Saturday’s game against Kansas State University was one of the longest football games of my life, both in general length of the game and the emotional toll it had on me. After a great start that saw the wave up 20-10 at halftime, Kansas State rallied back and took the lead off a late fumble recovery for a touchdown. Now down a touchdown, freshman quarterback marched Tulane University down the field, only to throw an interception in the endzone following a controversial offensive pass interference call that took away a potentially game-tying touchdown—more on those refs later.

While Kansas State came away with a 34-27 win in Yulman Stadium, there were definitely a lot of positives from the Green Wave, who went toe to toe with a ranked opponent. Here are some of the main things I took away from the game, both in Tulane’s performance and the overall occurrences of what took place (or for lack of a better word, the officiating):

Darian Mensah is the real deal:

After a 10/12, 205 yard day against Southeastern Louisiana University, we knew the freshman could sling it. But the Kansas State game showed that Mensah has real talent and can fare well against any defense in the nation.

Mensah went 19/29 for 342 yards and two touchdowns, currently earning him a top 10 quarterback rating in all FBS quarterbacks through two weeks. He knows how to spread the ball around and take advantage of the many weapons at his disposal, including the speedy Mario Williams, Dontae Flemming and tight end Alex Bauman. More importantly, he has a composure in the pocket that many young, and even experienced, quarterbacks lack; I watched Bryce Young live Sunday, and I know for a fact Mensah would have made some of those throws that to the other team.

As far as areas to improve go, Mensah’s composure can cause him to wait in the pocket a little too long. Making the quick decision to throw the ball away is just as hard if not harder as the decision to throw to a receiver, but it is sometimes the necessary one. Mensah ended up being sacked five times, one of which leading to the game winning scoop and score.

It only gets harder for Mensah, who is now off to Norman, Oklahoma for a showdown against the Oklahoma University Sooners. A good performance in what is sure to be a hostile environment would certainly boost Mensah’s national credibility.

Every referee in the game should be fired and held accountable:

Here we go. Everyone is going to talk about the pass interference, and while Flemming could definitely improve his route running acting abilities, throwing a ticky tack flag to decide a game is appalling.

The poor officiating didn’t start in the final minutes of the game, however. For starters, the first half took about 30 minutes longer than it should have due to excess replays for calls that appeared obvious to me and fellow students in the student section that may or may not have been sober; we were objective drunks that gave several calls to Kansas State when called for. The second half, though, is when the officials really took the game into their own hands. In Tulane’s first drive of the half, Mensah got hit about five seconds after he threw an incompletion to Yukeith Brown—what should have been a clear roughing the passer. Following the game, Coach Sumrall said he received no explanation from the officials for any call and pointed out that it was a Big 12 officiating team.

Of course no games come down to just officiating, but being able to hold this crew accountable definitely made writing this article a little bit more fun.

Tulane may actually upset Oklahoma:

What appeared to be a circled loss on the schedule may not be so, despite the monumental challenge that awaits the Green Wave in Norman. Oklahoma is a balanced team with weapons on both sides of the ball, but it has not meshed perfectly so far this season. In fact, they just narrowly beat a terrible Houston team, led by former coach Willie Fritz, at home in an ugly 16-12 game. Quarterback Jackson Arnold struggled in that game, throwing for just 174 yards and rushing for 28, with an interception.

The Green Wave defense is coming off of a mostly strong showing against Kansas State, holding dual threat quarterback Avery Johnson to only 181 passing yards. Just like against the Wildcats, the main emphasis in Oklahoma has to be containing the run game and forcing Arnold to drop back behind the sticks. An early lead would certainly help Tulane with this. The Green Wave better hope that Willie Fritz didn’t force this Oklahoma team to wake up ahead of this weekend.