The Green Wave arrived to the construction site formerly known as Cajun Field in desperate need of a win. It was a thousand degrees and the Lafayette concessions ran out of water at half. The wave beat the heat, the Cajuns and the referees to bring home their first win over an FBS team of the season. I’m proud of the way the team persevered through a tough situation and came out victorious. Also, those icy whites looked great. Shout out to the equipment staff. Look good, feel good, play good. Let’s get into the recap.
The game began with a punt from each team. This was before the Wave leaned on the run game, and the Cajuns leaned on the referees. After the two punts, there were points on every drive thereafter.The shootout was on in the pelican state.
ULL started the scoring with a touchdown drive punctuated by 2 or 3 or 7 dubious pass interference calls. Who can be sure, I lost count after the drive was extended the second time. Did I mention how bad the refs were? I hate to beat a dead horse, but I will throughout this article because man that sunbelt crew was awful.
After a shaky first drive from Mensah, Craddock leaned on the run game going to Makhi, Duda and Ty to go the length of the field. The wave rolled for 75 yards with a longest passing play of 4 yards. The offensive line dominated all the way to the red zone where Craddock learned another lesson. If you need short yardage, go with the Typhoon Package.
The teams traded field goals on the next two drives as the refs awarded ULL a first down on 4th that was clearly short and yet another pass interference that never happened. Not to be outdone on the other side of the ball, Yulkeith brown was leveled 3 yards out of bounds and the play resulted in a penalty on the offense. I wish I had better highlights from these two drives, but the zebras made it all about them.
ULL got the ball back in a 10-10 game. They went 3 and out but received yet another questionable defensive penalty to extend the drive. An offsides penalty brought up 3rd and 5. The refs played themselves here as we notched a third pick six in four games for the green wave defense. I couldn’t believe there were 0 flags on the field after an outstanding run back from Tchienchou for the score. The T is silent like Tchoupitoulas.
ULL got the ball back down 17-10 for the last drive of the half. They moved it well into Tulane territory until the drive stalled on the Wavs 42 with the ULL receiver slipping untouched coming out of his break on third and long. Just kidding, flags flying again. Why are we still talking about this?
17-13 at half, Wave getting the ball in the 2H. In the first half, the big play from Tchienchou was the difference. In the second, it was the kick return from Big Play Ray.
Rayshawn Pleasant with his second 90+ yard tuddy of the season. Not too shabby for a defensive back. The second one arguably more epic than the first as the wave needed separation in a tight game. Make this man full time kick and punt returner, he’s clearly got the vision and the speed to make big things happen.
The ULL offense responded immediately with an 80 yard run going the other way as this began to look like a high school game. Zero defense was being played on either side. They exchanged high speed 70 yard touchdown drives throughout the 3rd and early 4th quarter. This portion of the game can be described as Makhi good, defense bad, refs terrible.
To expand upon Makhi Hughes here, I was glad to see him finally getting the workload and success he deserves. I found it very strange that Duda was getting early down work in the first half, but I later heard that Makhi was under the weather coming into the game. No matter, he still tied a career high with 166 yards and a touchdown. If he’s a little healthier, he likely goes for 200 and we don’t see Barnes or Cornist at all. Makhi put the team on his back and carried the wave to victory.
After the 5th straight touchdown of the second half, the wave led a boa constrictor drive squeezing nearly 8 minutes off the clock. All Makhi all the time as the game ticked down to its final 6 minutes. ULL finally stopped Makhi on 3rd and 3 in the red zone. Feel free to fact check me, I think this was the only carry of the game that Makhi got less than 3 yards. Ethan Head knocked down his second field goal of the game and the wave led 41-33.
The defense finally made a stop on the other side of the ball with the Cajuns going 4 and out on their own 25. Much was made of this being a strange decision to go for it. Made a ton of sense to me, if you punt there the game is over. The Cajuns defense had not prevented points since their very first drive of the day.
In fact, the good field position confused the Tulane offense as they went Uber conservative and came away with no points on a drive that started on the opposing 25. Have to be a bit more aggressive there with the defense selling out to stop the run.
All is well that ends well though as Jalen Geiger sealed the victory with an interception. He considered making an effort at the waves 4th pick 6 of the season but then thought better of it and got down for the win. It was hot, it was ugly and did I mention the refs? None of that matters now as a win is a win. It all counts the same. The wave are back in the win column and riding high headed into a massive home tilt with USF. We win, we sing.
Tulane Football Blog 
Leave a comment