Tuesday, October 16, 2001

Offense struggles in conference loss
Printers to have MRI on shoulder
By Kelly Morris
Skiff Staff

Head football coach Gary Patterson said Saturday’s game against Tulane was supposed to be one the Frogs should have won.

But after having five turnovers and just 183 passing yards compared to Tulane’s 355, the Frogs second Conference USA win was not meant to be as they lost 48-22.

After sophomore tailback Corey Connally ran for 199 yards against Houston Sept. 29, the Frogs had just 131 total rushing yards against the Green Wave. Before the game, the Tulane defense, which was ranked 113th out of 115 NCAA Division I-A teams in rushing defense, was allowing an average of 257 rushing yards a game. The Green Wave also ranked 114th in total defense allowed an average of 530.5 yards a game in their previous games.

While Connally was the Frogs leading rusher, he had 19 carries for only 74 yards against the Green Wave. He said the problems with the Frogs’ offense, which only managed two touchdowns, were caused by their own mistakes.

“It wasn’t because they (Tulane) were an extremely physical team or just that they ran us over.” Connally said. “We had a few miscues on the offense, but they just outscored us.”

Connally, who had a 68-yard touchdown called back in the third quarter, said the penalties were also a factor in the game’s outcome.

“To be honest with you, I really don’t mean to make excuses for anybody including myself, but Saturday, I feel like we played against the referees as well. We got some extremely bad calls that could have made the difference in the game.”

Injuries:
Junior quarterback Casey Printers left in the second quarter with a shoulder injury and did not return for the second half. Results of Printers MRI Monday were not available at press time. Patterson said Printers could not raise his arm above his shoulder.

After missing four games because of an aggravated hamstring, senior tight end Matt Schobel suffered a partially dislocated shoulder in his first game back since hurting his hamstring in the Frogs’ season opener against Nebraska. Senior weak safety Charlie Owens tore the meniscus in his knee and junior free safety Kenneth Hilliard has turf toe. Senior defensive end Joe Hill and sophomore defensive tackle Chad Pugh both suffered concussions. Of those injured, Patterson said Hilliard, Pugh and Printers will probably not play against Army this Saturday.

Kelly Morris
k.lmorris@student.tcu.edu