 |
 |
| X Front Page RiceOwls.com Rice Forum CUSA Forum Chronicle Rice roster Schedule Quicklinks Last Update Email us  About Rice
|
Rice-Marshall game page HUNTINGTON, WVa. (Oct. 28) -- Hopes ran high on the Rice sideline as the Owl kickoff team lined up to execute an onsides kick with 3:12 left in Saturday's game. After all, the Owls had just struck quickly and deftly to close to within 27-21 of a theretofore-winless Marshall team after spotting the Thundering Herd a 24-0 third quarter lead. Senior kickoff man Luke Juist placed the ball perfectly, and as it disappeared beneath a pile of bodies it appeared to be within the control of a Rice player, having gone the necessary ten yards. Last year, you know how this would have turned out -- the Owls would have recovered the football and pushed down the field to score the winning touchdown. But this year, this week, on the turf of Joan C. Edwards Stadium, Huntington, West Virginia, the Boys from the Institute and their faithful were thwarted, in fact for the second week in a row denied the chance to pull out a last-minute win, for the want of a favorable bounce on an onsides kick. It was as if the football gods, having forced the Owls and their small cadre of loyal fans to wander about lost and thirsty in the desert longer than Moses and the Israelites (that's 40 years for you non-Biblical Scholars), and after having tortured them with a few sips of cool, sweet water in AD 2006, came down with an ever-crueler vengeance by once again leading them to the well once again Saturday but denying them the drink they so desperately craved. Call last season magical, call it luck, deem it serendipitous, or label it a fluke. But this time around, the Rice Owls were seeing none of the favorable turns of event that propelled them to a seven-win season in '06 -- and Saturday's 34-21 loss to Marshall was yet another case of damnable luck that has drawn the program step by step away from the ever-so-brief Era of Good Feeling that last year's success engendered. "If we'd have recovered that onsides kick we'd have won the game; I feel that from the bottom of my heart," a frustrated and disappointed Rice head coach David Bailiff said after the game. "And when that ball came out, we had an opportunity to make the play on it, but we didn’t make it -- and that’s kind of the way this season has gone." The way this game went indeed comprised a microcosm of Rice's entire season thus far. By now most Rice fans know the litany -- inconsistent offense (response: "Pray for us"), a defense unable to leave the field in the crunch (response: "Pray for us"), critical injuries that seemed to provoke more disastrous consequences than the mere loss of personnel would have dictated (response: "Have mercy on us.") Casey's two failed fourth-down tries a first this season In hindsight, it was easy to question the coaching decisions that led to two fourth-down stuffs in highly crucial circumstances. In both cases, the Owls lined up in the shotgun and ran the ball to Thor Casey -- that, instead of a quarterback sneak or a quick-hitter commenced with the quarterback under center. "That was a game-time decision, " Coach Bailiff explained. "With Austin Wilkinson coming down with mono and the David Perkins getting the stomach flu, we had to ask Jimmy Miller to step in and play center the whole game. When we were working with him this week he had a little trouble with the underneath snaps and seemed more comfortable with the shotgun." But, shoot, before this game, Thor was perfect-on-the-season in those kind of short-yardage situations. "Ninety-seven times out of a hundred I make that play," a glum James Casey told media (and himself) after the game. "It was just one of those crazy things that happened – and they did the exact, perfect things they needed to do to stop the play. "I thought both plays I had more gain than where they spotted the ball," Thor added. "But I don’t want to make excuses. I just didn’t make the first down; didn’t get the job done." The first time -- with the game scoreless, and the Owls facing fourth and inches on the Marshall five yard line early in the second quarter MU defenders Ian Hoskins and James Burkes shot the gaps to stop Thor for no gain. Sure, everybody in the stadium knew he was going to get the ball, but that was no deterrent in every previous such situation this season.. Once again, with the Owls down 17-0 midway in the third, but this time at the Marshall 43, the Owls went to that same well, and once again came up dry, surrendering the ball and precious clock time to the Marshall offense. The first case appeared to be the more harmful of the two, for it was followed by a 96-yard, 14-play, touchdown drive by Marshall, so that instead of being ahead, 7-0, the Owls found themselves down a touchdown. That turn of events appeared to breathe life into the Marshall offense, but mainly what it did was serve to stir up confidence in Bernard Morris, the Marshall quarterback who up to this point in the season was a bete noir of Herd fans because of his tendency to negate his talent by committing unforced errors. "He committed no errors; he played a perfect game tonight," Rice DL George Chukwu said afterwards. And he should know, having chased Bernie all over the field during his many, crazy-legged scrambles. "He saw his receivers wert open, and he took off," George added. "And we missed a lot of tackles. But he’s a good athlete." In all, Morris rolled up 347 yards total offense, 120 yards net rushing. When the MU scatback threaded his way 26 yards for the score to put Marshall up, 24-0, it appeared that he had been nailed for a loss in the backfield, with something like five Owl defenders having a shot at putting him away. Marshall QB's crazy-legs act befuddled Owls In fact, those improvised, freelanced quarterback scrambles comprised the heart of the Marshall offense this grey evening. Of Marshall's first three touchdowns, two were scored by Morris himself after having been flushed out of the pocket, and the third was set up by a key third down conversion under the same circumstances. Rice appeared to have MU's number defensively until Morris started getting into his crazy-legs act. Marshall's first possession of the day ended in a three-and-out, and the Herd was held scoreless by the Owls in the first 20 minutes of the game. But the senior quarterback appeared to add swagger to his step with each successful impromptu. Somehow, too, Morris' passing accuracy improved as the game wore on, and the Herd lead mounted. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Rice offense performed with a mysterious listlessness after two promising early drives were frustrated the first by a crucial illegal receiver downfield call, caused, apparently by an alignment error, that negated a key first down on third and long; and the second, by the aforementioned Thor-stuffing. After that, it was basically zippo for the Rice offense until quarterback C hase Clement and his teammates pulled a Rip Van Winkle act twelve minutes deep into the third quarter. That's when Chase reverted to the best form he'd shown in last year's campaign, zipping the ball accurately and with a just-right touch, scrambling for needed yardage, and running the offense with the aplomb of a steam-boat pilot. With the clock ticking down in the third quarter and more than a few Owl fans wondering whether their boys were about to be shut out by an 0-7 team, Chase cranked up the Rice offense and took it 58 yards in five plays, going down the sideline for the last 20 himself after alertly spotting a hole in the weak side of the Marshall defense. Before that correction to windage and elevation, Chase was mysteriously inconsistent. But that's not to put the blame solely on Chase's shoulders -- some of his usually dependable receivers who shall go unnamed dropped more than a couple that, if hauled in, could have provided crucial first downs. His protection was shaky. And you know, the whole damn sequence of events that has thus far comprised Rice's 2007 season has just got to be supremely frustrating for such a natural leader as is Chase. But 24-0 is a deep hole to have to crawl out of, and even 20 minutes of perhaps the most inspired ball the Owls have played all season wasn't quite sufficient to come back from that afar. Still, the Owls made a good go of it. Down 27-7 after Marshall came back and tacked on a 22-yard Anthony Binswanger field goal after the Owls granted MU a short field by pooching the kickoff and allowing a return after their first score, the Flock seemed done for the day when MU's John Sanders picked off a well-executed deep post pattern that was headed for James Casey inside the Marshall 15. But the Rice defense bowed its neck and held Marshall, and Chase & Co. roared right back to cover 61 yards in six plays to cut the deficit to 27-14 with7:02 left in the game as James Casey nabbed a 12-yard TD pass. On the ensuing kickoff, the Owls pulled one of their all-too-frequent special teams swoons as MU’s Court Edmonson returned the pill 43 yards to the Rice 41. Fortunately, the Herd was called for holding and that brought the play back to midfield. And from there, two solid tackles by Aubrey White and another by Cheta Ozougwu forced Marshall to try and punt to the coffin corner. But under a heavy rush, left-footed punter Mary Biaggi managed only a 20-yard pop-up to the Rice 31 – so the Owls had gotten the ball back in just under two minutes, and this time had 69 yards to travel. Immediately, and without skipping a beat, the offense roared to life again. This time, it took Rice eight plays to go the distance, and when Toren Dixon cut the deficit to 27-21 via a two-yard TD reception with just over three minutes to play, you could've heard a pin drop among the 30-odd thousand Herd fans in Joan C. Edwards Stadium. The Owls still had all three of their time-outs left, and the Marshall defense was rocked back on its heels. But the unsuccessful onsides kick attempt caused an audible sigh of relief to emit from the home crowd, and at that point, the Marshall fans, the Owls and their supporters present, and the football gods all knew that Rice's comeback attempt was a case of too little, too late. "I’m proud of the heart those guys showed at the end of the game," Coach Bailiff said afterwards, grasping for bright spots. "But we’ve to start faster than that. I’ve got to make sure the guys come out and play all four quarters." --P.T.H.
|
RiceOwls.com
| Chronicle
football | Rice fan forum
| CUSA fan forum
| Owldigest.com |
