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'08 Rice-USM game page Rice 45, Southern Miss 40
HOUSTON (Oct. 18) -- What looked to be a knee-slapper turned out to be a heart-stopper, as the Rice Owls managed to stave off three, fourth-quarter Southern Missisippi touchdowns and escape with a 45-40 victory before an announced crowd of 11, 179 here Saturday afternoon, in so doing extending their league record to 3-1 and remaining in the thick of the division title race and the quest for a bowl game this season. The Owls twice held three-touchdown leads in the second half, only to see them dwindle to five-point margins both times, thanks to some determined play by the USM offense, some frustratingly inconsistent Rice defensive play, and some rather bizarre calls by the fellows in the striped shirts. In the end, it took a James Casey recovery of an onsides kick with 15 seconds left in the game to finally seal the deal, a play which capped a huge day for the Terrific Trio of quarterback Chase Clement, wide receiver Jarett Dillard, and do-it-all utility man Casey. On the day, the stat sheet looked gaudy for all three Rice offensive standouts as Chase and Jarett padded their ongoing NCAA pitch-and-catch record while JD also continued to rewrite league record books with his three touchdown receptions. Chase threw for a total 444 yards and six touchdowns, including the three to Jarett. Besides recovering that game-sealing onsider, Thor, meanwhile, also added a downfield fumble recovery and 26-yard touchdown sprint in the fourth, along with a leaping, twisting, touchdown catch-and-run in the second quarter. His athletic moves, typical for the Owl utility man, left USM fans shaking their heads as they filed sullenly out of Rice Stadium. After all, it was the second year in a row that the Golden Eagles had struck out against the Mighty Casey. In spite of the usual high-scoring, nerve-racking finish, it actually was the Rice defense that starred in the first half. A telling statistic lay in stops-to-first downs: in this game, the Owl defense forced six USM punts, but surrendered 32 first downs, both season highs -- in fact, the highest number of punts, and the largest number of first downs, forced and surrendered by a Rice team of recent memory. How does a team force so many punts, but give up so many first downs? The answer appears to lie in maddeningly inconsistent play on the defensive side. The Owls could beg indulgence because of the a continued rash of defensive injuries, as all-league senior linebacker and team leader Brian Raines went out when out with what appeared to be a serious arm injury early in the game, and did not return. Several other Owls bit the dust during the course of the day, but all of them managed to get back into the game for at least a play or two before the final gun sounded. Chris Jones, Scott Mitchell, Max Anyiam and Robert Calhoun all hit the turf at some point during the game, but each eventually returned to see further action. Bailiff lauds defensive game plan
Rice’s defensive game plan wasn't exactly the culprit, either, as it appeared to be the most well-thought-out thus far of the season. "The good news is that we're in the right spots 98 percent of the time," Rice head coach David Bailiff commented afterwards. "A year ago we weren't even in the right sports, so we're making progress. As soon as this defense realizes that they are pretty good and they belong, you're going to see a great tackling defense. We're athletic enough to do it." USM all-conference running back Damien Fletcher was held, if you could call it that, to 120 yards on the day on 17 carries. In fact, on the first series of downs, he was held to seven yards in two tries as the Owls forced a rare three-and-out. (Actually, it was a four-and-out, as the Flock had the advantage of a ten-yard holding penalty against the Eagles that first series, but we’ll take it however we can get it.) James Casey now appears to be set as the official punt return man for the Owls, and he snagged a Britt Barefoot punt at the Rice 38, preventing a roll and advancing the ball more yards yards to the Owl 44, giving Rice good field position on its first possession of the day. The Feathered Flock took advantage, cranking up an eight play, 56 -yard drive in which Chase hit four different receivers, the touchdown coming on a 17-yard fade to Jarett Dillard to put the Owls up front 7-0, five minutes deep into the game. After an impressive hold on the first series of downs, and a couple of nice plays the next time USM got the ball, the Rice defense commenced to engage in its on-again off-again swoon. Next possession, on second and 11 from his own 15, USM’s Fletcher found a hole in the right side and slashed diagionally for 32 yards to midfield. The very next play, the Eagles’ Austin Davis (and, yes, it was odd hearing the name "Austin Davis" called so constantly by the public address announcer) hit Gene Baptiste for 43 yards to the Rice five -- it was the old flea flicker play, which the Owls always seem to fall for, gobbling it up like chicken soup on more than one occasion this season. Southern Miss scored two plays later, but failed to achieve a tie, as on the extra point attempt, Travis Bradshaw got a hand up and blocked Brit Barefoot’s PAT attempt. The teams proceeded to exchange a couple of possessions as the Owl defense was performing admirably, forcing a USM punt after allowing two first downs the first go- round, and then following that up with a three-and-out the second time around. DeAndre Brown, the freshman five-star USM recruit at wide receiver, dropped a key third-down pass on that series, but that was one of the few flaws he exhibited in his otherwise breakout day, wherein he gathered in four touchdown passes in 12 receptions, totaling 221 yards receiving. When the Owls got the ball a few seconds deep into the second quarter, they managed to crank up a smart drive that carried 61 yards to the Southern Miss 19. On fourth and two, and with the wind not really a factor on this blue-bird day, the coaches decided to send Clark Fangmeier out for a field goal try, and he made it good cleanly from 36 yards out. Once again, the Rice defense stiffened on the subsequent USM possession. First, Scott Solomon got in Austin Davis’ face and forced a hurryup and incompletion.. Then Max Anyiam got in on the act, and Davis had to throw it away on third and 15. USM’s Barefoot got off an angling, bouncing punt that carried 52 yards to the Rice 28, but deep man James Casey caught the ball on the bounce in heavy traffic and threaded his way for 32 yards all the way to the USM 40 yard line. Casey extends Rice lead to 17-6 with eye-popping catch and run
From there, after Chase hit Pat Randolph for 9 yards and a first down at the USM 26, the senior quarterback tossed out a little flair to Casey in the flat. There were only four or five USM players between Thor and the goal, and that obviously wasn’t enough, as he crumpled a couple of them, dodged another, and then, as he approached the pylon, simply vaulted over the fourth, making it into the end zone unscathed for a 17-6 Rice lead. Southern Miss’ Freddy Parham got off a 39 yard return on the ensuing kickoff, but a tripping penalty against the Eagles set them back to their own 24 yard line. From there, they managed a couple of first downs, but once again, the Rice defense held once the USM drive reached midfield. After the Rice defense forced yet another punt, the Owls were moving the football as the clock ticked down. Actually, a USM punt had pinned the Owls back to their own six-inch line, where their drive started, but the Owls got it out to their own 35 in five plays, and appeared to be poised to continue to take the ball down the field. Casey was just short on a third and seven pass reception, however, and the decision was made to kick the ball away. Southern Miss took the fair catch at itsown 31 yard line with 1:09 left in the half. At that point, the Rice 17-6 lead was looking reasonably safe. But then came the first real Rice defensive breakdown of the game. USM faced first and 10 at its own 43, when Todd Mohr roared in and sacked Austin Davis for a loss of five to the 38. That brought the crowd – what crowd there was – into the game; the seconds were ticking down, and it was hard to figure how USM might find a way to get on the scoreboard again before halftime. However, next play, Davis had plenty of time to throw in the pocket, and the Eagles sent their five-star freshman phenom, DeAndre Brown, streaking down the field on a post pattern. Brown is six-foot eight, and Chris Douglas, defending him, is – what, five-foot nine? In any event, Brown had both the reach, and a couple of steps, on the Owl defender as he hauled in the ball on the dead run. Chris caught up with him and wrestled Brown into the turf at the Rice eight. At that point, only 13 seconds remained on the halftime clock. On first and goal from the eight, Davis misfired to Gerald Baptiste, and the clock ticked down to :08. But next play, Davis hit Brown on the quick drop, in the clear, three yards deep in the end zone. The two point attempt failed, but still, the Owls took into the halftime dressing room only a 17-12 lead, which instead quite easily could’ve been more like 24-6. The Owls were slated to receive the second-half kickoff, however, having deferred after winning the opening coin toss. For once, they use a situation to good advantage. In fact, the first five minutes of this game appeared eerily similar to the first five minutes of Rice’s game with Tulsa two weeks ago -- except in reverse. This time, the Owls did something with second-half kickoff
The Owls started off at their own 31 yard line, where, after C.J. Ugokwe rushed for four yards, Chase hit his receiver Roddy Maginot for 10 more to the Rice 45. From there, two rushing plays netted only 4 yards, and the Owls faced a daunting third and six from their own 49. But undaunted, Chase hit Jarett Dillard on a little sideline button hook pattern, whereupon JD neatly juked his defender and found free going to pay dirt. After breaking from his defender, he sprinted in from 51 yards untouched, to make the score 24 to 12 with just under three minutes deep into the third quarter. Rice immediately struck again, getting its first points off turnover on the day. Chris Jones was the hero of this rather unusual outcome, as, when Damien Fletcher was met at the line of scrimmage, and he went down, he went down right on top of one of his big fat old lineman. His knees weren’t down, though, so the ball was still live. Chris ripped it out of him in his arms, and pounced on it. After a few seconds of the confusion, the officials realize that the whistle had not been blown, the play was not dead, and the net result was a recovered fumble by Rice. Taking advantage of the sudden turnover, Rice went for the jugular, as Chase Clement immediately found Toren Dixon opened between two defenders in the end zone and threw him a perfect strike which covered 28 yards. So the score now was Rice 31, Southern Miss 12, and still only a shade over three minutes had elapsed in the third quarter. To USM’s credit, however, the Eagles did not fold, even though it looked like they might on their subsequent possession. Once again, the Owls gave up a couple of first downs deep in Southern Miss territory, but stiffened at midfield. The Eagles lined up for their fifth of six punts on the day, but this time managed to chase the ball out of bounds at the Rice 4 yard line. Playing the field position game not to good advantage, the Owls had to give up the ball, and set up USM with good field position. The Eagles subsequently marched 55 yards in nine plays, Damien Fletcher rushing for the final three. That made it 31-19 with right at three minutes left in the third quarter. It was clear the Owls were going to have to dent the scoreboard some more in order to protect their lead. The question was, how much? Rice failed to move the ball on its next possession, although Kyle Martens got off a decent punch that traveled to the USM 26, where it was fair caught by the Eagles’ Gray Watson. After an initial first down, the Rice defense forced USM’s Davis to throw the ball in the stands. But on third and ten – does there seem to be a pattern developing here? – he once again he hit the 6-8 DeAndre Brown slanting down the middle wide open in single coverage. The play covered 40 yards to the Rice 16, and one play later, Davis found Brown and open in the end zone for 16 yards and the score. Why single-cover the 6-8 Brown with a 5-9 defensive back? After all, the guy was one of the more heavily recruited signees among C-USA's recruits of last year. And he looked like Biletnikoff out there Saturday. "Watching the film, we didn't think that coming in here," admitted Coach Bailiff afterwards. "Because he'd dropped more than he'd caught. He had a great today; today he earned his five stars. Coming into this, we thought he was somebody we'd be able to handle, but he is a big, fast, physical kid." So, what a few minutes before had looked like the beginning of a Rice runaway, was now looking more like a game that was going to go down to the wire, as the Owls led by only five, 31-26. Faced with a rather urgent need to get back on the scoreboard, the Owls kept the ball in the air their next possession. It was here that Toren Dixon showed up for two consecutive first down receptions that kept the drive alive. "If you're going to be out there, you've got to be a playmaker in this offense," Toren said, post-game. And he was today. Then, facing third and six from the USM 44, Chase found Jarett Dillard on the sideline, where he'd executed a wide corner route, discombobulated his defender, and sprinted in for the touchdown from 44 yards out. That gave the Owls some ostensible breathing room, as it now stood 38-26 with 11:39 remaining in the game. Southern Miss moved the ball once again on its next possession, but a big defensive play by Terrance Garman and Travis Bradshaw turned the tables at an opportune time. Facing third and six at the Rice 42, USM’s Davis hit William Spight 11 yards downfield for an apparent first down, but Travis came in to deliver the blow, forcing the ball loose, and Terence recovered the fumble at the Rice 31, ending, at least for the moment, the USM threat. This time, in response, and leading by 12, the Owls decided to keep it on the ground, as C.J. Ugokwe picked up a first down at the Rice 44 after Chase had scrambled for nine on first down. "Hold onto the ball" -- no, wait...
Then, on second and nine from the Rice 45, Chase hit Patrick Randolph on a pattern similar to the one JD had scored on just a couple moments before. Patrick, too, was able to shake his man and found daylight down the sideline, but USM’s C.J. Bailey had the angle on him, and delivered a forceful blow at the USM 26. The Rice coaches were screaming "hold onto the ball," but sure enough, the ball popped loose. James Casey was trailing on the play, however, and, as luck would have it, the ball bounced right into his hands on a single carom, and it was clear sailing for for Thor the remaining 26 yards to the goal line. Thor later explained the situated to gathered scribes after the game. "It was a smash, he (Patrick) runs a corner and I run a hitch. I ran my hitch and I saw it open and I saw him throw it. Randolph and I are really good friends, he's like my little brother and everybody on the team knows it. So when he caught it I was just trying to run hard and block somebody for him. I got up to him and I couldn't block anybody's backs so I was just sitting there waiting for him to get tackled. Then all of a sudden the ball just dropped and bounced right to me. It was one of those freak, lucky things that happen. Luckily I was in a good place to make the play." Some said the play looked like it might even have been a designed one, but Thor demurred. "No, it wasn't planned," he said. "Some of the guys on the sideline thought I stripped the ball from him. It did go through my mind. He did drop the ball. When he fumbled the ball it bounced off the ground and right to me." "It was bizarre but it landed into my hand and I thought ‘this is nice.’ But it was kind of bizarre - there was a split second where I thought, no, but it bounced right to me. It worked out. It was one of those times. A lot of those lucky breaks - it's one of those old things where if you work hard you get lucky. So I worked hard and I got lucky on that play." That put the Owls up 45-26 with just under seven minutes remaining in the game. At that point, it really should have been a laugher, but tense moments, naturally, remained for Owl fans. Rice appeared to have Southern Miss shut down on its ensuing possession, as the Eagles faced fourth and 10 from their own 41 after three straight incompletions. On each of those three and completions, the Rice defensive front had managed to put good pressure on the Southern Miss quarterback. But on fourth and 10, the defense appeared ill prepared, neither rushing hard nor dropping back eight. As a result, Davis had plenty of time to find Ed Morgan for 11 yards to the Rice 48, keeping the drive alive. The Rice defense remained determined to shut down Southern Miss once and for all, and once again, it looked like it had the job done, as Robert Calhoun sprinted in untouched to sack Davis for a loss of 10 to the Rice 42 with 4:30 left in the game. At that point, it was third and 20. But USM went right back to the same well that had slaked its thirst three times earlier in the game, as Davis hit the big freshman wide receiver DeAndre Brown on a crossing pattern, and he sprinted 42 yards for the score, making it 45-33 with now 4:16 remaining. "The one thing where we have got to grow is, when we make a big play defensively, we can't get over it and make the next play," Coach Bailiff said afterwards. "We've got to mature. If you notice, we'd have a big sack, and then we would give up a big ball. We've got to get that play behind us and make them understand that this play is the most important play. Those are the little things that you have to work out to win football games." On the ensuing possession, the offensive theory quite clearly involved giving the ball to Casey -- over and over again. And it just about worked. The first time, Thor bowled for 8 yards. His second carry he rushed for 7 yards. On his third carry, he rushed for only 2 yards, but on the next play, he managed to pick up six more, so the Owls were facing third and two at the Rice 38. Thor had just carried the ball four times in a row on the exact, same play. With only two yards to gain for what would have likely been a game clinching first down, some old football hands might have thought it prudent to pull the ball out of Thor’s belly this time, and have the quarterback keep it off tackle. Instead, Rice ran the same he Thor play for the fifth time in a row, and this time two USM defenders were ready for it, dropping him for a rare loss of yardage at the Rice 36. On fourth and four, the Owls found it appropriate to call time out with 1:42 remaining on the scoreboard clock. To further complicate matters, Kyle Martins had aggravated a hamstring muscle on his previous punt, and so his backup, Mark Brundage, had to go out on the field for his first varsity action, with the game on the line. Mark smartly got off the kick, however, getting enough windage and elevation so that it reached the USM 32, where the Eagles’ Andre Watson got off a negligible 3 yard return. That put USM 65 yards from the goal – and 12 points down -- with 97 seconds left in the game. On first down, Chris Douglas made an acrobatic play to break up the past attempt to Ed Morgan. However, another Owl defender was flagged, dubiously, for pass interference away from the play, and that gave USM new life at midfield. Two Austin Davis pass attempts went awry, but on third and 10, once again, a minor breakdown happened as Davis hit Freddy Parham for 10 yards to the Rice 40 and the first down. After a near interception on the ball batted around among several Owl defender’s, next play Davis hit Sean Nelson for 17 yards to the Rice 17, and, although fewer than 30 seconds remained in the game, USM was once again knocking at the door. Sure enough, Davis once again found DeAndre Brown in the end zone – well to explain matters a bit, Davis found DeAndre Brown in the end zone after Brown had bascially cold cocked a couple of Rice defenders right in front of the officials. As the two Rice defenders lay on the end zone turf as if they’d each been shot by a .45-caliber slug, Brown was easily able to haul in the ball for an alleged touchdown. At that point, old Rice grads had scenarios of prior agonizing losses, turning over and over in their heads. Everyone in the stadium, of course, knew an onside kick was on the way. The kick was well executed, bounding high and spinning end over end, but, as luck would have it, right in the direction of James Casey. Just as the ball reached Thor’s outstretched hands, he was smashed into by two USM players. Yet somehow miraculously he was able to get both hands on the ball, execute a perfect pirouette, crash into the turf, and hold on. That meant, game over. "That was a wild ride out there," Coach Bailiff summed it up. "It was unbelievable from start to finish. It's just Conference USA football, but you'd better play hard every down because every team is capable of scoring. "We have to continue to improve. We have to continue to play passionately. We still have to eliminate mistakes. We've given up too many plays defensively. But the best is yet to come. We're a good football team getting better every week." --Paul T. Hlavinka
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