Tulane can't recover from its mistakes in a 10-7 loss at UTSA

[Harry]

SAN ANTONIO—In a flash of yellow flags, the Tulane football team saw a reversal of fate on Saturday. The result was stinging: the Green Wave lost control of its Conference USA title fate.

Tulane needed to win out its final three games beginning with Saturday’s road game against UTSA in the Alamodome to win the West Division and secure a spot in the league championship game. Instead, the Green Wave lapsed into a two-game slide and couldn't conjure any of the mojo that helped it win close games earlier this season.

The 111 Tulane penalty yards, a busted coverage late, and the Roadrunners’ game-clinching field goal with less than a minute to go spoiled all that. Tulane lost 10-7 in front of a raucous crowd of 24,606 that produced an earful of distracting noise.

The Green Wave committed eight false-start penalties and the 111 total penalty yards were a season-high for Tulane.

“We just couldn’t overcome the number of penalties,” Tulane coach Curtis Johnson said. “Too many penalties, too many mistakes.”

There were none more costly than the final two false-start whistles. Tulane looked to be gathering that game-winning momentum when it started a drive with 9:42 to go and the score tied at 7.

Quarterback Nick Montana, in his second start since separating his shoulder Oct. 5 against North Texas, was clicking off yards left and right.

He found running back Rob Kelley over the middle for a 6-yard gain and then located Ryan Grant on the next play – a third down -- on a 5-yard strike to give Tulane a first down on the Tulane 48.

A few plays later, Montana made a brilliant move to elude two tacklers in the pocket, side-stepping one and then backing away from the other just in time to find Kedrick Banks over the middle for a 25-yard gain.

Tulane was positioning itself for the go-ahead drive, driving to win yet another tight Conference USA ballgame. Two plays later, the Green Wave was already on the UTSA 32 and with Lou Groza-winning kicker Cairo Santos, who has made two game-winning field goals this season, it was looking good for the Wave.

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