A Sigh of Relief

If you want to, you could look down your nose and mock Tulane’s 42-32 win over I-AA McNeese State. Certainly, a huge sigh of relief swept certain quarters of New Orleans when the result when final.

But, not here at Frank Helps You Think It All Out. If it would have been catastrophic to lose to the Cowboys, it is not cynical to be very, very relieved at the passing of the trial. How many catastrophic losses in your life have you avoided and not felt more than a little emotional charge? It is human nature- and no victory versus a corresponding real disastrous, humiliating loss should draw a completely cynical response.

And it would have been a real trial to lose. I’m not sure Coach Toledo would have been able to survive it and an associated 1-11 death spiral. And the last thing this program needs right now is another coaching change, another lost recruiting class, another sign of instability. You might laugh and say Tulane avoided rock bottom. True, but rock bottom is a bad place to be institutionally. There is a big cultural difference between hopeless rock bottom and having something to build to on- Anderson and Willaims, say?- even if slight.

So, good job Tulane!

Plus, it was a little better win in retrospect than at first glance. The Wave never was in danger of losing- took the lead in the second quarter for good, had a second half lead of three scores (42-25). McNeese never had the ball in the fourth quarter with a chance to go ahead- and a cosmetic score made the game look closer than it really was.

Yes, the Tulane defense continued to be shockingly terrible. But the Wave’s top two players- the aforementioned Williams and Anderson- were unstoppable. This is potentially important because with the bad C-USA defenses that litter the remaining schedule, there could be some more wins, or a least non-embarrassing games that feature reasons to go to the Dome (editor’s note: very close to being cynical).

I’m not sure Army presents that much harder of a test. Yes, of course, there is last year’s disaster. But the Wave and Andre Anderson should be able to run the ball here- and another 160 yard rushing day should have them in this? Plus, how dialed in is Army for the Wave here? More on that for Prediction Thursday.

PRAYdiction Thursday

A wag over on the nola.com forums is calling this “PRAYdiction Thursday”- as a very shaky Tulane Green Wave stares a solid I-AA program in the eye. In the typical ennui that surrounds Tulane, McNeese State comes into the Louisiana Superdome as the road team, despite a real probability the place will be swarming with more Cowboy fans than the Wave can generate right now?

I’ll get it out there upfront; I think Tulane wins this game. Yes, obviously, they better. But, really, nothing we’ve seen from the Wave should move you off any three-four win forecast; blowouts were preordained againt Tulsa and BYU. But even a three-win Tulane team should win here.

As one of those fellows in that specific prognostication bucket, I opine that Tulane will win 3-4 of its last eight-ish competitive games because the troika of Jeremy, Robottom and Anderson are credible skill players in this League. Further interesting, they are all Scelfo recruits- still not ONE positive skill player, in a skill player League, from the “bestest recruiter” ever!

So, Andre Anderson is a good C-USA player. Give him the ball, run it down their throats, give him every chance to have a 160 yard rushing day. If Andre doesn’t have 35 touches, the game plan is stupid. Seriously, that simple test should be applied to whatever comes out of the office this week as a “plan”. Use that pounding to open up spots for easy pitch and catch touches for the two talented wideouts.

Of course, with Coach Toledo one never knows.

My game plan is not a ringing endorsement of Anderson. Conversely, it is more that I know they can generate the touches (just hand Andre the ball), the quarterback needs help right now and if we can’t move these guys up front, who can we block?

Tulane has two big intangtibles here too. Tulane is coming off a bye week and the Green Wave figures to be desperate- this is a season saving effort Saturday. While it is a shame we can’t even schedule I-AA opponents to get rent-a-wins- the Toledo improvement continues!- I am pretty confident Tulane will handle these guys via rushing for a big number.