Duke traveled to New Orleans for a Saturday night game against Tulane and were handled by the Green Wave 34 to 27 in a contest that did not feel as close as the final margin. All the pregame hype was centered on Duke quarterback Darian Mensah’s return to New Orleans to face his former team; however, once the game commenced new Tulane quarterback Jake Retzlaff dominated the narrative rushing for 111 yards and four touchdowns, while passing for 245 yards.
Mensah recorded his third consecutive 300 yard
passing game as a Blue Devil completing 30 of 51 attempts for 313 yards, one touchdown and one interception in the loss. Freshman running back Nate Sheppard had a noteworthy performance rushing for 75 yards on five carries plus four receptions for 21 yards. Que’Sean Brown was Duke’s leading receiver recording six receptions for 81 yards.
On the defensive side of the ball, DeShawn Stone recorded eight tackles and Nick Morris, Jr. recovered a Jake Retzlaff fumble to notch Duke’s first forced turnover on the season.
Play One: At the 10:50 mark of the 1st Quarter, Tulane quarterback Jake Retzlaff executed the zone read option and rushed for a 19-yard touchdown. This was the first of his four rushing touchdowns. He added TD runs of 6, 20 and 11 yards.
Play Two: With 8:35 remaining in the 1St Quarter, Todd Pelino missed a 44-yard field goal attempt. Duke was called for back-to-back false starts which moved the attempt back 10-yards. This was the first of multiple special teams’ miscues in the game. Duke also fumbled a snap on a field goal attempt, had a field goal attempt blocked and was called for roughing the punter penalty on a Tulane punt.
Play Three: Darian Mensah connected with Sahmir Hagans on a 29-yard touchdown pass with 18 seconds remaining in the 1st half. The two-points conversion failed so Duke went to the locker room down 24-9.
Play Four: On Tulane’s opening possession of the 2nd half, Duke forced a Retzlaff fumble and Duke took over possession of the ball at the Tulane 42-yard line. Five plays later, Mensah completed a 3-yard touchdown pass to tight end Landen King. Duke had scored 13 consecutive points to cut the deficit to 24-16.
Play Five: At the 9:35 mark of the 3rd Quarter, Tulane faced a 4th and 2 at their own 45-yard line. Tulane rolled the dice and went for it on 4th Down and Duke was unable to get the stop as Retzlaff rushed for 3-yards and a 1st Down. Four plays later Tulane scored to go up 31-16.
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