SAN ANTONIO — Texas-San Antonio dubbed its Thursday night affair with Tulane a Lights Out game, wearing black jerseys and black pants for the first time this season.
The designation fit. After Tulane scored on the first possession, it went to sleep and did not wake up until it was far too late.
UTSA quarterback Owen McCown completed his first 16 passes with two scoring tosses, and wide receiver David Amador threw for a third touchdown on an end around as the Roadrunners answered the Green Wave touchdown with 31 consecutive points before halftime, capitalizing on an avalanche of mistakes and breakdowns on its way to a 48-26 victory at the Alamodome that was even more lopsided than the score indicated.
Two days earlier, Tulane coach Jon Sumrall dismissed concerns about any distractions with his name swirling in speculation about the open LSU job, but for whatever reason, his team played as if in a daze.
The defense hardly could get a stop, giving up 525 yards. The offense kept stopping itself, committing four turnovers among other miscues.
“I don’t think the team was distracted,” Sumrall said. “I know I’m not. I kind of tired of people asking me questions about it. Distracted about what? There are zero distractions, and if we have any distractions, I don’t understand it because we’re in the middle of a really challenging conference schedule where it takes your full focus and full effort and full energy to be the best you can be.”
So much for Tulane’s 13-game winning streak in regular-season American Conference road games that dated to the beginning of 2022. UTSA won its 24th conference home game in a row, a streak that coincides with sixth-year coach Jeff Traylor’s tenure.
The Green Wave (6-2, 3-1) fell into a logjam of American teams with one league loss eight days before a must-win game at Memphis for its championship hopes.
The Roadrunners (4-4, 2-2) provided another example of why no one wants to face them at the Alamodome.
“It’s a disappointing loss,” Sumrall said. “It starts with me and really ends with me, too. I’ve got to have the team ready to play better. The way we played is frustrating. We never felt like we could stay in rhythm (offensively) and their quarterback had us on our heels. Fantastic game. He’s a phenomenal player.”
Tulane’s issues started immediately following quarterback Jake Retzlaff’s 1-yard sneak that capped the seven-play, 75-yard opening drive that began when he ran untouched for 39 yards. A surprise 2-point try failed, and Texas-San Antonio needed only six plays to take the lead for good. McCown hit tight end Patrick Overmyer for 44 yards against safety Bailey Despanie, then found a wide-open Amador for a 2-yard score.
The tone was set.
A Javin Gordon fumble — two plays after Maurice Turner’s fumble was recovered by teammate Shadre Hurst — gave the ball to the Roadrunners at the Tulane 44, leading to a field goal.
Retzlaff threw wide of tight end Justyn Reid on fourth down from the Texas-San Antonio 39, leading to a 6-yard touchdown pass by McCoun against a defense that was leaking holes everywhere.
A false-start penalty on Hurst turned a first-and-goal at the UTSA 2 into a hurdle the Wave could not overcome when Anthony Brown-Stephens dropped a third-down pass at the 1. Patrick Durkin then hooked a 23-yard field goal wide of the left upright — his first miss in 15 attempts this season.
Pressing with a 17-6 deficit, Retzlaff threw an interception deep into double coverage, and UTSA responded with a four-play 67-yard drive that ended with Amador’s easy toss for a 21-yard score when all of Tulane’s defensive backs ran up to defend the end around.
A breakdown on the offensive line forced Retzlaff to throw before he was ready on an ensuing third down, creating a three-and-out.
Although McCown finally threw an incomplete pass, the Wave defense could not respond in kind, allowing an 11-yard gain on a draw on third-and-10 to backup running back Will Henderson before back-to-back completions covered 48 yards, making the score 31-6 with 45 seconds left in the half.
Tulane’s only other visit to the Alamodome was a 10-7 loss in 2013 when Sumrall was the Wave’s co-defensive coordinator. His defense certainly could not be blamed for that one, but it was a different story this time around.
“It’s frustrating when things don’t go your way, but we felt like we were one play away from changing it,” safety Bailey Despanie said. “Things just didn’t go our way tonight.”
UTSA’s Robert Henry, the nation’s second leading rusher entering the game, played a secondary role to his quarterback and receivers, finishing with 87 yards on 16 carries.
McCown, a second-year starter whose season high was 243 yards passing against Incarnate Word, blew by that number on UTSA’s opening series of the second half and finished 31 of 33 for 370 yards and four touchdowns.
” We had a drop, and he threw one away,” Texas-San Antonio coach Jeff Traylor said. “That’s pretty much perfect.”
On the drive, the Roadrunners overcame runs that lost 2 and 4 yards plus a false-start penalty, getting a 10-yard touchdown run by Henderson that erased any question of a reversal of fortune after the break.
“That was the story of the night,” Sumrall said. “As soon as we felt like were going to create a negative play or two, they found their way out of it, and when they created negative plays for us, we just didn’t find our ways out of it as easily. Very frustrating night across the board.”
Retzlaff had thrown for a 10-yard touchdown to receiver Zycarl Lewis with seven seconds left in the first half, giving the Wave some semblance of hope with a 31-12 deficit.
A second interception on a pass that sailed right to safety Jermarius Lewis at the UTSA 4 snuffed out any hope and also ended Retzlaff’s night. Brendan Sullivan replaced Retzlaff, but the Wave’s best pass of the evening came on a 42-yard strike from wideout Jimmy Calloway to Omari Hayes in the back of the endzone on a trick play, cutting the deficit to 38-19 with 3:26 left in the third quarter.
“That was a good ball,” Hayes said. “I didn’t even know if was going to throw it or not. I was in the back of the end zone.”
Those moments were rare on this night.
Tulane played its second consecutive game without senior linebacker Sam Howard, its leading returning tackler, who had 31 stops before suffering a leg injury in the fourth quarter against East Carolina. Sumrall said earlier this week he was not sure whether or not Howard would be available against Memphis.