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Rice- U of H game page
HOUSTON (Oct. 14) – During a 38-minute period in the middle two-thirds of the Rice-University of Houston Bayou Bucket clash Saturday afternoon, the tortoise Owls outscored the hare Cougars by a count of 48-21. It was as dominant an offensive show – and exhibition of defensive opportunism – that any Rice team has displayed in many a year. Unfortunately, the game runs for 60 minutes, and at the beginning, and at the end, the Coogs hung 35 unanswered points on the Owls in an even more overwhelming offensive display of their own. Never before in its 93-year football-playing history has the Institute ever scored 48 points in a game and come out on the losing side. But with this fall’s ever-increasing depletion of Rice’s defensive talent, stacked somewhat thin to begin with, there is a first time for everything, and Saturday was that time. "It hurts," Rice quarterback Chase Clement told gathered newsmen afterwards. "Cross-town rivalry, and they’re one of the really tough teams in the conference – and you want to go out a winner when you wind up that close." The San Antonio junior threw for a career-high 355 yards on the day, and was virtually unstoppable until UH came with an all-out blitz in the fourth quarter. "Putting up 48 points on the board, and still losing -- that's definitely tough." UH came out of box blazing
At the beginning of the game, though, it looked as if U of H might have put up a hundred. The Coogs traversed a pair of 70-yard-plus drives the first two times they touched the ball, and the long bomb was featured in both of them. First, Blake Joseph hit Donnie Avery in the flat on a pass play designed to make a first down on second and 10, but Avery slid between two Rice defenders and had nothing but smooth sailing to the end zone, 77 yards away. After the Owls went three-and-out on their next possession, Houston QB Joseph, on, guess what – third and long – hit his receiver Avery again as he streaked, wide open, down the field. The play carried for 64 yards to the Owl seven yard line, and UH made it 14-0 one play later when Anthony Alridge took the quick pitch and darted into the end zone untouched. At that point, however, the Owls were ready to display some offensive firepower of their own, as they took the ensuing kickoff and blew 80 yards down the field, scoring in four plays. On first down from the 20, Chase Clement hit Toren Dixon on a sideline pattern for 24 yards. Next play, Chase connected for 24 more when he hit Jarett Dillard in front of Houston coach Art Briles, who watched agape as Jarett slipped his tackler and went for extra yardage. Just like that, Chase-to-Dillard struck again, as JD outmaneuvered UH’s Rocky Schwartz and acrobatically hauled in a beautifully-thrown post pattern, falling in a heap at the one yard line. From there, Marcus Knox scampered in on first and goal, and the Owls had drawn blood as well. It didn’t take long for the Owls to score again, as, on the ensuing kickoff, Luke Juist pooched a kick that landed five yards ahead of the UH up man, who promptly muffed the ball. In the resulting melee, the Owls’ Andrew Sendejo came up with the pill on the run and made it as far as the Houston 17. From there, after James Casey actually lost a yard on a first-down carry, Chase found Jarett Dillard open for a split-second beneath the goal posts, and he threaded the needle for the tying touchdown. As soon as Owls had tied, UH went back up
Houston responded by traveling 65 yards in seven plays – actually their only sustained drive of the first half. But when the Coogs’ Jeron Harvey took a screen down the visiting sideline for 18 yards and the score, the Coogs were back up, 21-14, in this suddenly see-saw battle. Rice went three and out on its next possession, and Luke Juist punted out to the UH 33. There, on the first play, UH QB Joseph hit an open Donnie Avery once more, and he took it in for the score untouched. So in the matter of less than four minutes’ time on the clock, the tie game was suddenly, once again, threatening to turn into a UH rout. Rice got back the ball and drove it right up the U of H gut, however. This time, the Owls mixed the pass and the run, including a couple of key scrambles by Chase Clement. But the two big plays in the drive went through the air, the first, an 18-yard down-and-in to Toren Dixon, and the second, a 28-yarder to James Casey that put the Owls in the red zone. But there, after a second-down draw play failed to materialize, Chase went for JD in the end zone on third and 14. JD made the catch, and from all indications, would have landed within the end line had the UH defender not knocked him beyond it. But that’s where he came down, and the call went ‘out of bounds,’ so the Owls had to settle for a 41-yard field goal from Clark Fangmeier that went high and clean through the uprights. And that’s when the Owls’ defensive opportunistic streak went into high gear. UH moved the ball on the ensuing drive, but twice the Owl defense got in to sack UH quarterback Blake Joseph. The first time, it was Scott Solomon and Gary Anderson who nailed Joseph for a loss of five. Next, it was Terence Garmon who blindsided Joseph and earned a solo sack for a loss of eight. Facing fourth and forever, the Coogs had to punt for the first time of the day. Ja’Corey Shepherd returned a deep punt 10 yards out to the Rice 20, and the Owls were back in business – of a sort. The Rice drive went nowhere, but Luke Juist caught the wind and boomed a 74-yard punt that was muffed by UH’s Teric Williams, who had to retreat to his own one yard line and fall on the ball to avoid a safety. On first down, Randy Kitchens and Cheta Ozougwu nailed UH’s Alridge for no gain. And the next play, Rice’s Carl Taylor caught a carom and cleanly intercepted the ball at the 12, returning it seven yards to the UH five. First play, Chase Clement dropped back, fake right, and threw left to a wide-open Taylor Wardlow in the end zone, and the Owls, just like that, had cut the UH lead to 28-24. And they weren’t about to stop there, either. Another turnover, another Thor score, and Owls held the lead
On the kickoff, Luke Juist booted a perfectly placed ball to the UH 3, where all-everything Anthony Alridge fielded it. But only 10 yards upfield, he was met with a resounding hit by Marcus Knox, who seperated him from the ball, whereupon it was fallen on by Chris Jones at the UH 14. Two incompletions later, the Owls faced third and ten. Chase faded and threaded the needle to Jarett Dillard coming underneath across the middle, and JD made sure he had enough yards to pick up the first down at the UH two. First play from there was a fade to Jarett Dillard which almost but not quite connected. Then on second down, "Thor" Casey took the handoff deep in the backfield where he immediately was surrounded by about five Cougar defenders. But instead of hitting the deck, Casey bulled forwarded and twisted and leapt his way into the end zone. On what appeared to be a near-miraculous play, the Owls now were out front in the game – miraculously – 31-28. That quieted down the boisterous and foul-mouthed Coog viewing audience, except for the raft of boo birds who rained down invective on their own team and coaches. And the boo-birds got even more to chirp about by the time halftime rolled around. To begin with, UH was able to move the ball on its next possession. But at the Rice 38, Coach Briles went for it on fourth and 3, and superman Alridge was stopped in the backfield by George Chukwu and Jonathan Cary, and the ball went over to the Owls At that point, still there was left 5:29 on the second quarter clock, and the Owls made good use of their time, eating up clock in driving the ball the length of the field before bogging down at the UH 29. But there, with the wind at his back, and with 0:47 left in the half, Clark Fangmeier boomed a career-long 46-yard field goal that could’ve been good from six or eight yards farther back. Back came Houston, though, as the Owls settled into a ‘non-prevent’ defense with only a few ticks left in the half. Sure enough, UH’s Blake Joseph put up a long prayer the his receiver, Jeron Harvey, who managed to come down with the ball as he was wrestled out of bounds at the Rice one yard line. Owl fans were thus resigned to seeing the Flock going into the halftime locker room down 35-34 instead of being up by six. But when UH quarterback Blake Joseph fumbled the snap on first and goal, the center of the Owl defensive line pounced, and Rice had the football back. So the score did, indeed, stay 34-28, Rice, going into the halftime locker room. Some Coog students said Chase Clement gave them the what-for as he headed off the field, but we don’t believe it for a minute. In that interminable, exciting first half, the Owls and the Coogs put on an offensive show, combining for 62 points and 529 yards total offense. Owls picked up where they'd left of in the first half
After the MOB came out and made the UH kiddies upset enough that they fired off extended blasts of their train siren during the Rice band’s halftime show – something about a cat fight between a Cougar and a huge rubber duck -- the Rice football team came out for the third quarter and didn’t let up a bit. To wit: Rice cornerback Brandon King intercepted new UH quarterback Case Keenum on the Cougars’ first possession of the third quarter, giving the Owls possession at their own 36. Chase Clement immediately got things in gear once again, leading the Owls on an 11-play, 64-yard drive culminating with Chase’s perfect 15-yard touchdown pass to Tommy Henderson, whom the Coogs thought they had covered in the end zone. Although the Owls’ attempt at a two-point conversion failed to materialize, the Coogs suddenly were down by two scores, 40-28, midway through the third quarter – and facing a daunting task to get back into the game. Art Briles’ overall strategy, including his replacement of QB Blake Joseph with his other man under, Case Keenum, turned out to be a sound one, however. Whereas Joseph has the cannon for an arm, he also tends to be a little of the loose cannon on the deck – witnesses his three, first-half interceptions and big-time lost fumble at the Rice one, despite putting up over 300 yards of passing offense against the Owls in those first two quarters. Keenum, on the other hand, has the tendency to throw a little underneath – but he’s a cool hand at the helm and an evasive runner. Coach Briles must have figured, heck, if we can just hold onto the ball, either one of those guys can move our team against the Rice defense. And the Coogs did move the ball in the third quarter, although not with nearly the alacrity they did in the first. Case Keenum rather cautiously took Houston down the field to score in nine plays to make it 40-35, Rice, when Anthony Alridge scored on a 8-yard touchdown run with 5:28 remaining in the third quarter. But the Owls responded again. Clement led the Owls on a six-play, 65-yard drive that was capped by Justin Hill’s seven-yard TD run. The Owls went for two, and succeeded, increasing their lead to 48-35. Fourth quarter pretty much belonged to U of H
We’ll ring down the curtain of charity over the fourth quarter action – a 15-minute stanza that saw the Coogs score three touchdowns, the last two of which came courtesy of 33- and 50-yard TD runs by Anthony Alridge past a worn-out and depleted Rice defensive unit. Meanwhile, the Rice offense was limited to 52 yards’ total offense in four, fourth-quarter possessions. Some of the fall-off in production doubtless could be laid at the feet of fatigue as well, but a large part of it was due to a change in UH’s defensive strategy. "They didn't blitz at all the first part of the game," Chase Clement said afterwards. "When they were down two scores, that's when they started bringing their corner blitzes and their backers. It's tough when they don't blitz all game long and all of a sudden, they start bringing it." With the Cougars up 49-48, though, it still looked as if the Rice offense could dredge up enough within to at least wrest another score out of the UH defense. Rice reached midfield on the ensuing drive – just 20 tantalizing yards away from field goal range – by virtue of a 24-yard Jarett Dillard reception. But on the next play, UH blitzed, and the Coogs’ Phillip Hunt picked up the first Houston sack of the day. It looked as it Chases’ knee had touched, but very late in the play the ball bounded free and it was ruled a fumble, naturally, which UH’s Shomari Williams pounced on at the Rice 40. Even then, the Rice defense held on, but the UH defense, in turn, was pumped up, and the Owl offensive machine was just flat out of gas, failing to gain significant yardage its last couple of possessions. "I don't know exactly what happened in the fourth quarter," ‘Thor’ Casey told press afterwards. "We weren't doing anything different; we were still doing the same thing. They happened to make a couple of plays on us, and unfortunately it happened that way." "It looked like we were shooting ourselves in the foot, and sometimes you've got to win games; you can't ‘not lose’ them," Rice coach David Bailiff said. "I don't know that they did anything different. I just think we didn't take advantage of the opportunities presented to us." --P.T.H.
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