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Rice 43, SMU 42 Owls yield 28-0 run to
DALLAS (Nov. 10) – Rice’s Young Doctor Clement commanded the surgical theater here Saturday with his usual eleventh-hour precision, but it was but an intern who wielded the scalpel that ripped out the heart of Peruna, as Clark Fangmeier nailed a walk-off 31-yard field goal to propel the Rice Owls past the SMU Mustangs 43-42, in the Institute’s second furious and improbable comeback win in as many weeks. This time, the Owls squandered a 27-21 halftime lead by surrendering three, cheap third-quarter touchdowns for which the Ponies had to travel a grand total of 73 yards. But that just set the table for what have now become pretty much the expected heroics, as Chase Clement and his happy gang of madcap MASH surgeons dramatically drove the length of the field three times in the final quarter, trimming the Ponies’ lead to within a field goal’s distance and then setting up the perfect chip shot for the indomitable Rice place kicker. Having been there more than a few times before, Owl fans can commiserate with the SMU faithful ,who appeared poised to come away from this Homecoming game with a victory, sweet revenge for Rice’s gut-wrenching win over the Mustangs last year at Rice Stadium – a game that sent the Owls to the New Orleans Bowl and dispatched the Mustangs home to yet another bowl-less season. But if Rice’s win over SMU last year was gut-wrenching, this one was a heart-stopper ; in fact, just could have served to put the moribund Mustang football program on life support. There was no bowl on the line for either team this time around, but one could never tell that from the fury with which each team, in turn, surged from behind to take the lead in this topsy-turvy game. Despite beggaring a weakness up the gut for much of the first half, the Owls parlayed a pair of pick-six interceptions, one by Brandon King and the other by who else Andrew Sendejo, into a 27-14 late second quarter lead. With SMU backed up, BK picked off a Justin Willis pass in the secondary and after making one cut had a clear route to the end zone, 30 yards away. Andrew Sendejo, on the other hand, played pick-pocket with the Ponies' Columbus Givens, scoring on a 31-yard return with 4:53 left in the second quarter. Two acrobatic TD catches by JD paced offense, first half
Rice's two offensive touchdowns during that span came on surgical drives topped off by consecutive, leaping, deep-in-the-corner end zone catches by Jarett Dillard, who appeared to have fully recovered the savoir faire that propelled him to All-American recognition last year. Those two touchdown receptions were patented JD specials, folks. They capped off drives that traveled 68 yards in six plays to bring the Owls within at point, at 14-13, and 93 yards in 12 plays -- the Owls' longest drive of the season -- to put the Flock on top at 20-14. But a dubious third-down, late-hit penalty against the Owls kept an SMU drive alive as the clock ticked down in the second quarter, and though the Owls were relegated to defending a first and goal from the one yard line on account of an equally dubious interference call, they gamely ceded to the Ponies only a negative two yards in three tries. Then on fourth and goal from the three, a scrambling Justin Willis managed to outflank the Rice containment and skip into the end zone with seconds left in the half. After a halftime Homecoming coronation ceremony featuring a cast of thousands -- it would have made Bert Parks envious -- the Owls came out as flat as the biggest wallflower at the dance. When the Owls failed to overcome a 15-yard personal foul assessed against them for 'tripping,' as Chase's completion to Joel Armstrong on third down and 27 went for only 19, the SMU front surged in to block a Luke Juist punt to set Peruna up in business at the Rice 24. As is usual, once Willis gets pumped up and lets the instincts take over, he can be a game-breaker and he provided the bulk of the offense in all three of SMU's third-quarter, er, 'drives' this first going the distance in six 4 plays, the final one being a six-yard strike from Wills to his favorite receiver, Zach Sledge, who bested even Jarett Dillard with three touchdown receptions on the afternoon. After an exchange of punts, Rice responded by adroitly driving the ball downfield, but, facing second and ten from the SMU 37, Chase Clement responded to a hard rush by throwing the football a little to the inside of his intended receiver, Toren Dixon. SMU defender Bryan McCann was johnny on the spot to make the interception with 60 yards of clear sailing ahead of him. But inexplicably he simply bobbled the football as he crossed the Rice 20 yard line, and down it fell to the turf. Yet, there was no Rice defender close enough to capitalize on what would have turned out a miraculous turn of events -- so SMU still had the ball at the Rice 16 yard line. First play, Willis connected with a wide-open Emmanuel Sanders and thus, less than five minutes deep into the third quarter, the Owls shockingly found themselves down, 35-27. Things went from bad to worse, third quarter
But things got even worse, and in a hurry. Rice failed to move the ball once again on the next possession, and Luke Juist, a bit addled and with a sore ankle from the roughing he took (which wasn't called) on the erstwhile blocked punt, got off a line drive which was caught on the run by SMU's Sanders, and he found a huge gap up the middle, through which he advanced the punt return to the Rice 33. Then on second and five, SMU's Chris Butler found a hole, cut to the outside, and dashed 23 yards before he was bumped out of bounds by Joseph Leary at the Rice one. Butler once again got the call, next play, and scored easily. Now, in the waning moments of the third quarter, the Owls found themselves with another seemingly surmountable mountain to climb. The Feathered Flock was down, 42-27, and frankly hadn't generated much offense since midway in the second quarter. The SMU bench was fired up and talking trash. Pony running back DeMyron Martin keeping a running conversation going with whomever among the Rice contingent would listen to him and fire back. The Rice bench, on the other hand, was subdued during SMU's 21-0 third-quarter run, but when Chase started pecking away with the short passing game, spirits rose. And when the wily Rice quarterback broke loose for a 39-yard scramble to take the Owls to the SMU 22-yard line, one could just feel the worm begin to turn. Two plays later, on the first scrimmage of the fourth quarter, Chase got a clearing block from his freshman running back Justin Hill and darted into the end zone untouched to make it SMU 42, Rice 34, and hopes began to flicker anew among the amazingly raucous Rice contingent. After picking up a single first down, the Mustangs were shut down by the Rice defense, next series, as Victor Brooks and Vernon James made key stops of Willis and Mr. Trash-Mouth, DeMyron Martin. Ja'Corey Shepherd fielded the ensuing punt in a crowd and set up the Owls with the ball at their own 30, and once again it was time for Dr. DeBakey-with-a-football to enter the surgical suite and scrub down. With Clement in control, Owls kept on the move
On the ensuing touchdown drive, Chase Clement was responsible for every single play, either by pass completion or by designed run. Once again, after a short pass to Jarett Dillard yielded up nine yards and a first down at the SMU 44, the Pony defense bunched up enough against the Rice receivers to give Chase a breath of an opening, and he touch advantage of it by dashing 31 yards to the SMU 11, next play. At that point, one sensed that the "We're gonna lose this thing" vibes were at least as strong on the home team sideline as the "We're gonna win this thing" karma was on the Owl bench. Indeed, there appeared to be a feeling of inevitability at hand as Chase passed for seven to John Welch, and then once again dashed into the end zone from six yards out to make it 42-40 with 10:01 remaining in the game. The SMU defense was ready for a Rice two-point play that could best be described as an unconvincing approximation of the Boise State Throwback. Three Mustangs were covering the Owl tight end after Chase swept right, then threw back left, and the try was not close to having been converted. But even still down two points, the Owls had ten more minutes to play with. SMU reached the Rice 29 yard line, next possession, but from there, after another Vernon James stuff of a DeMyron "The Mouth" Martin rushing try, SMU kicker Tim Morstead pushed his 46-yard field-goal try wide right. (Earlier, he'd clanged one against the left upright in failing to convert on a 47-yard attempt.) Back on offense, the Owls advanced the ball as far as their own 44, but at that point a couple of Chase Clement passing tries missed their mark hey, he's not Superman. Facing fourth and six with 5:25 to go in the game, Coach Bailiff decided to send in the punting team, and risk the chance that the Owl defense might be able to make the big stop and get the ball back in the offense's hands. "It was a long fourth down play; it wasn't like it was fourth and one," Coach Bailiff said afterwards. ""If we're ever going to get things accomplished, you've got to have trust," he added. "They (the Owl defense) showed last week and rose to the occasion -- and they rose to the occasion this week." Sure enough, Luke Juist, his ankle still stinging from the cheap hit, punted the ball perfectly to the SMU 15. The aforementioned Emmanuel Sanders managed to snake the ball out to the 20, but the Ponies were flagged for an illegal block in the back -- they didn't exactly help their own cause by incurring 13 penalties for 129 yards on the day -- and that set them back to their own 10. From there, Coach Bennett got conservative and tried consecutive naked handoffs to Mr. Flap-Jaw, er, sorry, that is to say, DeMyron Martin. But in each case he was met by a one-man Rice welcoming committee, first by Vernon James, and then by Brian Raines. It was looking good for the Owls when SMU thus faced third and ten from their own ten. But the jitterbugging SMU quarterback got outside of containment again when everybody was well covered, and he slithered for 25 yards out to the SMU 35 yard line. That dimmed Owl prospects considerably. But once again the penalty bugaboo hit the 'Stangs, as they were flagged for holding next play, and backed up to their own 25. Willis hit Pierre Fleming for 12 yards on first down, but Ja'Corey Shepherd made sure he went out of bounds to stop the clock. Next play, Cameron Thompson stormed in for a big sack on Willis, who went down at his own 36. And the Owl defensive front came on even stronger on third and nine, blowing in to send Willis staggering backwards as he futilely flung the ball far downfield and out of bounds. When Owls made statement, Willis threw tantrum
Perched on his derriere, the smart-alecky SMU signal caller flung his helmet ten yards behind him, then pushed away the arm of a consoling official who came up to check on his injury status. He deserved a personal foul call and an ejection, but the refs were sympathetic to his plight, apparently. But the Owls were not. When the Flock took over at their own 26 after a 39-yard Morstead punt, once again backstopped ably by Ja'Corey Shepherd, 2:25 remained, and the Owls had two time-outs left. But beyond that, that had that strut in their steps, that glint in their eyes and of course they were being guided by the steady hand of Young Doctor Clement. And with the limited time remaining, Chase went to the air, throwing underneath coverage and taking what the SMU defense gave him. Three times he went to Jarett Dillard, whom the SMU defenders were reluctant to play too tight for fear he'd pop the long gainer. On that final drive, Chase also had two key completions to Toren Dixon and a couple more to James Casey, each of them just good enough for first down yardage; each of them inexorably advancing the Owls down the field. When Chase hit Casey for 10 yards to the SMU eight yard line for another first down, it was goal to go with 1:05 left to play. Owl die-hards in the stands fully expected three alley-oop tries to Mr. JD in the back of the end zone, but such was Coach Bailiff's faith in his young place kicker that he decided to stay on the ground and try and position the ball in the center of the field. The Owls were momentarily set back ten yards by a holding call, but that only took them as far back as the 20 -- still definitely within Clark Fangmeier's range, as East Carolina will attest. A sneaky SMU timekeeper tried to sabotage those best-laid plans, however. When Justin Hill took the handoff and swept left, off-tackle to center the ball between the hash marks when he went down at the SMU 14, fully four ticks were left on the game clock. But the damned scoreboard man just let the clock roll. Two seconds after the first whistle was blown, indicating Justin was down, officials whistled a time out. But the clock just ticked down to zero, and when it did, the SMU bench exploded in jubilation and began dashing onto the field. The gendarmes were having none of that, however. Quickly they cleared the field, set the ball down in play at the 14, and ordered that one second be restored to the scoreboard clock (though it should have been three or four). "Right when I called for time, the ref on our side was telling them to stop, stop the clock," Coach Bailiff said afterwards. "I wasn't sweating whether there was any time left. But then I was shocked that they gave us back only a second, because we called it with three seconds left." SMU coach Phil Bennett begged to differ on the matter, for some strange reason. "The clock ran out; you watch," he insisted. "The guy kept running. The play went longer than they thought. They thought the kid was going to go down. That's my opinion. It doesn't matter. The final score was Rice 43, SMU 42." Yeah, well, you're sure right about that last thing, Coach -- the final score. Paul T. Hlavinka
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