South Alabama’s latest football trip to New Orleans went about like the last one.

Quarterback Michael Pratt and No. 24 Tulane shredded the Jaguars defensively in a 37-17 victory on Saturday night at Yulman Stadium. Pratt threw for 294 yards and four touchdowns, completing 14 of 15 passes.

The performance by South Alabama (0-1) was eerily reminiscent of last December’s New Orleans Bowl, when Western Kentucky’s Austin Reed threw for 497 yards and four touchdowns in a 44-23 victory at the nearby Caesar’s Superdome. As in that game, the Jaguars got little pressure on the opposing quarterback on Saturday, leaving receivers running uncontested in the secondary.

“Defensively, we wanted to limit explosive plays, and we’ve got a very experienced secondary that put their eyes in the wrong place,” Wommack said. “… Credit (Tulane), they had a good plan. But it’s a hard pill to swallow when you just don’t execute.

“… We played losing football. And that’s exactly what the score and the game indicated, based on how we executed.”

Tulane (1-0) led 24-10 at halftime, with Pratt connecting on touchdown passes of 4 yards to Chris Brazzell, 47 yards to Jha’Quan Jackson and 47 yards to Lawrence Keys. The first score came after South Alabama’s La’Damian Webb fumbled the ball away on the game’s second play.

After the Green Wave jumped out to a 10-0 including a 29-yard Valentino Ambrosio field goal, South Alabama got on the board when quarterback Carter Bradley scrambled for a 4-yard touchdown with 11:54 left in the second quarter. Tulane immediately answered, however, reaching the end zone in just two passing plays of 39 and 47 yards.

“We’ve got to find those holes on film and patch them up,” South Alabama safety Jaden Voisin said. “People are going to attack us based on that (Western Kentucky) film. We’ve got to clean some things up in that area.”

Pratt’s third touchdown pass — again at the end of a 2-play drive — put Tulane up 24-7. South Alabama converted a strip sack by Khalil Jacobs into points late in the half, with Diego Guajardo hitting a 36-yard field goal to cut Tulane’s lead to 14.

South Alabama got within seven midway through the third quarter after forcing another Tulane fumble. Bradley hit Devin Voisin on a 7-yard touchdown pass to make it 24-17 with 7:12 remaining in the quarter.

Tulane came right back, however, converting a trick play for another touchdown. Pratt lined up at receiver, then took a reverse handoff and threw to a wide-open Jackson for the score and a 31-17 Tulane lead with 4:27 to play in the third.

Wommack said some — but not all — of Tulane’s big plays came in situations in which the Green Wave exploited the Jaguars in much the same way Western Kentucky did some eight months ago.

“Two of the issues were things we have worked tirelessly to get corrected,” Wommack said. “And they did not. It’s unfortunate, but we’re going to have to show our guys again how truly disciplined they have to be on the back end.”

Ambrosio added field goals of 30 and 26 yards in the fourth quarter to put the Green Wave up 37-17. Tulane got the ball inside the 5 in the final two minutes, but kneeled out the clock rather than try to score again.

Bradley completed 23 of 30 passes for 190 yards for South Alabama, but threw two interceptions and was sacked five times. The Jaguars turned the ball over five times, including three fumbles, and did not total a play longer than 20 yards.

South Alabama also hurt itself with penalties, committing seven infractions for 60 yards. A few were extremely ill-timed, including false starts that turned short-yardage situations into larger conversion attempts.

“I’m very disappointed in the lack of execution of the things we say we wanted to do to win,” South Alabama coach Kane Wommack said. “The first thing, we’ve got to take care of the football; we turned the ball over five times. That’s not winning football, that’s not the way we have won here in the past.

“… We talk about winning the explosive play battle, we talk about winning the turnover margin, and we did not do that. … Penalties were critical on offense. I thought those things stopped drives as times.”

The loss was the Jaguars’ first on opening weekend since a 35-21 defeat at Nebraska in 2019. South Alabama beat Southern Miss to start the 2020 and 2021 seasons, then routed Nicholls in Week 1 last year.

South Alabama came into this season with high expectations after going 10-3 a year ago, but might have to do some soul-searching after Saturday’s loss. After Western Kentucky in the bowl game, Tulane was the second straight Group of 5 opponent that at times completely overmatched the Jaguars.

“We’ve just got to be better,” Bradley said. “Me personally, I’ve got to do a better job leading this offense. … I’ve got to play cleaner. We’ll go back and watch the tape. The sun’s going to rise tomorrow, we’ve just got to get back at it. There’s going to be some harsh reality, but we’ve just got to own it.”

South Alabama hosts Southeastern Louisiana in its home-opener next Saturday. Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. at Hancock-Whitney Stadium.