If you wondered why Tulane elected to score a touchdown rather than running out the clock and setting up a last-play chip-shot field goal in Thursday night’s 26-19 victory against East Carolina, coach Jon Sumrall explained his rationale for Javin Gordon’s 3-yard touchdown reception with 35 seconds left.

He wanted Gordon to go down before the end zone on his first catch after East Carolina burned its final timeout, and he did what he was instructed, falling down at the Pirates 4 to take more seconds off the clock. On the next play, though, Sumrall opted for the touchdown rather than relying on Patrick Durkin to make a school-record-tying fifth field goal.

“We orchestrated that well,” Sumrall said. “You could say take a knee, center the ball and kick and extra point, but then the snap, hol

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