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Victory slips away from Army at Tulane

It was a game of “What Ifs” for Army Saturday?

What if Dawson Jones would have made a 44-yard field goal in the first quarter. Or what if quarterback Cale Hellums had connected on a long pass to a wide-open Brady Anderson at the goal line early in the second quarter?

Or what if Army had stopped Tulane on a key fourth-down play late in the fourth quarter or gained four more yards to sustain a drive in the waning moments that might have set up a game-winning field goal attempt or forced overtime?

None of those things happened and the result was a disappointing 24-17 loss to the Green Wave in front of a crowd of about 20,000 at Yulman Field in New Orleans. The loss dropped Army to 3-4 (2-3 American Conference), with its first leg of the Commander in Chief trophy coming up against Air Force in two weeks after a bye next weekend. Tulane is 6-1 overall and 3-0 in the American.

Army simply outplayed and outcoached the Green Wave for most of the game. The Black Knights utilized the impressive play of Hellums to dominate the time-of-possession (nearly 39 minutes to 21 minutes) with long, grinding drives that had to frustrate the Tulane coaching staff and keep its high-powered offense on the bench where they could cause no damage.

But, in the end, trailing by seven points with less than six minutes left, the Green Wave scored two touchdowns in a 1:27 span in the waning minutes of the contest to win the game and deprive Army of a signature victory.

“That was certainly disappointing,” said Army coach Jeff Monken. “I thought our guys played really hard and physical and made some really good plays at times. But so did theirs. The bottom line is that they just made more plays and made plays when they needed to make them at the end of the game particularly.

“We were in position to win it. We just could not make enough plays. Get a first down and keep a drive alive or get a stop and get them off the field. When it was tied 17-17 (with under two minutes left) we just needed a first down and we could not get it and had to punt to them. Credit to them. They put a drive together and made a play there and beat us.”

Hellums once again was a workhorse for Army. The junior signal caller rushed for 155 yards and two touchdowns on a backbreaking 39 carries. He also threw the ball 10 times, a lot by Army standards, and completed seven passes for 125 yards. But, his biggest throw of a game, a 39-yard pass, was a little behind a wide-open Anderson, who despite managing to get a hand on the ball, was unable to bring it in early in the second quarter.

“We threw the ball well,” said Hellums. “On the one to Brady, I just had to make it an easier catch. He was wide open. We were able to exploit some of the things in the secondary but on that one we just had to connect.

“Army football is run and pound the football on the ground and don’t turn it over and drain the clock with time of possession. I think we did a good job of that today. It was Army football but in the end we came up short.”

In the fourth quarter, after Tulane had tied the score with under two minutes left in the game, Hellums was stopped on three straight conservative up-the-middle plays, forcing the Black Knights to punt the ball back to Tulane with 1:28 left in regulation. That was enough time for the Green Wave’s quarterback senior Jake Retzlaff to mount a seven-play, 75-yard drive finished off when Shazz Preston made a circuit catch on a deflected ball in the end zone.

Going into the game, everyone knew that Army had to stop Retzlaff to have a chance. Keeping the BYU transfer off the field would accomplish DC a lot and Army’s first two drives took up nearly 19 minutes of the clock. That was the upside. The downside was the Black Knights came up with zero points on those drives, with Jones missing the field goal wide right on the first drive and turning the ball over on downs on the second drive.

Tulane was not much better. The Green Waves’ first drive of the game ended on a fourth down stop by the Army defense at the six-yard line. The second drive ended with successful field goal to take a 3-0 lead. Jones hit a 43-yard field goal late in the second quarter to tie the score 3-3 at halftime. A fast Tulane drive in the second half was stopped when Casey Larkin intercepted a Retzlaff pass in the end zone.

The teams traded rushing touchdowns in the second half, with Hellums scoring twice on one-yard runs and sandwiched around a 37-yard run by Retzlaff, who finished the game with 261 passing yards on 22 completions and two touchdowns, to give Army a 17-10 lead with less than six minutes left in the game.

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