Rice Football led by two scores at halftime but couldn’t muster any second-half points, falling to Tulane on Homecoming, 20-17.
It didn’t look as if the delay stemming from Tulane’s forced travel adjustments had any impact on Rice football when they marched down the field and scored on their opening possession. The Owls had found some early momentum and things seemed to finally be clicking, but it would not last. Rice was shut out in the second half and their 11-point first half advantage was not enough, resulting in a ninth straight loss. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:
Starting Strong
Outside of being able to hit the touchdown button at will — see Rice Football vs Florida Atlantic — the level of offensive mastery the Owls put on tape in the first half against Tulane was impressive. The home team took the ball on Homecoming and marched 66 yards in 11 plays before settling for a chip-shot field goal. A possession later, Rice went 75 yards in 15 plays, finishing in the endzone on a gorgeous play-action toss from Gael Ochoa to Max Mosey.
In their first two drives, Rice ran 26 plays and ate up 12:10 on the clock. They were on their way to another clock-killing possession before a sack derailed their third drive of the game. Even still, 3:33 came off the clock and Tulane was left with just four total possessions in the first half. A week ago, Rice kept North Texas to four possessions before halftime, too. The formula here is pretty clear.
As the Rice football offense dictated the pace, all they needed was a play or two from the defense to put Tulane on the ropes. Eventually, Jamir Benjamin obliged, jumping a screen and taking the pass 61 yards the other way for a pick-six. It was the Owls’ first defensive score ever recorded in American Conference play.
Third-Down Defense Kept Green Wave Alive
Despite a nearly ideal start on offense, Rice found itself locked in a close game from start to finish, in large part because the Owls’ defense couldn’t get off the field, and it’s not as if they lacked opportunities.
The Tulane offense didn’t do anything extraordinary, averaging a meager 4.8 yards per play for the game, and yet they matched Rice’s extended opening drives with a pair of double-digit play scoring drives of their own. Those were possible because the Green Wave converted 7-of-11 third downs before the break and added a fourth-and-one conversion, too.
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Benjamin’s interception turned the tide, but had Rice been able to take advantage of a myriad of other third-down opportunities and force punts, they could have set their offense up to better their advantage much earlier in the game. That could have made Benjamin’s pick a backbreaker that effectively ended any chance of a Green Wave comeback. Instead, Tulane was alive enough to mount a second-half rally.
“We struggled to get them off the field,” head coach Scott Abell said. “I think third down… holistically, if I’m looking at the whole game, third down haunted us tonight.”
Tulane finished the game 9-for-18 on third down, significantly better than the 39 percent conversion rate on such situations they brought into the game. The more consequential part of that failure came on fourth down, where Tulane converted 3-of-4, including a touchdown to make it a one-score game in the third quarter.
“It’s tough. It’s demoralizing to continue to go out there and not be able to execute on those on those critical downs. [It’s] something that we need to improve on,” linebacker Austin Harnetiaux said. “I think we had a really good game plan in. It just came down to executing in the moment and we weren’t quite there. We weren’t quite good enough.”
A modestly better showing from the defense gets the offense one more drive and, potentially, saves a few points. That would have been enough to sway a game that was in the balance right up until the clock hit zeroes.
Power Outage
Regrettably, the Rice football offense has been a quarter-to-quarter proposition for so much of this season. The first quarter against Tulane was impressive. What followed immediately afterward was not. Tulane’s offense, combined with the Rice defensive score, left Rice with one possession in the second quarter. The Owls had two drives in the third frame, but posted eight plays, 17 yards, and two punts.
Post game Abell identified a change Tulane made at halftime that led to this particular game’s setback. In his eyes, their corners became more active in the pitch game, something that rang true when following the game in the moment.
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“We adjusted, but that first drive [of the half], that hit us in the face,” he said. “We kind of lost momentum. We kind of lost a little rhythm. Then we struggled to find it.”
The fourth quarter results weren’t pretty, but the offense did move the football relatively well during those possessions. Limited possessions and a lack of timeouts — which Abell owned up to postgame being a fault of his own, stemming from a failure to get the right personnel on the field at times — created what ultimately became an insurmountable challenge and a ninth straight loss.
A Familiar Sinking Feeling
Coming into the game, Rice football had won two straight Homecoming games and posted two straight Homecoming wins over Tulane, specifically. Despite a 1-8 record, the Owls were favored in this game and led by double digits entering the third quarter. And they lost. Again.
“They don’t get any easier, in terms of some of these close losses going down to the last minute. I take so much of this one on myself,” Abell said.
At this point, there’s only so much left to say. It’s a failed season that has fallen well short of expectations. He knows it. The locker room knows it. The fans know it. But there are games left to play.
Objectively, Abell is probably right in that there were some levers he could have pulled and some better decisions he could have made that turned this particular loss into a win, but he can’t prevent those pivotal fumbles and he can’t make sure Ochoa gets his knee a half yard further on what was ultimately a game-deciding fourth down play.
All he can do is coach the next one, and pour everything he has into an offseason autopsy to ensure this never happens again.
To their credit, the team is doing their part and hasn’t allowed their fight to diminish as the losses continue to mount.
“This locker room, we truly do love each other. It’s the tightest locker room that I’ve ever been a part of in my 16 years of playing football,” offensive lineman Nate Bledsoe said. “I think we all know we trust each other and know that when we’re out there, it’s really is just us at the end of the day and we take confidence in, a lot of the older guys take confidence in that, in knowing that when we step out there, we’re with our boys. It is what it is. We’re just going to go out there and play.”
Digging Deeper
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