Patrick Randolph snags touchdown pass against UNT (MA photo)

But with great leadership from Chase Clement, Jarett Dillard, David Berken, James Casey, et al., the Owls were anything but flat as they stormed past the Mean Green, 77-20, here Saturday.

On a beautiful, albeit warm, Saturday afternoon at Rice Stadium the Rice offense put on a precision performance not  before offered  by the blue and gray since before World War I. Consider this:  10 first half possessions, and the final one was with only 1.8 seconds left in the half and we took a knee.  The result of those 10 possessions?  Eight Rice touchdowns.

Rice scored on its first six possessions -- and on the seventh UNT fumbled a punt whereupon the Owls scored three plays later. On its next possession Chase Clement and Jarett Dillard combined for their 41st TD combo to up the lead to 56-20 at the half.

Saturday should have been "Calculator Day" at the Stadium. Rice senior QB Chase Clement completed his first 11 passes and Jeramy Goodson threw his first ever TD pass on a halfback reverse toss to Dillard, a beautiful 30 yarder lofted over a North Texas DB.

And, oh, by the way, Chase threw three touchdown passes to his battery-mate, Jarrett Dillard, setting an NCAA record for career scoring passes from quarterback to receiver.

Chase and JD have connected for 41 touchdowns during their four-year career togther, eclipsing surpassing Tim Rattay and Troy Edwards of Louisiana Tech and Colt Brennan and Devane Bess of Hawaii.  Those two pairs previously shared the record with 39 touchdown passes.

Chase completed 22 of 28 passes for 298 yards and five touchdowns. He also ran 10 times for 79 yards and two touchdowns, as the Owls scored the school's most points in a game since they ran up a 146-3 win over SMU in 1916.

JD, as usual, led all  Rice receivers on the day, hauling in  eight passes for 114 yards total.

Clark Fangmeier joined in the fun with 11 PATs, a new school and CUSA record.

Lost in the shuffle over the Rice offensive onslaught was the fact that Owl defense pitched a shutout in the second half against UNT and hauled in a pair of pick-six interceptions, giving them five in as many games (MA photo)

In 1951 Bill Howton hauled in three TD passes at the Cotton Bowl against SMU. No one had eclipsed that Owl record for 57 years until Dillard got four on Saturday.

In addition Dillard now has 50 TD  catches in his career, sharing the NCAA mark with La Tech's Troy Edwards. JD now has seven (or 8 or 9) more games to have it by himself.   

Run up the score, you say? No way. Bill Yeoman, Jack Pardee or John Jenkins likely would have scored 120 points on this day. But David Bailiff showed a lot of class. It's hard to believe a team that  scored 77 points would only have 67 yards total offense in the 2nd half. The Owls only threw five passes after intermission, usually settlingfor straight line plunges to eat up the clock and prevent further embarassment for the visitors. Even third and long would usually be a line plunge.

The defense scored two of the three third-quarterf TDs, with freshman DE Arnaud Gascon-Nadon getting a pick in the flat and returning it 13 yards for a score. On the next drive Chris Douglass took advantage of a Kramer Lucio deflection and returned his INT for a 40 yard touchdown.

It looked like the Mean Green might match Rice touchdown for touchdown early in the game. But the D pitched a shutout in the 2nd half and only allowed seven points over the last three quarters. 

Special teams still need some work but showed improvement. They blocked a field goal attempt and recovered three fumbles on UNT punt returns. One of those was mysteriously disallowed.

All in all the 16,885 fans in attendance were treated to a special offensive explosion with Chase and JD leading the way.