Tulane Beat Houston Thanks To A Fake Knee To Cap Off A 21-Point Comeback

Y’all want to see something crazy?

Houston and Tulane met in New Orleans on Thursday in the only football game worth mentioning, and proceeded to produce one of the craziest finishes of the season. The Cougars jumped out to a 28-7 lead, looking unstoppable as D’Eriq King and company carved up the Wave with touchdown after touchdown. Tulane, however, hung in and despite a wildly inefficient passing performance, still managed to run it down the Coogs throat to claw their way back.

The Wave cut the lead to 28-14 at the half to remain within touch, and then came out and absolutely dominated the second half on the ground. Tulane rushed for 325 yards on 50 carries (that’s a 6.5 ypc average) and while Justin McMillan was far from a marksman from the pocket, he did throw for three touchdowns and 186 yards on the evening, despite completing only seven passes.

And yet, Houston had the ball down three and marched down the field, all the way to the Tulane 5 with under a minute to play. However, on third down, they weren’t able to connect on a corner route as the ball slipped through the receivers fingertips, and with 25 seconds to play, they kicked a field goal to tie things up — some redemption for a kicker that had missed two on the night.

Tulane took a touchback and lined up in the kneel down formation and overtime seemed like an inevitability, until they broke out an all-time great trick play.

https://twitter.com/betmybookie/status/1174885917888266241

At this point I should note that Tulane closed anywhere from a 4.5 to 5 point favorite, which meant them getting in field goal range was actually to the delight of the Houston bettor (unless, like me, you decided to take the Coogs money line). All you needed was a pass play into Houston territory to have a chance at that sweet, sweet cover action, all the while Tulane could happily win the game. But it’s important to note that in the second half the Houston defense got very, very tired and decided they wanted no part of tackling — hence the 6.5 yards per carry for the Wave. When a team doesn’t really want to tackle, this happens.

It is, truly, one of the most ghastly beats of the season. It should’ve been a catch and a tackle by one of the three Houston defenders. This is up there with Auburn-Oregon and Stanford-Northwestern for the worst of the year. To Houston backers, I’m so sorry. To Tulane backers, well, the wrong side won, but you don’t care because you’re bathing in that sweet, sweet cash.