Tulane falls 38-14 to Cincinnati in Halloween football game at Yulman Stadium
Cincinnati quarterback and New Orleans native Munchie Legaux, center, throws against Tulane in the first half of their game at Yulman Stadium in New Orleans on Friday, October 31, 2014. (Photo by Chris Granger, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune) (Chris Granger)
By
Tammy Nunez, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on October 31, 2014 at 11:00 PM, updated November 01, 2014 at 12:13 AM
Tulane fans at the Cincinnati football game in Yulman Stadium on Halloween night must have felt like they were ding-dong-ditched.
The Green Wave fell into a 24-0 halftime hole and didn't have the plays to climb out. Instead, Tulane watched hometown hero Munchie Legaux, a Karr product, lead the Bearcats to a 38-14 victory.
Legaux completed 16-of-24 passes for 211 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for 16 yards. The Bearcats rushed for 265 yards on a night that Tulane couldn't finish on offense.
By the end, the stands were nearly vacant. The once-raucous student section had long since departed and hopes of a bowl game nearly dimmed.
The Green Wave (2-6, 1-3 in the American Athletic Conference) must win its final four games to become bowl eligible. Cincinnati (5-3, 3-1 in AAC) amassed 479 total yards and excelled on special teams to keep Tulane at bay.
But the night of horror started early for the Olive and Blue. First, the Wave lost key senior receiver Xavier Rush, who tore his ACL in Wednesday's practice. He watched the game from the sideline on crutches.
Then the Wave lost senior defensive end Tyler Gilbert to an ejection in the first quarter. He was flagged for targeting on a hit to Legaux after Legaux had fired off a pass attempt.
"That's very difficult because that's one of our leaders on the defensive line," Tulane defensive back Darion Monroe said. "He's a senior this year and to lose a guy like that, that gives us that second pass rushers other than Royce LaFrance and it's hard to do certain things so we have to switch up our defense a little more because of the younger guys coming into his position."
Gilbert was immediately tossed, leaving the Green Wave to use a three-man front most of the rest of the evening.
"He's on in about every package, a senior, a leader, if we gave a captain, he'd be captain," Tulane coach Curtis Johnson said. "Our team (after he got ejected) just looked like we were in la-la land. So Speedy (co-defensive coordinator Lionel Washington) had to call the game a little bit different. We had to use some different packages."
Legaux, who relieved Gunner Kiel after Kiel threw an interception to Parry Nickerson on the first play of the game, impressed his hometown by ticking off 10 completions for 159 first half yards and two touchdowns.
"Our kids should have adjusted a little bit better," Johnson said. "Munchie played well, but we missed tackles. We made some really critical mistakes, and we just can't have that. We knew how good their offense is, they are a very good football team."
Nickerson's pick was the sole Tulane highlight of the first half. It was his fourth interception of the season, handing the ball over to Lee and the Wave offense.
Quarterback Tanner Lee drove the offense 55 yards on four plays but was sacked for a 10-yard loss on fourth-and-goal.
"We came out fired up and we stalled don the 1-yard line," Lee said. "The Cincinnati defense made a play, they had the right defense called but it's just kind of how the game went."
The Green Wave never got that close to scoring again in the first half.
Lee made his first start since getting injured Sept. 27 against Rutgers. He completed 12-of-20 passes for 112 yards in the first two quarters, but couldn't orchestrate a scoring drive in the first half. The Green Wave punted five times, missed a 51-yard field goal badly and muffed a punt that was recovered for a Cincinnati touchdown.
Lee finished with 24-of-35 passing for 205 yards. He threw no interceptions but was sacked twice including the fateful one on fourth-and-goal.
"It was a tough night for us," Johnson said. "Offensively it took Tanner a little bit to get back into it. I thought he played well for the most part."
The Green Wave resurged slightly in the second half behind freshman running back Dontrell Hilliard. Hilliard, who finished with a career-high 124 rushing yards, keyed the Green Wave in the second half with a 45-yard, tackle-busting run down the right side to put Tulane on the UC 19. Lazedrick Thompson made up the difference on the next play, scoring the Wave's first touchdown of the night.
Hilliard's touches increased when both Sherman Badie and Thompson went out in the second half with ankle injuries. Johnson said that Badie's wasn't severe and Badie could have re-entered.
But Hilliard was having the night of his season at that point.
"There are a lot of positives to take out of this game and I think one of them is sitting right here," Lee said nodding to Hilliard in the post-game press conference. "We had Sherman go down and we had a freshman who stood up and ran for (124) yards. He didn't ask me any questions, he knew exactly what to do. He was on point and I felt comfortable with him next to me. And our offensive line is pretty young and those guys battled the whole game. I'll just take those positives. There are plenty of positives to take out of this loss."
After Thompson's touchdown, Darion Monroe backed the positive offensive move with an interception that keyed another Tulane touchdown drive. His pick put Tulane on its 41 and Lee drove the Wave 59 yards in nine plays and capped the drive with a 10-yard touchdown throw to Charles Jones II. Jones jumped up to snare the play-action scoring pass. With the kick, Tulane shaved the Bearcats lead to 24-14 with 4:48 to go in the third quarter.
Cincinnati got moving, however, on the ensuing drive. Mike Boone burst over the left side of the line on a 3rd-and-1 to put the Bearcats on the Tulane 33. Legaux finished the drive with an 18-yard throw to Shaq Washington in the right corner of the end zone. Washington made a one-handed catch and the kick was good for a 31-14 Cincinnati lead.
The Bearcats' 479 total yards and big plays kept the Green Wave from mounting much of a comeback. That was the most yards Tulane has give up since the season opening 592 it ceded to Tulsa.
"We weren't able to play the defense that we wanted to run a little bit and then we couldn't get off the field -- too many big plays that we gave up," Johnson said. "Those were just plays that we should have made."
Tulane safety Sam Scofield led the Green Wave with seven tackles.
"We came out just how we wanted to: based on film they throw the deep ball first play of the game (Nickerson's interception)," Scofield said. "We were there for it and made a play. From there we gave up too many big plays. We really didn't play that bad of a game; just five or six big plays that just killed us."
The Green Wave had no more answers and left the night with more questions about the young program trying to find footing in its AAC debut season.
Tulane plays Nov. 8 at Houston.
And Johnson isn't even mentioning the word bowl between now and then.
"I would think we are so young, our goals have got to be very very shortsighted," he said. "We've got to play each (game). We have to play Houston. We have to take it quarter by quarter, we've got to take it play by play. It's sounds silly, but that's what we have to do. All these kids were playing in high school last year are going to redshirt team last year. ... We are going to go to Houston and not one of these kids that we've mentioned (who had big nights vs. Cincinnati) have ever gone to Houston probably until it's for a storm."
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