Tulane held off ECU from pulling off an upset on its home ground during the last minutes of the Week 6 game. The Green Wave suddenly collapsed in the second half, and the Pirates swopped in to make use of the free room. Jake Retzlaff ultimately helped the Tulane offense somehow keep the fight alive, but state was so bad in the later part of the game that an unsuspecting Tulane saw ECU tie the score at 19 before the 4 quarter. But Jake Retzlaff knew where his unit lacked in the game: the third-downs.

In a post-game presser, the QB noted,  “I mean, they’re all in the red zone,” “We just shot ourselves in the foot. It was just all us. Like, you see the evidence of the way we moved the ball,” he added. ECU was 10-of-19 on third down conversions. Tulane, on the other hand, finished at a dismal 3-10. “[The] fact that we’re not scoring, it just shows it’s just us. I mean, we’ve got to be better in the red zone, just period. We’ve got to have a higher touchdown percentage,” Retzlaff added.

Those three 3 downs conversions happened in Tulane’s final possession, with just 5:48 left on the clock. The ECU defense had surprisingly blocked Tulane’s first seven. Retzlaff and Co. had established a 12-0 lead by halftime, but could only score next in the 4 quarter. The QB even fumbled the ball at the start of the quarter while running to ECU’s 2-yard mark.

Tulane surprisingly has a good ranking in the American for red zone offense, at No. 3. But it has dropped in scoring offense to No. 10, having brought in only 17 TDs. The Green Wave is still a contender to make the playoffs from the G5 level, but it hasn’t shown enough. The offense has become dependent on Retzlaff’s arm and legs to keep itself alive. Even after 6 games, Tulane simply seems to be somehow winging the games each week. Jon Sumrall also took note of his team’s glaring flaws against ECU.

Jon Sumrall disappointed in team despite win over ECU

Jon Sumrall has to do more to ensure Tulane goes beyond the bar he set for himself last year. But the ECU game showed how out of sync the team is as they hit the middle of the season. It was a win, but Tulane had every opportunity to also win this one commandingly. Instead, it all came down to last-minute heroics. “We’re a really sloppy football team that finds ways to win games,” Sumrall told ESPN. Granted, Tulane is 5-1 on the season and is very much in place to still have hope for the big wins. But a closer look shows that a lot needs to be worked on for Sumrall.

Tulane racked up an alarming penalty total of 11 for 96 yards. They have the highest penalty total in the American Conference so far in the season, at 51. The Green Wave seems to be operating in bursts of good play, after that Northwestern win in Week 1. Tulane got in 6 chances to make scores in ECU’s red zone, and scored in 4 of them. The Pirates, on the other hand, scored on all their red zone attempts at the TCU side (3-for-3). Jon Sumrall still has half a season left to complete. And they face rthe eigning American champions Army, next. He’s got to fix things up for the remaining half of Tulane’s calendar.

“I’m gonna lose my mind because we’re so immature. We’ve gotta grow up fast. I’m glad we won. I’m not happy with how we played,” Sumrall added. The ECU win is something Tulane fans are happy about, but not impressed with. This became a clash where the underdog Pirates went toe-to-toe with Tulane, almost leaving the latter with no way out. Jake Retzlaff can’t be left to do all the heavy lifting every time for Tulane; the team has to get its act together as a serious unit.