About Rice
Owlinfo
Owlopinion
Ye Old
College Inn

'07 Rice-Memphis game page

Memphis 38, Rice 35


It's Thor again -- this time his tackler managed to bring him down, but he lost his helmet in so doing (MA photo)

Inconsistent offense,
debilitated defense
can't handle Memphis

Jarett DIllard comes up with one of his three TD receptions on the day against Memphis (MA photo)

HOUSTON (Oct. 21) -- Two tipped passes. Two stinkin', blankety-blank tipped balls that turned into interceptions.

That was the measure of defeat for the Rice Owls Saturday, as they fell to a far-from-impressive University of Memphis eleven, 38-35, in a game that was teed up for the Institute to win -- despite all the injured Owls sitting on the sideline, despite the less-than-intense mien with which the Rice players came into this game, and notwithstanding the wooden defensive alignments and predictable offensive strategies that the Feathered Flock were instructed to employ all day.

The loss, played before 11,122 souls, many of them apparently electing not to appear bodily, further served to highlight circumstances that will require more than the rest of this season to address, ranging from lack of depth to stretched-thin capabilities to the blue malaise that has seemed now to have descended upon many die-hard supporters of Rice football.

At the same time, the game showcased a great deal of undeniable talent and individual excellence among the Rice men on the field, and, somehow, as well, an ostensible underusage of the collective intelligence of one of, if not the brightest, inwardly most-motivated group of young men in the NCAA Bowl Championship Division.

Beyond that, and despite all the negatives, it was another Rice loss which turned out one or two plays away from being a win another defeat to add to the rosary beads of Nicholls and Houston, which, if gone the other away, would have put the Owls at 4-3 on the season and undefeated thus far in league play.

So far away, yet so close.

Owls appeared primed after third-quarter comebacks

CJ Ogukwe bursts through the Memphis defensive line (MA photo)

After twice erasing third-quarter deficits, the first time going up, 21-20 on a second half opening drive, and the second knotting the game at 28 after once again surrendering the lead, the Owls forced a missed Memphis field goal attempt from 47 yards out, taking over at their own 30 yard line, a half a minute deep into the fourth quarter.

Rice immediately went on the march, Chase Clement connecting with Justin Hill out of the backfield for nine on first down; then coming back to Corbin Smiter who turned in a 22-yard pass-and-run that had the Owls sitting pretty at the Memphis 39, first down.

But from there, the offensive game plan appeared to go into the tank. Three heavy Memphis rushes forced the Owls into an incomplete pass, a quarterback scramble for no gain, and a quarterback sack. No draw play. No screen pass. No misdirection. No first down.

Luke Juist, nonetheless, pinned the Memphians back on their 10 yard line with a 32-yard coffin-corner punt. But on first and ten from the 24, Martin Hankins, UM's designated passer, tossed for 49 yards to Duke Calhoun to the Rice 27. The coverage on the play ranged somewhere from soft to non-existent.

Although Scott Solomon nailed Memphis running back Joseph Doss for a loss of two on first down, next play, Doss swept for 25 yards to the Rice four yard line. Walking wounded linebacker Brain Raines bucked up the line to pin Doss for no gain and a loss of one, from there, and then on fourth down, Hankins threw incomplete under a heavy rush.

But Matt Reagan's chip shot field goal was good from 22 yards out, and Memphis had taken a 31-28 lead with 8:37 to go in the game. Still plenty of time, right?

Tyler Smith got the Owls right back off the mat with a 32-yard kickoff return, and then Chase hit Joel Armstrong in the slot for three straight completions to take Rice across midfield to the UM 48.

But from there, on second and four, somebody in the Memphis defensive line got a big mitt on Chase Clement's next passing attempt. The ball sailed crazily, high in the air, and a dozen bodies converged on its estimated landing point -- even Chase made a desperate stab at it. But UM's Stephen Turner came down with the ball in his bread-basket, and the Rice drive was snuffed out.

Things went from bad to worse when, three plays later, Hankins hit Maurice Jones in full stride down the middle and the Memphis wideout streaked in untouched from 45 yards out to make it Memphis 38, Rice 28, with 5:49 left in the game.

The coverage on the play ranged somewhere from...well, never mind.

The Owls, in response, resolutely drove the ball back down the field, traveling 80 yards in 12 plays, the last 20 of which came on a Clement - to - James Casey touchdown pass with 2:09 left on the scoreboard clock.

Down 38-35, the Owls needed a miracle -- say along the lines of a recovered onsides kick and a successful two-minute drill. Luke Juist's attempted onsider spun tantalizingly high, but UM's 6-8 wide receiver Charles Singleton grabbed it like a tip high of the backboard, and the try had failed. In any event, the Owls were flagged for offsides on the play, so a successful onsides kick would have been doubly frustrating in result.

Did it all have to come down to that?

Rice effort labeled by DB as less than 'passionate'

Sometimes the Rice defensive pursuit was on, sometimes not (MA photo)

Rice's first-half performance was clearly a couple of notches down from the effort seen in the previous two games against UH and Southern Miss. Calling them "flat" might be off the beam somewhat, but this team did not appear to be ready to put Memphis in its rear view mirror.

"It wasn't a lack of effort," Rice head coach David Bailiff said afterwords. "We had effort."

"But to win, and for us to win, we have to be the most passionate coaches, players, people, where every play has to be your absolute hardest, and you've got to leave it all on the field. I don't think we had the same intensity when this game started that we needed to -- and as we did at Houston."

Indeed, Memphis first possession of the game resulted in a net gain of minus-one yard and a three-and-out, thanks to big hits by Brian Raines and George Chukwu. But with the wind to his back, UM punter Brian Sutherland got off a 61-yard punt to the Rice three yard line, and that wasn't exactly an optimal place to set up shop -- especially going into the wind.

Given Rice's poor field position, UM's first touchdown came as the result of a short-field, 43-yard drive that still took 10 plays to finish off. Memphis went for it on fourth and one at the Rice 23, and reached the first down marker with inches to spare.

Rice took the return kickoff out of bounds at their 35 and marched right back down the field to tie the score, easy as pie. The key play on the drive was a 26-yard scramble by Chase Clement on third and long that set up the Owls at the UM 17.

On first and goal from the five, Jarett Dillard started what appeared to be a fade route; then pulled up short and caught an easy touchdown toss to even things up on the scoreboard.

The Rice defense held on the next Memphis possession, and Ja'Corey Shepherd returned a deep punt to the Rice 20. From that point, the Rice offense rolled once again, reaching midfield on a driving 19-yard run by James Casey that left Owl fans begging for more of the same.

Something affecting Chase -- perhaps the wind

Something -- perhaps it was the wind -- appeared to affect Chase Clement's passing touch more than it typically might have, this day.

So on first and ten from the Memphis 38, Chase aimed a quick pass to Marcus Knox coming out of the backfield. In point of fact, the Owls had just changed field direction with the expiration of the first quarter clock, and instead of going into the wind, they were now going with it at their backs.

Chase seemed to put a little more mustard on the ball than was necessary -- as if he were still throwing into that swirling wind -- and the ball bounced off Marcus' hands, and, as luck would have it, into the waiting arms of Memphis' LeRico Mathis.

Things began to head downhill drom there, after at least a semi-promising first quarter. Memphis extended to a 17-7 lead with 6:29 left in the half on the strength of a 22-yard Matt Reagan field goal and a 68-yard touchdown drive that ended with a six-yard touchdown toss from UM's Martin Hankins to Greg Hinds.

Rice got right back into the thick of things when Ja'Corey Shepherd ripped off a 28-yard kickoff return to the Rice 41, narrowly missing going the distance. A face mask penalty netted 15 more for the Owls, and, from the Memphis 44 yard line, it took the Flock only three plays to get to the end zone -- a 24-yard completion to Jarett Dillard, an 11-yard scramble by Chase, and a nine-yard TD strike to JD on first and goal.

Memphis added a field goal before the halftime break, but Owl fans -- and one would presume the Owls themselves -- could remark inwardly, 'OK, we've gotten our bad half behind us -- now let's go out there and put this one away.'

Rice's initial possession of the third quarter appeared to substantiate that very concept. Things got started when Brandon King expertly played center field to pick off a Martin Hankins bootleg pass at the Rice 44. From there, on third and eight from the 42, Chase tossed up the JD Special -- but Jarett Dillard, instead of skying high at the pylon, once again stopped short a few yards and leaped tremendously high to snag the pass. With the UM defender helplessly whiffing at thin air, JD sidestepped a turn, took a couple of steps, dived for the pylon, and it was a quick six for the Owls.

But Rice's 21-20 lead didn't hold up the way, well, the way, frankly, that it should have. Memphis took the ball right back down the field, needing only two plays to go the last 42 yards on the drive -- a 27-yarder down the middle from Hankins to Steven Black, and then a 15-yard touchdown run by Joseph Doss which featured several missed tackles by blue-uniformed defenders.

With the score 26-21 after the TD, Memphis went for two, and a simple fade route to the 6-8 Singleton , who towered about 11 inches above his Rice defensive back, naturally worked like a charm.

But credit Chase and the Rice offense for bucking up and taking the Flock right back down the field. After a quick first down, the Owls had a free play, facing a second-and-one from the Memphis 47. Chase and JD put it to good use, as Jarett was two strides behind his defender when Chase laid in a perfect strike on the post pattern. UM's Dontae Reed figured he had no alternative but to jump JD from behind, and the obvious pass interference call put the ball on the 32.

The Owls got the last 23 yards on that drive on the ground, C. J. Ugokwe showing good downfield awareness on a 16-yard scamper to the UM 7, and then Chase threading the visitor's sideline for the touchdown.

Owls behind the eight-ball

If the foregoing narrative suggests cliches like 'see-saw battle,' then perhaps such a shoe would fit. But the overweening aspect of the game appeared to lie in the fact that Rice appeared to have had the cue ball on the felt pretty much just where it needed it, based upon last year's geometry.

But this time, the cue stick went awry, the shot was off, the billiard balls spun crazily, and the eight-ball dropped like a hot potato. Last year, where Rice won several, similarly-situated games going away, this time around, there were no late-inning heroics. Or at least an insufficient amount of them.

Jarett Dillard, who had three touchdown catches on the day -- the fifth three-TD effort of his career -- was nonplussed.

"We shouldn't be expecting magical plays every game," he said. "We should really just expect to win and expect to make the play, not a magical play."

Coach Bailiff, at the end, seemed to be a man grasping for answers.

''We had a great week of preparation; we practiced well," he mused. "But we just lacked the passion that we played with in earlier football games."

"And that has to be our secret ingredient.''

--P.T.H.

RiceOwls.com   |  Chronicle football  |  Rice fan forum  |  CUSA fan forum    |   Owldigest.com
Front Page    |   E-mail us    |   Boilerplate/viewing tips    |  Quicklinks