Struggles in red zone still haunting Wave

BATON ROUGE -- Tulane has wrestled with many internal demons this season, but perhaps none have undercut its efforts more than red zone inertia. The Green Wave has scored 15 times in 23 trips within the 20-yard line and punched in only eight touchdowns.

That includes two hope-dashing red zone flubs against LSU in the first half of Saturday's 42-0 loss. It calculates out to a 34.78 percent-rate of touchdown conversions in the red zone. Tulane entered the night tied with three others teams in the nation at 108th in red zone scoring.

Against LSU, things got no better. On the first opportunity in the beginning of the second quarter, redshirt freshmen quarterback Ryan Griffin drove the Green Wave down to the LSU 14 but pitched the ball wildly to running back Andre Anderson. The ball hit the grass out of Anderson's reach and Griffin was credited with a 9-yard loss.

"We got to stop the little mistakes that are killing our drives and not allowing us to score to win these games, these close games, or win these games period," Anderson said. "We've got to turn that around and fix that."

Tulane kicker Ross Thevenot tried to salvage the drive with a field goal, but he kicked it wide left. The Green Wave marched 61 yards on its next possession to gain a first down on the Tiger 19. But Griffin's deep pass intended for Jeremy Williams was intercepted by Patrick Peterson.

Tulane Coach Bob Toledo said LSU made a big contribution to the red zone frustration.

"(The Tigers) haven't given up many points, they're good and we couldn't run the ball against them," Toledo said. "It was obvious we couldn't run the ball."

Tulane rushed for 26 yards. Even though the Green Wave was ahead in time of possession 31:50-28:10 and had some nice plays in the passing game -- it wasn't enough to put points on the board.

"I think the receivers played pretty well. I think Ryan played pretty well. This is a big, strong defensive football team. We knew coming in that we were not just going to line up and run the football, so our mantra going in was quick passing game and real quick drop-back possession throws," Green Wave offensive coordinator Dan Dodd said. "He got hit just as he threw the ball and the ball went over the receiver's head (on the interception)."

Tulane didn't get the opportunity to add to its ineptitude in the second half. The Green Wave advanced no further than its 46-yard line.

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