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The Tulane Green Wave opened the season with a 17-3 loss at Duke on Saturday afternoon, but the opening didn't happen when it was supposed to.

Game one of the season in North Carolina was all set for a 2:30 central time kickoff at Wallace Wade stadium, but Mother Nature had other plans.

A weather-delay of an hour and a half put things on hold, as severe weather, including heavy rains and lightning pushed its way across Durham. Signage in the Blue Devils' house asked the stadium to be vacated, sending fans back to their cars until things cleared out.

Once everything was back to normal, Duke, who won the coin toss, marched smartly down the field in what could be called the Nate Sheppard show. The almost 10-minute drive went for 17 excruciating plays, 14 of which were on the ground with Sheppard doing most of the damage: 11-rushes, 51-yards and the opening touchdown.

Wave Offense Can't Seem to Get Out of Its Own Way

The Green Wave offense was stymied by both a stout Duke defense and a stumbling, penalized offensive. Though not all the flags were on the O, most were, as the Greenies piled up 15-penalties for 104-yards, almost double the penalty yardage by Duke. The Wave kept shooting itself in the foot drawing flags on special teams but especially on offense. From holding, to almost countless false starts, most of which were on the O-line.

"A really poor performance," head coach Will Hall said after the game. "I'm really disappointed. The 15-penalties, a lot of them were critical penalties where we had two pass interference calls where we really panicked on conversion downs defensively, where we were in position. That's got to be fixed. That's going to be fixed on Monday.

"The penalties offensively were all at critical junctures. Johnnie Daniels broke the run inside the red zone and we got the holding call. We had the completion by Kadin Semonza in the second half to Bredell Richardson and got called for a chop block, which was a tough call. We pop it down into the red zone with Fat Hill and we fumble. Just a lot of self-inflicted wounds.

"It was a sloppy football game. They (Duke) just played less sloppy then we did.

"We just had a lot of really good football players, who have shown to be good leading up to this, that weren't themselves tonight. That's on me as the head coach."

Offense Stagnant, Defense Bends but Rarely Breaks

Zeon Chriss-Gremillion, who got the start at quarterback, could not manage any points for the Wave in the first half. He completed 6-of-his-9 passes for 64 yards, 44 of which was on a pass in the flat to Mo Turner. Chriss-Gremillion's legs had him rushing the ball five times for 18-yards.

Meanwhile the Tulane defense began to jell, as the Wave D forced a fumble and forced Duke into punting situations for most of the rest of the 1st half and throughout the 3rd quarter.

"After that (opening drive), I thought we tackled well, I thought we swarmed to the football, I though we settled in defensively. I think they (the defense) kept us in the game.

Second Half

After a half of seeing quarterback Zeon Chriss-Gremillion rush the ball more than other Tulane player (5-rushes for 15-yards), but not getting any points on the board, the Tulane brain trust brought in Semonza to spur the TU offense in the second half.

"I felt like Zeon's eyes were dancing," Hall said about switching to Semonza in the second half at quarterback. "I thought we needed a spark, and I think Kadin provided that.

Offense Its Own Worst Enemy

A long catch and run between Semonza and receiver Fat Hill picked up 39-yards deep into Duke territory, but the senior wide out fumbled to the Blue Devils at their 17.

Duke returned the favor, as Nate Sheppard fumbled at the Tulane 45-yard line where linebacker Dickson Agu recovered the ball at the TU 42.

As Hall mentioned earlier, the Wave offense was moving the ball down field again with a short pass that picked up 15, then an impressive 24-yard run by Daniels, which was called back because of a holding call on the offensive line.

Wave quarterbacks couldn't find any room downfield and were forced to get short passes around the line of scrimmage, which rarely gained much more than a few yards each time.

Leading the way on the ground for the Blue Devils, the aforementioned Sheppard. The Northshore native toted the pigskin 35 times, gathering 227-yards and two touchdowns.

Tulane rushed for 54-yards on 26-attempts from the line of scrimmage, while the Duke offense was cramming the ball down the Wave defenders at a 5.1-yard per carry clip, rushing 49-times as team for 250-yards.

Next weekend, the Green Wave open their home season at Yulman Stadium, entertaining South Alabama at 6:00 p.m. CT Saturday.