NEW ORLEANS (Oct. 25) – The Rice Owls' charter plane likely didn't need to use an ounce of jet fuel to fly the team back home to Houston tonight. The momentum the Owls developed in storming to a 35-0 halftime lead over the Tulane Green Wave here Saturday afternoon surely should've been enough to get the Institute Boys safely back to Hobby sans engines.

So overwhelming was the Flock's first-half dominance over the Greenies, that Rice had coasted to a 28-0, early second-quarter lead before their unfortunate opponents had been able to garner more than a single first down..

But injury was added to insult when, on the final play of the first half, the whole center of the Rice defensive line rose up to block a Ross Thevenot field goal attempt (Scott Solomon got the spike), whereupon Chris Jones grabbed the caroming ball, wide open in the flat, and raced 55 yards for a touchdown after the clock had expired.

If there were precious few Tulane fans in the cavernous Superdome for the opening kickoff, there remained even fewer when a noticeable number of them began to file out of the stadium in disgust at the score, as the visiting MOB took the field.

To say the Rice head coach David Bailiff had seen effort and results aplenty, and ordered his troops to take the foot off the gas in the second half, would be a profound understatement.

Speaking of understatement, Coach B said afterwards he though the performance of the Owls in the first half was "efficient."

"When you go in at halftime ahead 35-0," he said, "that means you had big plays on special teams; we'd made great plays on defense, and on offense we were able to move the chains."

"First off, Coach Toledo, he does a great job at Tulane; that was a classy football team we played today."

That last statement likely served as a clue to the Rice mentor's easing off the pedal in the second half -- he's obviously a Bob Toledo ally. Which is more that can be said for an ever-growing number of Green Wave supporters, who hav now seen their team drop to 2-5 on the season, with scant prospects for bowl eligibility to play for here on out.

With this win, however, exactly the opposite can be said of the Rice bunch, whose bowl prospects rose enormously with a road win against a Tulane team which had manhandled them the past two seasons.

Rice's bowl stock rose like Google with this victory. To belabor the obvious, one more win makes the Owls technically bowl eligible, while a mere 50-50 split of their remaining four games, three of them at home, will render them 7-5 and an attractive choice for bowl committees, what with the recording breaking Clement-Dillard pass-catch duo and such a prolific offense.

But that's all we're gonna say about thay-ut.

First half didn't begin with promise, but Owls delivered

Instead, we'd rather outline a blow-by-blow description of the Owls' amazing first-half performance – which, incidentally, did not begin promisingly.

Rice won the toss and this time elected to receive instead of deferring the dcision to second half, as is usually the case.

But the Owl offense and Young Doctor Clement didn't get untracked right away. In fact, Chase Clement threw not one, but two, interceptions on the Owls' opening possession. (The first was nullified by a Tulane offsides penalty.)

With the Greenies' resulting opening possession starting at the Owl 43 yard line, there was a feeling of ‘here we go again' among the Rice faithul, who pretty much matched the Tulane attendees man for man – and really, there weren't all that many Rice fans who made the trip to New Orleans.

But the Rice defense came out prepared and ready to go. A heavy rush forced a careless Kevin Moore incompletion on first down. On second down, ace Tulane running back Andre Anderson was stuffed for no gain by Scott Solomon and Robert Calhoun. And on third down, Tulane quarterback Moore misfired again.

But a 37-yard Ross Thevenot punt pinned the Owls back on their five yard line, and thus the Flock was presented with a daunting challenge in the field position game. But all that Clement, Dillard, Casey and Associates did was crank up a 14-play, 95 yard drive that put the Owls up, 7-0 when Thor got wide open in the end zone and made a leaping grab of a Chase Clement pass from 12 yards out.

On the ensuing kickoff, the Greenies set up shop at their own 31 and went nowhere. The highly-touted running back Andre Anderson was stopped cold on first down by Terrance Garmon and Travis Bradshaw. Two more passing misfires meant the Greenies were three-and-out again.

This time, starting at his own 40, Chase Clement elected to put on a show of his own. On first down, he hit frosh receiver Roddy Maginot for 17 yards and a first down. Next play, Chase made the read and found a hole, sprinting 21 yards downfield. Then it was C. J. Ugokwe's turn, as he picked through heavy traffic until he found a narrow hole, then bulled downfield for 14 more.

With first and goal at the seven, Rice flooded the end zone with receivers, and Chase ran the quarterback draw untouched for six.

On the next kickoff, Chris Jones delivering a crushing blow on the Tulane return man and separated him from the ball; Rice's Brandon Tolbert picked up the first fumble recovery of his college career – and he even set sights on the end zone, but was dragged down at the Tulane 17.

Rice upped the ante to 21-0 on the next play, as Chase found Thor on a post pattern and hit him on the fly for the score.

Perhaps a sense of desperation hit the Green Wave on their next possession, when after finally picking up a first down on an 11-yard completion from Moore to Allan Mitchell, the Wave surrendered a turnover on the the next play, as another Moore pass was picked off and returned five yards by Terrance Garmon to the Tulane 42.

First play, the Greenies blitzed everybody and managed to nail Chase for a seven-yard loss, but even that was nullified by a 15-yard personal foul penalty. That put the ball on the Tulane 27, and from there, C. J. Ugokwe took the inside handoff and ripped and snorted 21 yards to the six.

From there, same as before: the Owl receivers all camped out in the end zone, and Chas had clear sailing to the goal line on the quarterback draw.

So that made it 28-0, Rice, only a minute deep into the second quarter.

Tulane finally was able to move the ball on their next possession, finally bogging down at the Rice 45 and punting out to the 12 yard line. From there, the Owls once again were able to initiate a drive, but this time, poor field position caught up with them. Facing fourth and one at their own 42, the Owls lined up as if to go for the first down, but Chase Clement instead pooched a dandy quick kick which died at the Tulane two yard line.

The Greenies took to the air once again, particularly given the fact that their star running back, Andre Anderson, had left the game mid-way in the first quarter with what later was revealed to be a shoulder separation.

The only thing that seemed to be working for them was the screen play, as Nathan Austin took one and rambled for 48 yards to the Rice 20. But wouldn't you know, those mean old Birdies spoiled the fun again when Robert Calhoun submarined to pick off a pass just before it hit the turf, ten yards down the middle..

The Owls and the Green Wave exchanged a couple of punts from there, as the halftime clock ticked down. But a near-revolting development turned into a bonanza for Rice just as the half expired.

The Greenies had gotten the ball at their own 34 with only 43 seconds left in the half. From there, they managed to dink their way to midfield, using the sideline and their last couple of timeouts. Still, only 10 seconds were left on the clock when Tulane's Moore hit Brian King for a 25-yarder down the sideline. The put the Green Wave in field goal position at the Rice 23.

But that's when the Rice defensive line literally rose up, and it was Scott Solomon who got his hand on the ball, slamming it back at the Greenies like a beach volleyball spike – and of course, that's when Chris Jones did the honors on his 55-yard recovery and return.

It's testimony to the way the Owls let the air out of the tires in the second half to note that the game ended at 4:54 p.m., ten minutes short of three hours' duration. It was the first sub-three-game of the season for Rice, and it underscored the relative lack of drama that was contained in second half action, when compared to all the Rice fireworks in the first.

Rice did put together one crisp touchdown drive in the second half, traveling 83 yards in six plays to take a 42-10 lead after the Greenies had put a couple of garbage-time scores on the board.

Chase Clement started off the drive with a 17-yard completion to Jarett Dillard, one of four receptions JD had for 41 yards on the day and no touchodown receptions, one of Jarett's lesser efforts but made incumbent by the complete game played by the rest of the Rice offense, and the way Chase was able to keep Tulane defenders off balance by distributing the ball to a whole host of Rice receivers.

The key play of this drive came on third and one from the Rice 43. The Owl offense set up in the Thor Package: James Casey took the snap, and as everybody in green jersies expected him to test the middle, he took off to the outside for 45 yards to the Tulane 12. "When it came open, I wish I had been a little faster; maybe I'd have scored," Casey said afterwards, with a big grin on his face.

Shut down Dillard, Clement, Casey, and you've got it won? Nope

Tulane came into the game prepared to shut down three guys, and you know who they were. Once Chase Clement got into the groove after his first series, however, that strategy fell like a house of cards.

Add the fact that C. J. Ugokwe turned in a whopping 111 yards rushing on the day – his first 100-yard-plus game, as the Rice offense totaled 230 yards rushing in the game, meant that Tulane Coach Bob Toledo's game plan was a stinker from the start.

"C. J.'s stepping up was huge for us," Chase said after the game. "With that, you can just drop eight and look to cover J.D. and James, to try and double those guys, because now you've got to worry about C. J."

Defensively, the Rice second half effort was marked by significant highs and significant lows, partially occasioned by the lack of adrenlin that inevitably flows from a 35-0 halftime lead.

On Tulane's first touchdown drive, for instance, Owl defenders had two big sacks – one by Willie Garley and one by Terrance Garmon, that set up a third-and-15 and a third-and-17 for the Greenies, respectively.

The entire drive, the Rice defense appeared to have the Green Wave well under control, except for those durned third and long situations, both of which resulted in long pass completions under scant pressure to open receivers to nail the first down. (The first was controversial, as the ball appeared to be juggled by Tulane receiver Brian King, but the call on the field of incompletion was reversed upon review by the press box.

More irritating about that Tulane drive was the fact that the Greenies faced second and 21 from their own two yard line after the Garmon sack, but still managed to dig themselves out of that hole and travel, effectively, 98 yards to put their first six on the board.

Those negatives were at least partially offset by a gorgeous-looking goal line stand put up by the Rice defense early in the fourth quarter. The Greenies had started at their own 45 and had driven ponderously up the field until they faced a first and goal at the Rice five yard line after a sideline screen to Brian King went for 25 yards.

On first down, Tulane's Adrian Williams brought the ball to the lip of the cup but was stopped just short of the flag by Terrance Garmon and Willie Garley. Then on second down, Tulane's Nathan Austin was stopped cold by Todd Mohr. Next play, backup TU quarterback Joe Kemp fired incomplete to his receiver Aaron Duplesis. Finally, on fourth and goal, still from the one yard line, Austin tried the middle again, but was repulsed for a loss of two yeards by Travis Bradshaw and Brian Stacey.

Unfortunately, the Rice offense couldn't move the ball out from underneath the shadow of their own goal on the ensuing possession, and a semi-short punt put the Greenies in position to score their second garbage touchdown of the afternoon, which put the score where it stayed as a final, 42-17.

Oh, and did we mention that the Rice defense held the Tulane ground game to a mere 34 yards on the day, far, far below their season average? To be able to do that was stellar, Coach Bailiff said afterwards, "because they are a rushing football team. I know they went to the air and passed for 300, but when you make somebody try and beat you left-handed, you make them try to do something they don't want to do. I thought that was a tribute to our assistant coaches."

--P.T.H.