It all started when the Rice Owls kicked it
into high gear early, taking a 10-0 and then a 16-7 lead against the hosting North Texas
Mean Green.
It continued when the Owls almost kicked the can, turning that
16-7 lead into a 31-26 fourth-quarter deficit courtesy crucial breakdowns and mental
errors.
But the most remarkable kicking job on the day belong to
Rice redshirt freshman Chris Boswell, who calmly – and we do mean calmly –
booted four field goals, two of them in excess of 50 yards distant, to provide the
one-point margin of victory, evening the Institute’s record on the year at 1-1.
There were questions over the Owls’
game plan and shortcomings in their execution, enough to give nay-sayers plenty to talk
about in the coming week. But despite the errors, this game can only be recorded in the
record books as a resounding success.
First of all, it was the Flock’s first
non-conference road victory since Chase Clement led the Owls to a 48-14 win at West Point
four years ago. It marked the second straight week of solid, determined play by the Rice
defense, despite allowing a couple of big plays that let UNT back into contention.
Rice’s defense and special teams produced early
turnovers and gave good field position, and then, after lackluster second and third
quarters, stiffened its back to keep the Eagles off the scoreboard after a minute deep in
the fourth quarter.
This might have been Rice’s finest special team
performance in years, producing outstanding kickoffs and punts, consistently returning the
same to advantage, and of course producing the four field goals, the lack of a single one
which would have meant defeat.
Owls struck early with 51-yard TD
bomb
Andy Erickson nears the end of punt return that once
again set up Owls with good field position -- he also picked up 15 more for a late hit out
of bounds on this one (PTH photo) |
Rice went out to a 7-0 lead on the Owls’ very
first play from scrimmage, when quarterback Taylor McHargue found Sam McGuffie wide open
on the sideline where he raced untouched 51 yards for the touchdown. The sudden strike was
set up by the Owl defense, which three-and-outed UNT after the opening kickoff.
On the ensuing kickoff – the second in the row by
Brandon Yelovich that reached the end zone – UNT set up shop at their own 20. First
play, their elusive running back Lance Dunbar got the call, and seven yards downfield he
was met head on and separated from the ball by, who else, Travis Bradshaw. In the
resulting pileup, Trey Briggs came up with the ball, and suddenly Rice was sitting pretty
at the North Texas 26.
However, on third and three, the frosh quarterback
simply held onto the ball a bit too long after a deep drop, and he was sacked for a
loss of 14 yards to the 33.
No matter, though. Out came Chris Boswell, and he set
aloft a 50-yard field goal that simply boomed through the uprights; it would have been
good from 60 yards out as well as 50.
In fact, the redshirt freshman from Keller connected on
three field goals in the first quarter, two of them from 50 yards out, which surely must
be a school record. The last time Rice had three field goals in an entire game was
in 2004 at Tulsa.
But Boz’ amazing feat was one of those good-news,
bad-news kind of things. His efforts only came about as the result of the utter failure of
Rice’s offense to move the ball after having been set up multiple times in sweet
field position via the heroics of the defense and special teams.
To boot, UNT’s only early score was the result of a
clearly avoidable miscue. The Mean Green had advanced the ball inside the Rice 10, but the
Owl defenders arose and forced a fourth-and-seven from the eight yard line. UNT
place-kicker sliced his ensuing field goal attempt and missed from 24 yards out, which
would have kept the score 10-0.
But a Rice defensive back was called for being offsides
on the play as he crept toward, and, one must conclude, past, the line of scrimmage. The
half-the-distance penalty didn’t get the Mean Green a first down, but it sufficiently
emboldened head coach Todd Dodge that he sent back in the offense, and on fourth and two
quarterback Nathan Tune hit Dunbar for the score.
Meanwhile, Rice was misfiring at the other end of the
field, despite multiple silver-platter opportunities.
One, for instance, happened when Denzel Wells roared in
to block a Will Atterbury punt attempt at the UNT 16, whereupon it was scooped up by Sam
McGuffie and returned to the six yard line. The Owls had four plays to make six yards, but
they didn’t gain a yard. The chip-shot field goal made all the difference at
game’s end, but at the time it seemed like a puny consolation prize.
"We had a lot of missed opportunities early,"
Rice head coach David Bailiff said afterwards. "As the game progressed, I know we
missed two touchdown passes that we dropped, missed two field goals, we threw an
interception in the red zone right before the half; we left maybe 24 points on the
field."
Three straight rushing plays plied the
middle of the UNT line, the first two by Sam McGuffie, and the third down play a keeper by
TMac. The result: a fourth and two at the 28, pushed back to the 33 by a procedure
penalty.
No matter, as Chris Boswell blasted another field goal
attempt through from 50 yards, and this kick was even stronger than the first one.
At that point it was 16-7, Owls, but UNT’s lone
score was set up by a penalty, without which the result would have been a failed field
goal attempt. And the Owls, meanwhile, got three Boz field goals having been set up with
field position at the UNT 6 (blocked punt), the 26 (fumble recovery), and the 36 (short
punt after three-and-out).
Do the math – it easily could have been Rice, 28-0,
at that point. Or 24-0. Or anyway, something more than the 16-7 margin sported by the Owls
at the end of the first quarter.
When Andy Erickson coughed up a fumble at the Rice 21
while returning yet another UNT punt, it took the Mean Green three plays to take
advantage, Tune connecting with Jamaal Jackson for 14 yards and the score. That made it
16-14, Owls, with 9:43 left in the half -- a two-point margine that very easily could, and
should, have been much, much more.
Taylor McHargue directed the Owls to a three-and-out on
his next two possessions, although, to his defense, he was already suffering from the
bruised shoulder that shortly thereafter sidelined him.
So when the Owl offense once again was handed
advantageous field position, this time courtesy a Justin Hill force of a Tune fumble,
recovered by Travis Bradshaw at the UNT 26, the Rice coaches decided it was time to send
in Nick Fanuzzi, and stable Taylor McHargue for the day.
It was time for a change, and
besides, TMac was 'bunged up'
Game saw aggressive gang tackling like this -- the Rice
defense has a certain chip on their shoulderr that was entirely lacking last season (PTH
photo) |
Why Nick, and why then? Coach Bailiff responded,
"We had a hard time running the ball; Nick throws it with a little more velocity on
the ball and it was just time for a change. Taylor McHargue is still a good quarterback
and we’ve still got a lot of confidence in him, but we’ve got a lot of
confidence in all our quarterbacks, that’s just how we thought we had to do it to win
a game. And actually when we first took Taylor out, he’d gotten his throwing arm
bunged up a little, so it was something that we had to do, but then we decided to stick
with it."
Nick immediately responded, when, on third and six from
the UNT 22, he hit Luke Willson on a quick sideline route. From there, the Force was with
Luke, as he made the North Texas defender who had a bead on him look silly, swiping
at thin air. After Luke’s juke a la canadienne, he had clear sailing to the
end zone, and that put the Owls back up, 23-14.
But for the remainder of the second quarter, and most of
the third, the game belonged to the Mean Greenies. First, they responded with a 68-yard
drive in five plays, including three semi-long pass completions where the UNT receivers
got separation from Owl d-backs, and then Lance Dunbar ran it in for the score from four
yards out.
With just under two minutes remaining in the half, Nick
Fanuzzi immediately set out to move the Rice offense again. A 27-yard pass completion to
Luke Willson, and a 31-yarder to Sam McGuffie set up the Owls with first and goal at the
UNT 9 yard line. But from there, on third and goal at the 11, Nick appeared to telegraph
his throw just a bit, and it was picked off by UNT’s James Phillips, and that ended
the threat.
It didn’t take long for North Texas to surge ahead
in the third quarter, as, after Rice failed to move the ball after taking the second half
kickoff, UNT’s Tune immediately came back with a 75-yard pass and run to Taylor
Stradford, and the put the Mean Green up for the first time in the game, 28-23. Stradford
simply managed to find a crease in the middle, about ten yards past the line of scrimmage,
but he had the angle on the Owl defenders in his zone, and was able to outrun them all to
the goal line.
At that point, it would have been easy for the Owls to
fold, and in earlier years, they probably would have done so. But the attitude remained
resolute on the Rice sideline, and the Owl offense was determined to produce behind Nick
Fanuzzi.
Starting out at their 29, the Owls began to move the ball
steadily on the ground for the first time all day. Tyler Smith got three, and then 10, and
then, next play, he shucked a tackler and was suddenly in the clear, heading for the
goalposts right down the middle of the field. It looked as if he were gone to the races,
but the speedy UNT defender Royce Hill managed to dive and grab a shoelace, pulling T down
after a 48-yard gain to the North Texas eight yard line.
"I was kicking myself for not pumping my knees
higher at the end of that run," Tyler told us afterwards. "I thought I had it,
but I guess got a little careless there at the end."
Maybe so, but it was one heck of a run, although once
again, the Owl red zone offense failed them, and they had to settle for a 24-yard Chris
Boswell chip shot to bring them to within 28-26.
Allowing UNT a touchdown at this
point was unacceptable
Happy Warrior Scott Mitchell shows why he's on
everybody's all-conference list this season (PTH photo) |
North Texas responded, themselves, with a long
drive that used up the remaining time in the third quarter and carried on through to the
fourth. A touchdown would have put the Owls down by two scores with no more than 11 or 12
minutes to play. Clearly, that was unacceptable, and the Flock defense responded
accordingly, halting the UNT drive on a fourth and four at the Rice seven yard line.
UNT did the statistically reasonable thing and took the
field goal, and that put them up 31-26 with just under 14 minutes left in the game.
Obviously, there remained plenty of time – perhaps too much time, as the teams had
had a propensity to swap scoring drives ever since midway in the second quarter.
The Owls appeared to have gotten a break on the ensuing
kickoff when Will Atterbury’s boot sailed out of bounds. That gave Rice field
position at the 40, and when Nick Fanuzzi hit Derek Clark for 29 yards and a first down at
the UNT 30, it appeared the Owls were cooking.
But an incomplete pass, and a rushing attempt up the
middle by Sam Mac which produced scant yardage, put the Owls in a third-and-long
situation, and then, when Nick Fanuzzi was sacked for a loss of nine more to the UNT 42,
that put the Good Guys even out of Chris Boswell’s field goal range.
So in came Kyle Martens, and he responded with a beauty
of a punt that was nailed dead at the North Texas two yard line.
Pushed up against their goal, and clinging to a narrow,
five-point lead, the Mean Green played it conservative, and wound up having to punt the
ball right back to the Owls, upon facing fourth and two from their ten yard line.
Atterbury punted to just beyond midfield, but Andy
Erickson once again got off a nifty return which set up the Owls at the UNT 37. At that
point, the clock read 8:32 remaining in the game.
Nick Fanuzzi proceeded to hit two key passes, the first
to Derek Clark for 20 yards to the 17 and a first down. Two plays later, Nick found Luke
Willson again, who made his way as far as the UNT three.
The Mean Green called time out to reconnoiter with seven
minutes remaining in the game. Time back in, the Owls averted near disaster on first and
goal, when Tyler Parish alertly fell on a Charles Ross fumble out of the wildcat
formation.
Given the reprieve, young Mr. Ross was not about to fall
short a second time, and once again operating from the wildcat, he slashed across the goal
to put the Owls up, 32-31, with just over six minutes – six long minutes –
remaining in the contest.
A tired cliche, but Rice defense
would not be denied
Hmmmm....is this right-up-the-gut strategy really
the best usage of Sam McGuffie's talents? (PTH photo) |
But the Rice defense, to employ the cliché, simply
would not be denied. Next UNT possession, on third and seven from his own 24, Mean Green
quarterback Nathan Tune was separated from the football via a jarring hit by Cheta
Ozougwu. A couple of Rice defenders seemed to have the pill in their hands, but it wound
up in the possession of UNT’s running back Dunbar, who embarked on a mad dash across
the field in an attempt to get the first down, but to no avail.
The ensuing punt gave the Owls possession at their own 23
with 4:56 remaining in the game, and a chance to run out the clock. After Tyler Smith
carried the mail twice for seven yards, on third and three Fanuzzi hit Tyler with a
quick-out pass in the flat, and he picked up a key first down with the nine-yard gain.
One more first down, and that would do it.
"However," as our old friend J. Fred used to say, when the Owls faced third and
six from their own 43, Sam McGuffie managed to get five.
It was fourth down and about four feet to go, with 2:14
left on the clock. Clearly, the prudent thing to do was to punt the ball out, and not risk
giving the North Texans advantageous field position, not to mention the huge shot of
adrenalin a fourth-down stop would have produced.
This time, not wanting to risk a return, Kyle Martens
punted the ball through the end zone for a touchback, and, starting from their 20, the
Mean Green faced a lot of turf ahead of them before reaching field goal range.
Owl fans’ hearts dropped to their midriffs when, on
the very first play, Nathan Tune hit Jamaal Jackson downfield for 28 yards and a first
down. At their own 48, the Eagles had one time out left, but more than adequate time left
on the scoreboard clock, with just under two minutes remaining.
But once again, that Rice defense collectively arched its
back and stiffened. "Proud of that whole front four," Coach Bailiff emphasized.
"I thought as the game went on they continued to improve and get better pressure and
collapsing the pocket. That made it hard on the quarterbacks, because they were throwing
under duress.
Sure enough, on first down, Michael Smith broke through
and got a huge sack on Tune for a four yard loss. And the clock ticked on.
Then, on second and 14, Tune, under pressure, misfired in
the direction of the speed burner, Taylor Stradford.
Clearly, the Rice defensive front was going to have its
way. "We told each other it’s not over yet, to keep on fighting," Michael
Smith said afterwards. "I think we wouldn’t have fought as hard before.
I felt when things didn’t go our way, our heads sort of went down."
But not this time.
Instead came the anticlimactical play of the game.
Third and long, and Tune dropped straight back. The entire middle of the Rice defense came
after him like a house afire. The UNT quarterback hastily turned to his left in the
attempt to get off a throw, but that meant when the Owl defenders got to him a
split-second later, he went down clumsily, and hard. The pass fell harmlessly
incomplete, and Tune lay prostrate on the turf.
The ensuing injury timeout took perhaps six to eight
minutes to resolve, and when it was over, Tune was hoisted off the field on a gurney.
Later medical examinations showed he suffered a hip dislocation, and will be lost for the
season.
Meanwhile, for the Mean Green, despite one long, last
roar from the crowd, a desperation fourth-down pass by backup quarterback Derek Thompson
to Lance Dunbar was complete, but Kevin Gaddis made sure that the speedy Dunbar’s
knee touched a couple yards short of the first-down marker, and that was the ball game.
A thing of beauty, it was not. But then again, beauty lay
in the eyes of the beholder. It was a non-conference road win against a much-improved
North Texas team.
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