Rice Football took command early and never let up, eviscerating Texas Southern in one of the most dominant wins of the Mike Bloomgren era.
Rice football took the field on Saturday with a newfound sense of urgency following last week’s debacle against Sam Houston. In that game, the Owls were ineffective in all three phases and were summarily thumped on their own (brand new) turf. Head coach Mike Bloomgren was adamant that his players and staff would take the wake-up call for what it was. “We will respond,” he vowed. His team did just that. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:
Physically dominant
Perhaps the most irksome aspect of the Owls’ Week 1 loss was the degree to which they looked outclassed on both lines of scrimmage. Although the defense tallied seven sacks, Sam Houston ran the ball effectively. On the other side, the Owls’ offensive line offered little support for EJ Warner, continually leaving their quarterback under fire and failing to keep defenders out of the backfield.
A completely different team showed up Saturday night against Texas Southern.
“More than anything, we just need to play another game. I would have played Jones Junior High or I would have played Alabama. We need to play somebody today,” Bloomgren said. “We just needed to get a chance to get our room back and play football and love this thing and we did that. That’s what I’m happy about. We got a chance to play this game.”
The offensive line bullied the Texas Southern front for four quarters, making running lanes for Dean Connors and providing Warner plenty of time to work through progressions and find the open man. Consider the first touchdown of the game (below) which features a well-executed fullback block, a nice block from long pulling from the right side allowing Connors to get a couple of yards past the line of scrimmage before contact. Then he finishes the play in the endzone.
Love the physicality from RB Dean Connors (@deanconn0rs) and the @RiceFootball offensive line so far. pic.twitter.com/mqi8BG2BW4
— The Roost (@AtTheRoost) September 7, 2024
It was the same story on defense. The difference in intensity was night and day, highlighted by a celebratory three-player sack on the final drive of the first quarter. Officially the sack was shared by Blaise Tita and Myron Morrison — NCAA rules limit sacks shared to two individuals — but the play capped off a first quarter in which the Rice defense held Texas Southern to six total yards on three successive three-and-out series.
The first series that didn’t end with three plays and a punt for Texas Southern came early in the second quarter. That drive stopped on the second play, a pick-six by Tyson Flowers. Rice needed 60 minutes to score twice against Sam Houston. They had 28 points on the board against Texas Southern in less than 20 minutes. Rice was the more physical team in this one and that was readily apparent on almost every snap.
The second half was more of the same. Prior to their final possession, Texas Southern had not crossed midfield and had three total first downs. They never threatened to score until the final drive when the Owls had emptied their bench, and even then, it was close. Meanwhile, the Rice offense continued to march up and down the field in the final minutes of regulation.
Those final minutes included a 12-minute fourth quarter, a stipulation permitted should both head coaches agree to it. Rice dominated to such a degree that the game was shortened in the college football equivalent of the mercy rule.
The Taji Atkins Show
At least one player refused to check out when the game entered its later stages. True freshman running back Taji Atkins made waves during the offseason and made his debut last week against Sam Houston. On Saturday against Texas Southern, he made his presence felt in a very real way. Atkins scored his first career touchdown on a five-yard plunge in the third quarter.
Puts his foot in the ground and accelerates. First TD of many for @TheTajiAtkinspic.twitter.com/ZrJW4kHlNb
— The Roost (@AtTheRoost) September 8, 2024
Atkins wasn’t going to settle for just one cameo, though. Minutes later he exploded through the line, found the corner and accelerated for a 33-yard score.
The real question is can Taji get one more before this game is through? 💨💨💨pic.twitter.com/EKWYqmwxw3
— The Roost (@AtTheRoost) September 8, 2024
Atkins carried the ball 11 times for 91 yards, narrowly missing the century mark in just his second career game. Had the field been a few yards longer on that second score, he probably would have gotten there. It seems likely we’ll see a lot more of that from Atkins moving forward.
Clean it up
The impressive showing was only marred, in part, but self-inflicted wounds. Those first two big plays by the special teams, Fresch’s return and the blocked punt, were both erased on penalties. Rice would be flagged eight times for 72 yards. Texas Southern’s only scoring drive was aided by a facemask penalty that put the Tigers in the redzone.
The Texas Southern offense only tallied 87 yards for the game and had 14 total yards before their final drive. Rice came ever so close to spotting their opponent more yards than their defense allowed.
Bloomgren, who is usually quick to pounce on penalties as a straightforward place for his team to get better, was largely dismissive of the calls in this game. “I’ll look forward to seeing those flags that were thrown, watching those players later tonight on the iPad because I’m not sure I completely understand what was called,” he said. If his assumptions are correct, perhaps that bodes well for the future.
It wasn’t just penalties, though. A fumbled snap almost erased a fourth down conversion in the first quarter. Fortunately this time Warner was able to scoop the ball up and slam it in the gut of Connors who plowed straight forward for the first down. Warner was less fortunate a few series later when he hung a ball out to Matt Sykes in a hook route that was intercepted, his third pick of the young season.
When you’re playing an FCS team that entered the game as more than a four-touchdown underdog, you can make mistakes like those.
To be fair, if those were the only mistakes the Owls made in any given game, they’d still be set up for a favorable result, but the best result here is to use those shortcomings as additional growth opportunities. If this is what Rice football can be when they’re good, not great, what does a perfect performance look like? What caliber of opponent can the Owls take down when everything is clicking like it’s supposed to? Next weekend against Houston will afford them an opportunity to test that out.
One for the record books
The kind of thumping Rice football put on Texas Southern was as impressive as it felt. The Owls registered a long list of “firsts since” on Saturday night. Although they won’t be able to add their first shutout since 2020 to the ledger, they did rack up a long list of superlatives. For example,
Rice football’s 69 points were the most scored by the Owls since scoring 77 against North Texas in 2008 and the third most scored in program history.
Rice football held Texas Southern to 49 passing yards, the lowest total for an opponent since holding Army to nine in 2017.
Rice football held Texas Southern to 38 rushing yards, the lowest total for an opponent since holding UTEP to 17 in 2017.
It was the first 300+ yard rushing game for Rice football since 2021.
As for individual accolades, Tyson Flowers and Marcus Williams each registered their first career interceptions. Taji Atkins had his first career touchdown then added another. Enoch Gota made his first two field goals. Backup quarterback Drew Devillier made his Rice debut as did a few others. The starters were out of the game by the midpoint of the third quarter. That’s how this kind of game is supposed to go.
The gaudy numbers aren’t going to the Owls’ heads just yet. Safety Tyson Flowers, who helped contribute to the beatdown, offered a levelheaded assessment of where this team stands right now.
“You want to shut out, right? But at the end of the day we won the game and regardless of them scoring at the end, regardless of us not having the shut out, there’s still plays that we need to improve on all throughout the game,” he said. “That was by no means a flawless game whether we got the shut out or not. There’s stuff that we’re gonna find when we watch the film that we need to correct if we want to continue to have the season that we want to have.”
Exhale and reload
For the casual football fan, this was a snoozer that wasn’t worth turning into beyond a few highlight plays that found their way onto social media. For a Rice football team that entered the season with the expectations they did to win in the way they did, this was expected. To see it transpire a week removed from the Sam Houston State fiasco was essential. More than anything, it sets up a crucial opportunity one week from now against Houston.
The Bayou Bucket currently resides inside the walls of the Brian Patterson Center at South Main. Players, staff and media walk past it daily. It’s become a fixture in the team meeting room. And nobody wants it to leave. Houston — 0-2 after losing to Oklahoma on Saturday night — looks more vulnerable than ever in its humble beginnings under new head coach Willie Fritz.
We’ll get to next week next week, but it’s impossible not to envision how the optics of this season could change with a 2-1 start. The oddsmakers projected Rice to be 2-1 at this point in the year, but nobody would have tabbed that potential sequence of results. This team has always been a bit unpredictable under Bloomgren’s leadership. Why not lean into that chaos and keep the Bucket for at least one more year?
“I’d like to celebrate this one before we talk about Houston anymore, if you don’t mind,” Bloomgren chided after the game. “All jokes aside, I know this team is going to be excited for next week. I think this is going to make us hungrier than ever.”
Taking care of business against Texas Southern might just give this team the boost they need to do just that.
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