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Box Score EMOJICAP: USF 34, Tulane 28

This week we have NCAA high scores being set, an efficient use of time on offense, and well... whatever that last quarter and a half was.

By Nick Simon
NCAA Football: South Florida at Tulane Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports

Another Box Score EMOJICAP for you guys where we take a look at USF's 34-28 victory over Tulane that... well, got a little bit too close for comfort towards the end.

Let's dive in...

USF set a new NCAA "high score" with its 24th consecutive 30+ point game, breaking the previous record set by Chip Kelly's Oregon teams from 2011-12.

The record dates back to November 14, 2015, when the Bulls stomped out then No. 21 Temple 44-23 to become bowl eligible.

Bill Connelly put this mark into even more perspective.

On top of that, the Bulls are 7-0 for the first time in school history, and extended the longest current win streak in FBS to 12.

Facing an option-based team like Tulane requires a lot of patience, considering just how long they can hang on to the football.

By holding possession for 12:03(!) in the first quarter and 9:14 in the second, it was clear from the jump that the Green Wave planned to use ball control to wear the USF defense down and keep Quinton Flowers and the USF offense off the field.

But!

USF effectively made use of the time they had the ball for most of the game.

Through 2 1⁄2 quarters, USF had eight possessions. Two started on their own 1-yard line. Five of the other six ended with touchdowns. All of those scoring drives took less than three minutes, which put even more pressure on a plodding Tulane offense to respond quickly.

Also, this was the fifth time this season that the Bulls offense has put up 300 yards on the ground, with Darius Tice (141) and Quinton Flowers (138) both crossing the century mark.

Having a commanding 34-7 lead with three minutes left in the third, things would go smoothly from that point forward, right?

......Uhhhhhh, not quite.

Here's how each Tulane drive went down the stretch:

  • 3 plays, 63 yards, 54 seconds, Touchdown
  • 7 plays, 20 yards, 3:07, Punt
  • 4 plays, 54 yards, 1:51, Touchdown
  • 5 plays, 71 yards, 1:23, Touchdown

And here's how each USF drive went after they went ahead 34-7:

  • 9 plays, 37 yards, 3:26, Interception (off a deflection)
  • 9 plays, 18 yards, 2:42, Badly shanked Emilio Nadelman field goal.
  • 3 plays, 5 yards, 1:45, Punt
  • 9 plays, 26 yards, 3:31, with a big D'Ernest Johnson run called back for a chop block, resulting in a blocked field goal
  • 6 plays, 34 yards, 2:45, QB kneel to run out the clock

It's almost as if the two teams switched places. The Green Wave started playing with a sense of desperation (and hitting big plays) while the Bulls were trying to power things down and get out of there. (On Sunday, Jamie wrote about how this is a tendency with Charlie Strong teams.)

Now clearly certain things went wrong that prevented USF from truly icing the game, but maaaannn you cannot play with fire like that.

Shoutout to everyone that made the trip up to New Orleans for the weekend.

You could clearly hear the USF fans in attendance drowning out the Tulane fans on TV. It got to a point where on Tulane third downs, you saw defensive linemen like Bruce Hector try to pump up the crowd. On the road!

Good job Bulls fans.