Tulane @ East Carolina preview

Last Meeting ( Nov 22, 2014 ) Tulane 6, East Carolina 34

Tulane needs to run the table to become bowl eligible and looks to snap a four-game losing streak when it visits East Carolina in an American Athletic Conference game Saturday. The Green Wave missed a late field goal last week, falling to Cincinnati 17-16.



Tulane's Jonathan Banks passed for 196 yards and rushed for 75 more, including a 53-yard scramble for a touchdown, but Merek Glover, who had already kicked field goals of 37, 19 and 26 yards, missed from 36 yards out with 1:20 to play against Cincinnati. "Offensively, we showed some flashes, but we just weren't consistent enough," Tulane coach Willie Fritz told reporters. "We had to settle for some field goals instead of touchdowns." East Carolina has won six of the last seven games in the series but saw its bowl hopes vanish last week with a 52-27 setback at Houston. Gardner Minshew set a conference single-game record for completions (52) for East Carolina.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network. LINE: Tulane -5

ABOUT TULANE (3-6, 1-4 AAC): The Green Wave defense hasn't recorded a sack in a month while surrendering an average of 489 yards during the four-game losing streak. Banks has improved recently, passing for 399 yards while connecting on 32-of-54 attempts with three touchdowns in the past two games. Tulane, however, still ranks 120th among the 129 FBS teams nationally in passing yards at 137.1 yards per game.
ABOUT EAST CAROLINA (2-7, 1-4): Minshew came off the bench in relief of Thomas Sirk to also set school records for pass attempts (68) and completions (52) while throwing for 463 yards against the Cougars. Who gets the start Saturday is still up in the air according to coach Scottie Montgomery. "I thought two weeks ago against BYU (an ECU win), what we saw in Gardner is a much calmer quarterback than we did in the first couple of situations in the games that he was in, when he was a little bit more frantic in the pocket," Montgomery told reporters.


EXTRA POINTS
1. Tulane RB Dontrell Hilliard leads the team with nine touchdowns but hasn't scored in the past two games.
2. East Carolina WRs Trevon Brown and Quay Johnson combined for 25 receptions, 256 yards and three touchdowns last week.
3. The Pirates rank last in the nation by allowing 46.6 points per game.

PREDICTION: East Carolina 37, Tulane 34