In the first game of his Tulane tenure, head coach Curtis Johnson arrived at the Superdome ready to make a good first impression against Rutgers, a stout Big East opponent, but the Green Wave fell short 24-12 on Saturday, committing 11 penalties and missing opportunities down the field throughout the game.

Tulane and Rutgers began with a series of three-and-outs, frequent punts and penalties on both sides, but the Scarlet Knights finally broke the scoreless tie with Jawan Jamison’s 46-yard touchdown run midway through the second quarter. The two teams traded field goals, and the half ended with Rutgers leading 10-3.

The Green Wave played without starting running back Orleans Darkwa, who is recovering from an ankle injury and star linebacker Trent Mackey, who was suspended indefinitely from the team following his arrest for armed robbery.

Tulane established an offensive rhythm late in the third quarter but struggled to find the end zone until quarterback Ryan Griffin connected with Robert Kelley for an 11-yard touchdown catch with 5:07 remaining in the fourth quarter.

“I’ve got to give Rutgers credit.” Johnson said. ” They came in and played well. We just had too many penalties: 11 [penalties] for 120 [yards]. That’s a football field worth of penalties. That’s two touchdowns we just gave away.”

During Tulane’s second series, Griffin completed an impressive 18-yard pass to sophomore wide receiver Ryan Grant, but the drive quickly stalled. Grant finished the game with six receptions for 110 yards.

In the second quarter, the Wave drove to the Rutgers 39-yard line but punted the ball once again, set up in a third-and-long situation after Kelley was tackled in the backfield for a three-yard loss. Tulane finished with only 8 rushing yards as a team.

Rutgers took advantage of the possession, scoring the breakaway 46-yard touchdown during its next series.

“It’s not what you want,” Griffin said. “We had drives that we definitely needed to score touchdowns on. It would have been a different game if we had punched those in.”

Later in the second quarter, Rutgers went for the first down on fourth-and-two on its 40-yard line, and cornerback Ryan Travis intercepted a Rutgers pass to put Tulane on its opponent’s 40-yard line, setting up Cairo Santos to cap the drive with a 40-yard field goal.

“I feel great about the defense,” Johnson said. “There were a couple times where we missed tackles, but I felt like those guys came to play. We’ll get better on defense. One time I looked out there, and it was three-quarters freshmen. We’ve got to keep working with those guys.

With 41 seconds remaining in the third quarter, a 24-yard Santos field goal cut the Scarlet Knights lead to 10-6, but during Tulane’s next possession, Rutgers picked off Griffin for a 14-yard interception touchdown return.

Kelley’s late touchdown left Tulane down by two scores, but the Wave missed the extra point.

“We kept getting behind on down, and then we became one-dimensional,” Johnson said. “We’ve just got to find the right guys. This was a learning experience for me to see who can play and who can’t. We’ll figure that out. I thought we were pretty generic tonight. We didn’t do very much, but we will figure out who the right guys are and be better next week.”

The 24-12 loss, which dropped Tulane to 0-1, was the Green Wave’s 11th straight defeat, dating back to last season. The Wave’s losing streak is its longest since a 17-game run that ended in 1963.

Johnson made his debut in front of a relatively robust announced crowd of 26,059, the largest announced figure since 28,756 attended a 41-23 homecoming loss against Army on Oct. 9, 2010.

Tulane will travel next week to square off against Tulsa on Saturday; the game will be the Green Wave’s first Conference USA matchup of the season.