Then came one of those momentum-changing situations that just occasionally rears its ugly head. On first and ten from the Vandy 28, and the Owls gobbling yardage, Chase dropped straight back to throw. A Commodore blitz was in the offing, however, and Chase couldn't quite avoid it. As he went down in a tangle of black jersies, someone managed to strip the ball away. Probably was already down. Certainly in the NFL he would have been "in the grasp" and the play blown dead.

But the play was ruled a fumble recovery for Vanderbilt, and that got the crowd back up on its feet. And with the crowd in the game, the Vandy offense really began to roll for the first time in the contest, covering 68 yards in seven plays, quarterback Chris Nixon taking it in from 14 yards out, to even the count at 14-14.

Once again, the Rice offense responded, although this time the going proved to be a bit tougher than on the first two drives. James Casey played like a madman on this 80 yard scoring drive, grabbing four passes, the first of which covered 31 yards to the Vanderbilt 45. To top things off, on fourth and goal from the Vandy two, after both teams used a timeout to ice the other, Thor took it over from two yards out and that put the Owls back up, 21-14, with 3:19 left in the half.

That three minutes was quite enough, it turned out, to allow Vandy to come back and tie the game. Once again, a short kickoff set up the Commodores at their own 40 yard line. With only 60 yards to cover, and three minutes-plus to do so, Vandy roared down the field. The first two plays resulted in pass completions to Sean Walker for 13 and 17 yards respectively.

But several subsequent running plays used up clock, and Vandy had to call timeout facing second down and two at the Rice 7 yard line with 55 seconds left. While the clock ticked down, VU's Jared Hawkins rushed for no gain, as he was met by Rice's Todd Mohr. But on third and two, Hawkins found a seam and dashed into the end zone.

Thus, the game was a 21-21 tie at the half, but it certainly looked to Owl fans as if Rice were in at least decent position to win this game in a second-half shootout. But that was not to be. Not at all, in fact.

A portent of bad things to come took place when Rice initially moved the ball, but then bogged down, after taking the second-half kickoff. Starting at his own 17, Chase immediately completed a 30 yard pass to Jarett Dillard to the Rice 47. The Owls picked up another first down on a short completion to Patrick Randolph and an eight-yard  Clement scramble. Now, the Owls were at the VU 41 yard line, and things look good, but Chase misfired on a pass to Casey, and another one to Patrick Randolph. Then on third and 10, Vanderbilt sent in the student body and nailed the Rice quarterback for an 11-yard loss.

 This time, Kyle Martins got off a fine punt which was downed at the Vanderbilt eight. Although the Commodores subsequently were able to move the ball with authority, Rice rose up to halt the drive at the Rice 31. On second and 10 from that point, Chris Jammer broke up a Chris Nixon pass attempt to Udom Umoh, but the Commodores were flagged for holding.

Apparently unaware that Vandy has an all-conference kicker who can make 45-yards-plus field goals all day just for fun, the Rice staff decided to decline the penalty. Terrence Gorman forced Nixon to throw the ball into the stands on third and 10, but Vanderbilt's Brian Hahnfelt came in and calmly nailed a 48 yard field goal squarely through the uprights, in another special teams victory for the Black and Gold.

That put the Owls down by 10, but there was still plenty of time left. Or so it seemed.

And once again, the Rice offense was able to move the ball, this time mixing the pass and run. When Patrick Randolph picked up eight yards on a reverse to the Vandy 31 yard line, it looked as if the Owls were poised to pick up another seven. However, the Vandy defense stiffened, and CJ Ugokwe was stopped after a gain of one, and then on third and one, Chase Clement was nailed at the line of scrimmage on a designed quarterback draw.

On fourth and one, Thor lined up at the quarterback spot, but instead of the inevitable smash into the line by Casey,  the Owls tried a surprise pass to Jarett Dillard, who was open. Unfortunately, this was just one of those times for JD. So the Owls turned the ball over on downs at the Vanderbilt 30, and at that point, really, church was out for the Institute.

What happened to the Rice well-oiled offensive machine? "They started mixing up their fronts," Chase  explained afterwards. " They started changing between three down and four down (linemen) and that was kind of screwing with some of our protection. We had opportunities, we just didn't take advantage of them."  

The Rice defense boldly stifled the Vandy offense on the next series, but the Dores punted out to the Rice 21.  At that point, three straight Chase Clement pass incompletions meant a three and out for the Owls.

Also, by that point, to be fair about it, Chase had taken quite a beating in the backfield via the Vanderbilt blitz. It was pretty clear that he was not himself, as he remained relatively ineffective for a good part of the second half, showing all the characteristics of a fellow who had just had the tar knocked out of him one time too many.

In any event, the situation was made  academic when Kyle Martens got off a 47 yarder to the Vanderbilt 32. But the coverage was nonexistent, and All-SEC return man D. J. Moore, advanced the ball 67 yards to the Rice 6-inch line, where he was finally forced out of bounds by Chris Jones. Nixon sneaked in from the one, and that put the Commodores up at 38-21 with 10 minutes remaining in the game.

The Owls could not generate any more offense to speak of, however, and Vandy played keep-away with its running game, running down the clock on a multi-play drive that ended the game when the scoreboard  ticked down to zero with the Commodores in the Rice red zone.

The debilitated Rice defense had given  it their best shot, but being short-handed made it impossible to hold back the Vanderbilt rushing game consistently.   Afterwards, though, Rice DB Bencil Smith offered no excuses.

"This is football, so if you play the game you know it is going to be hard on the body," he said. "Of course we were hurt by the losses of our two seniors, Vernon James and Brian Raines. We talked about it in practice and that's when you count on those guys to step up and fill the void. That was on their shoulders and it was something they had to do. I think they did a good job. We were in the right places at the right time, but we have to learn how to finish. We knew that we were good enough defensively to come in and get a win."

Rice defender Andrew Sendejo, who had his usual excellent game, wasn't about to chalk this loss up to the injury list. 

"I know for the first three quarters, we had them going," he said. "That is something we can build off of. For us, we just have to work on finishing in the fourth quarter. We can definitely build off what we did early in the game."