[puffy]

Is it just me or does Tanner not take the underneath stuff very much?

[winwave]

It's not just you. Hopefully he takes advantage of that soon.

[NOLABigSteve]

phpBB [video]

[RobertM320]

It's not just you. Hopefully he takes advantage of that soon.

And when he does, that's when you'll really see what our offense can be. Its great that he can fit the ball into tight spots (double and triple coverage), but I'd rather see him check down and find the wide open receiver that must be there when these other guys are blanketed. When he can do that effectively, he will be much more effective because they can't cheat toward whomever he looks to first.

[51WaveBG]

I'm really happy for the win. It comes at a needed time. Several things concern me about the game and I'm hoping for some comments about them.
DiRocca's missed 34 yard field goal attempt. He always seems to miss very wide left. Who's coaching him at practice?
Picirelli's 35 yard punting average.
A 42% 3rd down conversion rate. (Wasn't sure how many of the 6 of 14 came in the 1st & 2nd half).
Our poor 2nd half performance's to date (especially on the O side).
12/115 in penalties (Why can't the coaching staff get a handle on this?)
A 79 yard K/O return against our special teams.
The seemingly rather poor physical condition of this team(Looks completely spent in the 2nd half-especially the 4th quarter)?

[jonathanjoseph]

It's not just you. Hopefully he takes advantage of that soon.

And when he does, that's when you'll really see what our offense can be. Its great that he can fit the ball into tight spots (double and triple coverage), but I'd rather see him check down and find the wide open receiver that must be there when these other guys are blanketed. When he can do that effectively, he will be much more effective because they can't cheat toward whomever he looks to first.

If and when he can cut down on unnecessary turnovers, we're going to win a lot of football games. He isn't throwing INTs because he can't read defenses, he's throwing INTs because he doesn't care about triple coverage because he has that much confidence in his arm. It's similar to Brett Favre.

He's only going to get better too.

[jonathanjoseph]

Here's what was unforgivable to me:

Carries:
Badie: 15 for 80, 5.3 ypc
Thompson/Hilliard: 19 for 45, 2.3 ypc

The division of labor among RBs is ridiculous. Badie should get every touch short of what's needed to keep him fresh. Thompson is not a good RB, he reminds me of TJ Duckett. Looks like a prototype big back with speed but tip toes through the hole. Hilliard will be good with another year of strength and speed training but Badie is head and shoulder above both right now.

[lurker123]

Here's what was unforgivable to me:

Carries:
Badie: 15 for 80, 5.3 ypc
Thompson/Hilliard: 19 for 45, 2.3 ypc

The division of labor among RBs is ridiculous. Badie should get every touch short of what's needed to keep him fresh. Thompson is not a good RB, he reminds me of TJ Duckett. Looks like a prototype big back with speed but tip toes through the hole. Hilliard will be good with another year of strength and speed training but Badie is head and shoulder above both right now.

I agree that Badie could be a very special talent for Tulane and is clearly the best RB Tulane has. However as shown last week and last season, he is injury prone. I think 20 touches a game is more than sufficient for him to blast a play open like he did at Tulsa and still play the next week.

[RobertM320]

It's not just you. Hopefully he takes advantage of that soon.

And when he does, that's when you'll really see what our offense can be. Its great that he can fit the ball into tight spots (double and triple coverage), but I'd rather see him check down and find the wide open receiver that must be there when these other guys are blanketed. When he can do that effectively, he will be much more effective because they can't cheat toward whomever he looks to first.

If and when he can cut down on unnecessary turnovers, we're going to win a lot of football games. He isn't throwing INTs because he can't read defenses, he's throwing INTs because he doesn't care about triple coverage because he has that much confidence in his arm. It's similar to Brett Favre.

He's only going to get better too.

I agree with this, to a point. He's got that much confidence in his arm because he's only ever used it against HS guys. These guys are bigger, faster and more talented than what he played against in HS. When he gets more experience, he'll learn when to throw that pass and when to find someone else. But it will come.

As for the Brett Favre reference, you're right, the same thing just in reverse. He remembered when he USED to be able to make that throw, and hadn't come to understand the reality that he was OLD and couldn't make it any more!

[capwave]

Sherman Badie is by far the best running back on the roster and i would love to see him get the ball more. However, if he is not going to get those extra carries, Dante Butler should. Thompson looks like an animal and runs like a damn fairy. He needs to be on the bench until he is ready to hit someone. I think Tanner has a ton of confidence and can make all the throws, but i don't think he is making those suspect throws because of how confident he is. I think it is apparent that he is prone to making some poor decisions. He is only a red shirt freshman and that is going to happen.

[Robert1969]

Two things I'd like to see from Tanner Lee:

Take more of the underneath stuff.

Pump fake.

He's got all the physical tools you could want. If he can do those two things more frequently, he'll be much, much better.

What coaches can do to help: get us out of our tendencies. Todd Kinchen knew everything we were going to do based on package we brought out.

Creative play calling. The most creative playcalling I saw this year was the second drive against Ga Tech. Lots of misdirection stuff, ending with the end around by Teddy Veal. After that the creative play calling was over.

This offense has shown it has big play capability, and the big plays are going to be there. What we haven't shown is the ability to have a long sustained drive for a score. We have to be better at this to help out the defense, wear out the opponent, and close out games.

One bad tendency we ended against SLU was our disgusting habit of ending the first half with cataclysmicly awful plays. We FINISHED our last drive of the first half, for the first time this year. Now, we need to put together a second half worth remebering.

[sader24]

Badie isn't the type of back that can handle that type of workload if you want to keep him healthy. 15 carries and 5 catches seems like the correct workload to me. If Rob Kelley didn't screw up on multiple fronts he'd be getting those carries instead of Thompson.

[2ndGenWave]

Screens. Where were the screens? Sherman Badie screams for screens. I scream for screens. You scream for screens. We all scream for screens! It helps alleviate the defensive line pressure. It gets Badie the ball in space.

Also, I concur that Tanner needs to take the underneath routes. For a while I thought that was bad play calling (which it was some of the time), but it is also him choosing the home run over the single or double (yay baseball metaphors).

Finally, we should have smarter kids than most schools since the base level to survive academically at Tulane is much higher. This means we should be able to run a more up beat offense. That is how my high school survived with much smaller linemen than our opponents...running no huddle and keeping our opponents from subbing or calling complicated sets on defense. We should be able to run that especially in the two minute offense, which we apparently do not have according to the end of the first half the last two games.

[Robert1969]

Screens. Where were the screens? Sherman Badie screams for screens. I scream for screens. You scream for screens. We all scream for screens! It helps alleviate the defensive line pressure. It gets Badie the ball in space.

Yes! More screens, and Badie in screen pass situations would be plain dangerous!

[Eaglewave]

We really need to do something about the low camera angles.

+1
It's the first thing you notice when viewing our highlights. Hopefully something can be done before the season is over.

I agree that something has to be done. Those angles look horrible.

[Eaglewave]

BTW glad they included Lee's nice run for 1st down. He has more athletic ability than many want to give him credit for. It may not be his forte but he clearly showed there that he can take off and pick up yards.

I think people are spot on when they talk about Lee's athletic ability. That run wasn't anything to make us believe that Lee can do things on his feet. He needs to stay in that pocket as much as possible and make plays with his arm. We don't need him getting hurt. CJ can bring in Montana or Powell if he wants the QB's to pick up yards on their feet.

[winwave]

We'll have to agree to disagree. People were saying he was a stiff like Griffin. He's not. He shoed he can do more than just climb the pocket. Things are going to break down sometimes and it was good to see him be able to run and pick up a first down.

[Eaglewave]

We'll have to agree to disagree. People were saying he was a stiff like Griffin. He's not. He shoed he can do more than just climb the pocket. Things are going to break down sometimes and it was good to see him be able to run and pick up a first down.

I agree that it was nice to see him pick up the first down. I think everyone knew that he was a bit faster than Griffin and able to do things like that. All I am saying is that he needs to stay in the pocket as much as possible and make plays with his arm. He only needs to run the ball if no receivers are open and the lane is just totally free of opponents.

[winwave]

We'll have to agree to disagree. People were saying he was a stiff like Griffin. He's not. He shoed he can do more than just climb the pocket. Things are going to break down sometimes and it was good to see him be able to run and pick up a first down.

I agree that it was nice to see him pick up the first down. I think everyone knew that he was a bit faster than Griffin and able to do things like that. All I am saying is that he needs to stay in the pocket as much as possible and make plays with his arm. He only needs to run the ball if no receivers are open and the lane is just totally free of opponents.

I never said differently. But there is no doubt that several had made the RG comparisons.

[jonathanjoseph]

Badie isn't the type of back that can handle that type of workload if you want to keep him healthy. 15 carries and 5 catches seems like the correct workload to me. If Rob Kelley didn't screw up on multiple fronts he'd be getting those carries instead of Thompson.

That's fine and probably true, but Badie has been the 3rd RB to touch the ball in all three games and has had about 3 carries at half time of each game.

[JTLiuzza]

Definitely wasn't worth it's own thread so I thought I'd put it here. Kaare Johnson on the WLAE sports show tonight regarding Tulane's win over Southeastern, "Didn't Curtis beat them [Southeastern] last week?"

I know, who watches WLAE for local sports anyway? I happened to be surfing and there it was.

And I know Kaare Johnson is a non-event in local media which is why he finds himself on a panel at WLAE. But even those guys seemed surprised by the remark. The snark in lieu of something actually substantive to say gets old.

OK. I've got it off my chest.

Let's beat Duke!!

[Hornetswave]

Roll Wave, Who cares about Kare Johnson.

[winwave]

He's always been for lswho. He couldn't be a pimple on his father's butt.