It was a day filled with military appreciation, but the Tulsa Golden Hurricane didn’t appreciate the way the Army Black Knights ran away with a 49-7 victory at H.A. Chapman Stadium on Saturday.

A crowd of 24,409 fans saluted and cheered for the Golden Knights parachute troop and other pregame festivities involving members of the U.S. Army. There was a large contingent of fans supporting the team from West Point, as Army improved to 5-0 overall and 4-0 in its first season in the American Athletic Conference.

Tulsa fell to 2-4 overall and 0-2 in the AAC.

Army showed why they are the nation’s leading rushing team, as they just don’t throw very many passes in a game. The Black Knights ended the contest with 481 total yards including 321 on the ground and 160 through the air.

Army scored on their first possession, a 37-yard pass play from Bryson Daily to Noah Short.

The Golden Hurricane quickly responded with a drive that covered 75 yards in 16 plays, capped with a one-yard keeper by reserve quarterback Cooper Legas. With the score 7-7 after the first quarter, and Tulsa putting a stop on Army’s next drive, Army led 21-7 at halftime, which meant the game was still within reach for Tulsa. However, the Black Knights scored on their next six possessions, two in the second period, three in the third and one in the fourth quarter.

“A little disappointing first half,” Tulsa head coach Kevin Wilson said. “Did a good job stopping them again. You have to stop the run when you play this team, but you also have to keep your eyes on your guy because you’re basically in man-to-man. So, we had some cheap pass plays in the first half. A little unfortunate because (we) really battled hard offensively, had a couple good drives, didn’t finish it off.”

Wilson said, Tulsa had an opportunity to either tie the game or hold Army to 14-7 before halftime, but his team made too many mistakes.

“I think that drive when it’s 14-7, we have a negative run where we don’t really block it cleanly, and one guy didn’t do a particularly great job,” Wilson said. “Then the next play we got nice competitive — we got the ball, and their guy knocks it out, now it’s third and long, and then you punt and they get a cheap score, and instead of 14-7, (it’s) 21-7.”

Army used a pair of quarterbacks in the game, starter Bryson Daily completed five-of-five passes for 140 yards and two touchdowns, both coming in the first half. Backup quarterback Dewayne Coleman completed the one pass he threw for 20 yards. It was a bit of a surprise to the Tulsa defense that Army threw the ball so much in the first half, but after establishing a comfortable 21-7 lead at halftime, the Black Knights reverted to their usual running style offense.

Tulsa was held to a season-low 268 total yards. Legas led Tulsa in rushing with 81 yards and Tulsa’s lone touchdown, while starting quarterback Kirk Francis completed 16-of-22 passes for 84 yards.

Army did a good job stopping Tulsa on third and fourth down attempts, as TU converted only 8-of-17 third downs, and only 1-of-5 fourth downs.

“Obviously just got to finish the drives,” said Legas. “We were moving, getting a lot of first downs, moving the ball, but all year it’s been we’ve got to finish and get points, get touchdowns, figure that out. And I think these teams we play at the start of the year are really good, and really some of the best teams we’ll play the rest of the year.”

Army’s Kanye Udoh had a game-high 137 yards on the ground with two touchdowns.

Tulsa has a week off before traveling to Philadelphia to take on the Temple Owls on Oct. 19. Tulsa returns to Chapman Stadium for Homecoming against UTSA on Saturday, Oct. 26, time TBA.

Wilson said his team could use the break to get healthy and reassess their game plan.

“I love the fight and what these guys are about, but we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Wilson said. “Open week coming up. We’ll be smart with what we’re doing. We don’t need to just go out and kill them. We’ve got a lot of time invested. We’ve got to recover; we’ve got to refresh. We need to eke out what we are good at and what we are not good at and then make a push as we game plan into the next remaining conference games, three on the road and three here.”