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Alabama tops Tulane in sloppy performance

Sep 7, 2008 - 3:48 AM TUSCALOOSA, Alabama (Ticker) -- Alabama clearly did not heed Nick Saban's warning against a letdown.

One week after an impressive win on national television, the 17th-ranked Crimson Tide overcame an extremely sluggish performance to post a 20-6 victory over Tulane on Saturday.

Alabama (2-0) made headlines seven days ago with its 34-10 thrashing of then-No. 9 Clemson in the Georgia Dome. The underdog Crimson Tide limited Clemson's vaunted offense to a net total of zero rushing yards in the prime-time game.

But Saban was quick to remind his team - and the media - of Alabama's penchant for complacency following emotional wins during his news conference this week.

The warning proved prophetic, as the Crimson Tide managed 172 yards of total offense against a Tulane team that was displaced by Hurricane Gustav.

"We had too many negative plays," said Saban, who recorded his 100th career collegiate victory. "It's great to win, but you don't feel good about it when you don't play well. Give Tulane credit, too. They played well."

The Green Wave were forced to evacuate their New Orleans campus seven days ago and held their practices in Birmingham, Alabama.

But Tulane (0-1) delivered an inspired defensive performance in its season opener, limiting Alabama to 11 first downs, recovering a fumble and recording four sacks against Crimson Tide quarterback John Parker Wilson.

"I'm just proud of our football players giving as good an effort as they did," Tulane coach Bob Toledo said. "They played hard until the end."

Alabama scored the game's only two touchdowns on special teams in the first quarter.

The Crimson Tide opened the scoring just over four minutes into the contest when Javier Arenas dashed and darted his way to an 87-yard touchdown on a punt return.

"(Arenas) was fantastic," Saban said. "We were in punt safety and not in a return when he (returned) the ball 90 yards, or whatever it was. It was a great play."

Alabama made it 14-0 with 3:15 remaining in the first quarter when Roy Upchurch blocked Darren deRochemont's punt. Chris Rogers picked up the loose ball at Tulane's 17-yard line and raced into the end zone to double Alabama's advantage.

"We played OK on special teams and we made some plays and scored a touchdown," Saban said. "Offensively, we couldn't get anything going."

Aside from the special-teams highlights, Alabama looked nothing like the team that collected 419 yards of total offense - including 239 on the ground - last week against Clemson.

Wilson was under pressure throughout and completed 11-of-23 passes for 73 yards.

Ross Thevenot kicked a pair of field goals while Kevin Moore passed for 225 yards for Tulane, which fell to 11-27-3 all-time against the Crimson Tide.

"All in all I thought we battled hard, came in and played, put our head down and didn't get too much in awe of the situation," Moore said. "I was proud of us for that. A couple of breaks go here and there, a couple of plays on special teams or if the offense could have put it in."