HOUSTON (Oct. 17) – The game of football, just like life its own self, often can turn on a dime.

As the ball bounded on the turf surrounded by blue jerseys, with it down went the Cougars’ pipe dreams of national rankings, BCS conference affiilation, C-USA domination -- and, oh, by the way, how are those naming rights millions stacking up for that new, on-paper-only stadium you guys are supposed to be building?

Anyway, guess we ought not to be piling on these guys – they’re our neighbors, and all. Besides, there’s plenty of good to talk about, after this one.

The thing about that freshman quarterback snap bobble – it wouldn’t have amounted to a thing if the Owls hadn’t played the kind of game they needed to play to put themselves in a position to win. In so doing, the Institute Boys did a number of things they’d hadn’t yet done all year.

For starters, they drove for touchdowns the first four times they got their hands on the ball.

First time, the took advantage of a Justin Hill interception of a tipped-ball pass, which occurred on a third and ten on the Coogs’ opening possession. Justin made the pick, headed for the sideline, and almost reached paydirt before pushed out of bounds, 25 yards later, at the U of H 5.

Sam McGuffie picked up four on first down, but from there it took Jeremy Eddington three tries to cross the pay station. He did so in emphatic fashion on fourth and goal from the one.

That first Owl touchdown more or less made the statement that the Owls were bent on making.

The Coogs managed a single first down on their next possession, but punted short to the Owl 44 after three straight Piland incompletions.

That’s when the Owl brain trust elected to put in running back Jeremy Eddington out of the Wildcat formation. Teaming with Sam McGuffie, the combination drove the Owls as far as the UH 29. From there, Nick Fanuzzi hit a wide-open Luke Willson on the visitor’s sideline, and he romped in 29 yards for the score, to make it Rice 13, UH 0.

"We weren’t going to make wholesale changes, but there had been young men that continue to make plays that weren’t on the field enough snaps," Rice head coach David Bailiff said afterwards. "So we had our staff come up with a way to get everybody out there while still staying in the framework that we’ve had."

Houston countered with an 80-yard, 11-play touchdown drive, but, hey, we weren’t going to keep the UH scoring machine out of the end zone all day.

Rather, the thing to do was to trade punch for counter-punch, and that’s exactly what the Owls came up with.

Pairing Jeremy Eddington and Turner Peterson, in turn, with Sam McGuffie, the Owls got off another smart drive on the ground. Once again, they reached first and goal at the UH 4. Once again, a couple of tries in the line failed to cross the plane. And once gain, the Owl offense delivered on fourth and goal from the one, as, this time, it was Turner Peterson who got the call and rammed it across.

That made it Rice 20, UH 7, but the Owls weren’t yet through extending their lead. First, the Rice defense three-and-outed the Coogs on their next possession, John Gioffre getting a key stop on second down to force the issue.

UH punted out to the Rice 14, and it was there that the Owls commenced their most impressive offensive showing of the day, an 86-yard scoring drive. Well, actually, it wasn’t so much a long, grind-‘em-out drive as it was the uncharacteristic stringing together of a couple of aerial bombs.

First came a 24-yarder from Nick Fanuzzi to Sam McGuffie; then, right on its heels came a beautiful toss to Randy Kitchens, who’d gotten a step on his man at the UH 45, caught the ball in stride, shucked another Coog defender who appeared to have the angle on him, and, then, to the amazement of all, sprinted untouched into the end zone from 59 yards out.

It was the longest Rice TD pass play of the season, and it put the Flock up, 27-7.

No truth to the rumor that, at that point, Rice AD Rick Greenspan had to dispatch his Field Nazis to the upper reaches of Rice Stadium to intercept despairing Coog fans looking for a high spot to jump off of.

The Cougars did manage another touchdown drive before the halftime intermission, which, presumably, kept the more fanatical of their fans from trying anything rash to hurt themselves. Ah, but it must have been a close call.

To listen to their own hype, these guys were SEC shoo-ins, BCS bowl near-certainties, and Heisman Trophy winners.

If they ever were, they ain’t no more.

To Houston’s credit, the Coogs did come out and engineer two more touchdown drives in the third quarter, enough to give them a brief 28-27 lead and send a least a handful of Rice Homecoming attendees to the nearest martini.

During that period of time, the Owls managed four punts in their next six possessions, and gained only 71 yards total offense, in the interim.

"Obviously, you’d like to play better in the second half," Coach Bailiff admitted afterwards. "But we played good enough to win. I’ll take a win any day."

But after thwarting a UH drive that otherwise might have been destined to put the game out of reach, the Owls forced a 37-yard Matt Hogan field goal attempt that narrowly cleared the uprights. It put the Cougars up, 31-27, with 8:55 left in the game, but that was plenty of time for one more Owl drive.

What was needed, to get things going, was a spirited kickoff return, and Andy Erickson provided just that, taking the ball at the goal line and threading his way 43 yards down the home sideline to make it a relatively short field for the Owls.

From their own 43, the Owls started punching away at what appeared to be a tiring UH defensive unit.

First, Nick Fanuzzi scrambled for eight yards to make it third and short. Then Tyler Smith found a seam up the middle and rambled for 11 yards and a first down at the Cougar 38.

Tyler got four more, and then Vance McDonald picked up just enough for the first down on a sideline route.

Sam McGuffie then spelled T, and carried the ball three straight times for a first down at the UH 15.

A throwaway in the direction of Pat Randolph deep in the end zone went for nought, and a Fanuzzi keeper yielded up third and eight at the UH 13.

From there, well, let Vance tell the story.

"The look was exactly what we wanted for that corner route with the inside receiver," he told press after the game. "I saw the safety and and I saw him checking it, and I said, ‘Yes, this is going to be awesome!' We had the same play against North Texas in the first quarter, and I didn’t get the same opportunity – but this time we had good execution and I ended up catching it."

"I was just trusting Vance was going to get there," said Nick Fanuzzi. "I was pretty sure it was a TD the minute the ball left my hands. I got rushed pretty hard and had to get rid of it in a hurry, but I knew it was there."

Still, Houston had 4:24 left in the game to engineer a comeback drive, which by UH offensive standards is an eternity, even with a freshman quarterback at the helm.

The Coog strategy was  to move the ball downfield in short bursts, and after Tyron Carrier got the kickoff return out as far as the Houston 32, they moved for a couple of first downs and crossed midfield, apparently on their way to redemption as the clock ticked down.

On second and six from the Rice 42, Bryce Beall took the handoff and appeared to have room to roam, but Trey Briggs and Travis Bradshaw immediately closed the hole and the Coogs had to settle for a third and short at the Rice 37.

Still electing to keep the the ground, Piland again gave to Beall for the chip-shot first down yardage, but Xavier Webb stormed in to nail the Cougar ball carrier right at the line of scrimmage.

A measurement indicated Beall’s third-down attempt wound up about eight inches short of the first down, and the Cougar offense sprang right back up to the line of scrimmage to punch for the necessary yardage.

Piland bowed under, and at that point more than a few Owl fan minds in the stands must have been thinking, "Come on, now, be a freshman – do something freshman."

"We've got a lot of young men out too. We had a lot of young men that hadn't played special teams. We really had to overwork the defensive line because of the depth issues we're having right now."

"I think we can build on this win, and a lot of good is going to come out of this win."
 
--P.T.H.