Army Black Knights (6-1) vs. Tulane Green Wave (4-4)
- Start Time: 12:00 PM EST
- Location: Yulman Stadium, New Orleans, LA
- TV: ESPN+
- Line: Tulane -4.5
- FPI: Tulane 56.4%
- O/U: 47.5
- Series: Tulane leads 12-9-1 (won last three)
Army Black Knights
It feels like it’s been forever since Army took the field and beat Mercer.
Army should be well rested, one bye week and one cancelled rivalry game will do that to you.
The Black Knights need a win against a decent team, here’s their shot. Who will lead them at quarterback? Your guess is as good as mine.
Jabari Laws was hinting that he was coming back on Twitter two weeks ago. Realistically it could be Jabari Laws, Christian Anderson, Cade Ballard, Tyhier Tyler, or Jemel Jones.
They have had six different quarterbacks take snaps, Laws coming back would make a seventh. It’s truly impressive that Army is sitting at 6-1 given the rotating door at quarterback.
All this talk about the quarterback position made me forget about Army fan’s new favorite, freshman slotback Tyrell Robinson. The Electrician has been a spark plug for the Army offense, burning opposing defenses left and right. He leads the team in rushing with 325 yards on 38 carries. Shockingly, he only has one touchdown and it’s a receiving one.
A big reason why they have been so successful is the defense. They have nine interceptions through their seven games which is the most in a single season since 2016.
Jabari Moore also has a pick six and a fumble recovery for a touchdown.
The defense only gives up 11.7 points per game and only 103.6 rushing yards. They would be story of the season if it weren’t for all of the QB’s having success.
Tulane Green Wave
The Green Wave are an interesting team. I watch them and think: “this is either a really good team or a really bad one”.
They blew a 24-0 halftime lead to Navy and lost 27-24. It wasn’t like Navy played great football to come back either, Tulane just forgot how to play football.
The next week and went out and put 66 points on Southern Miss. They followed that up by dropping three straight to Houston, SMU, and UCF.
They are now coming into this game on a two game win streak, beating Temple and ECU. They are like Army, in that they don’t have a win over an impressive team yet.
The Green Wave benched quarterback Keon Howard and the freshman Michael Pratt stepped in and has looked pretty good. So far he has 1,111, 12 touchdowns, and four interceptions in five games. This Black Knights defense will be his biggest test thus far.
Their defense gives up nearly 30 points per game (29.5) and they are venerable against the pass (305.3 YPG). They have a pretty good run defense only allowing 127.1 yards per game.
The key for Tulane’s defense is stopping the fullback. If they can take away Sandon McCoy and Jakobi Buchanan, it will make it harder for the QB’s and slotbacks to get going on the outside.
Prediction
This game is truly a toss up.
Some people will tell you Tulane has an advantage because they played Navy and their triple option already. But, if you’ve watch any of Navy’s games this year, you’d see that they are so far removed from their normal triple option offense that it won’t be a factor.
Army wins this game if their defense forces the freshman QB into some mistakes. If they can steal a possession or two that would be huge for the Army offense. They’ll be able to kill clock and put up some points.
Tulane wins this game if they stop the fullback. We saw it in the Cincinnati game. Army couldn’t get the fullback dive established and they tried to pass and do things out of the ordinary. They lost because of it.
I think Army will make Pratt look like a freshman QB. Defensive coordinator Nate Woody loves disguising pressure and I think that will get to him.
Army in a tight one. They get their first win over Tulane since 2011 when Raymond Maples led the way with 141 yards on the ground.
Army 28-Tulane 24
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