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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: RACHEL CATON
NO. 25 ARMY DROPS ROAD CONTEST AT TULANE, 38-12
NEW ORLEANS – No. 25 Army football fell, 38-12, to the Tulane Green Wave on Saturday afternoon at Yulman Stadium.
The Green Wave (5-4) jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, as the Black Knights (6-2) looked to gather some rhythm with quarterback Christian Anderson making his first start since vs. Abilene Christian on October 3.
The Black Knights got things going with their first drive of the second quarter. They capped off a 10-play, 77-yard drive with a 10-yard touchdown reception for Tyrell Robinson, his second receiving touchdown of the season. The extra point attempt by Landon Salyers was blocked, however, and it was a 14-6 ballgame.
With 4:12 left in the first half, the Black Knights scored their second touchdown of the game on a 19-yard rush by Anderson. The two-point conversion attempt failed and the Black Knights trailed by two entering halftime, 14-12.
The Green Wave got the ball to start the second half and finished off a nine-play, 75-yard drive with a 21-yard touchdown pass, giving Tulane a 21-12 lead.
A 26-yard field goal by Tulane’s Merek Glover with 5:38 left in the third quarter but the Black Knights down by 12, 24-12.
The Black Knight offense worked to get things going, eating up 8 minutes and 12 seconds of clock from the third quarter into the fourth, as Tyhier Tyler and Anderson both took snaps from under center. However, the 17-play, 62-yard drive stalled out on the Tulane 10 yard line as they were unable to find the end zone.
The defense held strong, forcing a punt on Tulane’s first possession of the fourth quarter, giving the ball back to the offense with 6:55 left in the half.
On fourth and 11 on Army’s 19 yard line with 5:22 left in the game, the Black Knights attempted a fake punt, but the Green Wave sniffed it out, with Arik Smith getting tackled for a loss of two yards.
The Green Wave got the ball at Army’s 17 yard line and punched it in on a 14-yard rush by Jha’Quan Jackson, making it 31-12 Tulane with 4:26 left in the half.
The Black Knights tried another trick play on a kickoff, as Tyrell Robinson attempted a backwards pass after receiving the kickoff, that was collected by Tulane’s Jaetavian Toles who took it to the house, putting the Black Knights down 38-12.
NOTES
- DL Nolan Cockrill led the team with 3.0 tackles-for-loss.
- LB Jon Rhattigan had 2.0 tackles-for-loss on the day.
- QB Christian Anderson connected on his second-career passing touchdown and first of the 2020 season.
- QB Anderson rushed for his fourth touchdown of the season.
- Army had 47 rushing yards on 14 carries in the first quarter, but got things going with 143 yards on 20 attempts in the second quarter.
- RB Tyrell Robinson hauled in his second-career receiving touchdown.
- Freshman OL Connor Finucane made his first-career start at right tackle, marking the 23rd Black Knight to be a first-time starter in 2020.
QUOTES
LB Jon Rhattigan
“I think Tulane is a very well-coached team and they have a great offense. They have a lot of athleticism and they had a good game plan coming in. It is a credit to their players and their staff, they definitely did a good job. We did our best to stop them and stop the run and try to make them one-dimensional. After half, letting them score on their first possession definitely didn’t help and we did our best to maintain the game at that point.”
QB Christian Anderson
“First off, I just want to give credit to Tulane. They are a very physical, very fast team. In practice, I thought we had a good couple weeks preparing for them, we just didn’t perform as well as we needed to today.”
Head Coach Jeff Monken
“No. 1, I think Tulane has a really good football team. They seem to improve every week and they have lost a couple games along the way, but they took SMU, a team that is in the top 25 to overtime and they have been playing very well. They played very tough against UCF who is very talented. They do a nice job coaching their guys. They had a good plan for us and we were right there with them in the first half, I thought we had a great chance to win the game. We ran the ball very effectively in the second quarter, got the touchdown with the chance to tie it up with the two-point conversion, but unfortunately we came up short there. I thought we had a great chance to win the game. They scored on the opening drive and stretched the lead on us and we just couldn’t get anything going offensively in the run game and that is how we win. We aren’t going to be able and chunk it, we were going to have to run the quarter like we did in the second quarter, which there was evidence there that we could move the ball and run it effectively.”
UP NEXT
Army will return home to Michie Stadium to host Georgia Southern on Saturday, Nov. 21 at 12 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network.