When SMU met Tulane last year at Gerald J. Ford Stadium, the Green Wave was pretty one-dimensional. Unfortunately for the Ponies — and PonyFans — that one dimension was running back Matt Forté, who gouged the SMU defense for 342 yards to lead his team to victory.

Forté, thankfully, is now a Chicago Bear.

Forté’s departure does not mean that Tulane (1-2 overall, 0-1 against Conference USA opponents) has nothing left. But the strength of the Green Wave has shifted, from its power running game to the defense.

DEFENSE

Texas Tech and TCU have big, strong athletes and arguably the two best defenses SMU will see all season, according to SMU head coach June Jones. Tulane, he said, could be the third-best defense on the Mustangs’ schedule.

Defensive end Logan Kelley has a team-high four sacks for Tulane, which has led the nation in sacks for the last two weeks (photo by Terry Callahan).

The Green Wave has allowed 19.3 points per game in its first three games, and just 223.3 yards per game in total offense.

“They’re a good defense,” quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell said. “They’re strong and really active, especially up front.”

For the second straight week, the Green Wave leads the nation in sacks, having to opposing quarterbacks 13 times (including four in the season opener against then-No. 13 Alabama) for -83 yards. Tulane is averaging 4.33 yards per sack under first-year defensive coordinator O’Neill Gilbert.

The leader of the New Orleans Sack Exchange is junior linebacker/defensive end Logan Kelley, who has four for -31 yards.

“He’s all over the place,” Mitchell said of Kelley after studying the tapes of the Green Wave defense. “They’ll move him around all the time. He’ll line up at defensive end, and then they’ll shift the rest of the line over toward him and bring him around on stunts and twists. He’ll also drop back into coverage every now and then, but where he’s really good is rushing the passer. Sometimes he fakes a blitz and then drops into coverage, so you always have to be aware of where he is.”

Kelley is joined up front by fellow defensive end Reggie Scott, who leads the defensive linemen with 7.5 tackles, and a pair of relatively undersized defensive tackles: true freshman Chris Asumnu (6-2, 285) and senior Julian Shives-Sams, whose statistics are fairly pedestrian, who has just 1.5 tackles thus far, but already has a pair of fumble recoveries. Shives-Sams (6-3, 282), who Jones said is extremely active for an interior lineman and is agile enough to attack from a number of different angles.

Senior MIKE linebacker Evan Lee leads the Tulane linebackers, and is the team’s fourth-leading tackler, with 10.0.

“(Lee) is really good — he looks solid on film,” Mitchell said. “He’s great at filling gaps, and he comes on a lot of blitzes. He can do a lot of different things, and they’re really good about getting him free to make plays.”

The strength of the defense is its front seven, but the secondary boasts considerable speed.

Strong safety Corey Sonnier is the team’s leading tackler thus far with 17 stops through three games, and cornerback Charles Harris — one of the league’s most imposing defenders at 6-3, 176 pounds — is second with 12. Harris is one of two players, along with DE Scott, with an interception.

OFFENSE

Matt Forté is a Chicago Bears rookie, but Tulane has another able runner in Andre Anderson (photo by Terry Callahan).

In Forté’s place, the Green Wave have turned to junior Andre Anderson, who has 84 of Tulane’s 114 rushing attempts this season, but for just 295 yards (3.2 per carry) and three touchdowns, which ties him with kicker Ross Thevnot for the scoring lead with 18 points. All three of Anderson’s touchdowns have been on the ground.

“He looks tough,” defensive tackle Mickey Dollens said. “He’s not as big as the guy they had last year (Forté), but he runs really hard.”

Whereas many premier running backs merit fulltime attention from opposing defenses, Dollens said the key to stopping Anderson is to focus on freshman fullback Kasey Stelly (6-1, 239).

“He’s only a freshman, but he’s really strong — he’s like a battering ram,” Dollens said. “(Anderson) runs behind him most of the time, so if we can get penetration and stop Stelly, we should be able to do a good job with Anderson.”

Tulane is quarterbacked by Kevin Moore, a 6-foot-5, 234-pound sophomore who has completed 68-of-118 passes (57.6 percent) for 733 yards (244.3 yards per game). He has thrown two touchdown passes and three interceptions.

“He’s very tall, which always makes it hard to knock down passes,” Dollens said. “He doesn’t run a lot. He’d rather stay in the pocket — he’s more of a traditional pocket passer.”

Three Green Wave players — including Anderson — have double-digit receptions. The leader is junior Jeremy Williams, who has 18 receptions for 232 yards (12.9 per) and both of Moore’s touchdown passes.