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The Good and the bad at the midway point of 2018 season

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Rice football enters the second half of the season with plenty of good and bad displayed early on. What can the Owls fix and what questions remain going forward?

It takes all three phases and four quarters to win a football game. That’s something that head coach Mike Bloomgren has stressed to his team over the course of this fall. The Owls have been a mixed bag across the board thus far. What’s gone right? Gone wrong? And what questions still remain after the first six games of the 2018 season?

Offense

The Good – Austin Walter

Starting his freshman season in 2015, Austin Walter never missed a game. In three years he tallied 36 appearances, averaging 393.3 yards rushing per season. Rice has played six of their 13 games so far in 2018 and Walter has racked up 440 yards on the ground, 188 yards through the air and another 189 yards on seven kick returns. Add all those together and Walter enters Week 7 as the No. 2 player in the nation in All-Purpose yards.

Nobody, not even Walter could have realistically projected the senior’s incredible start. Emmanuel Esukpa drew most of the preseason accolades. He’s been great, but the importance of Walter’s contribution to this offense cannot be understated.

The Bad – Offensive line play

Part of what’s limited Esukpa’s efficiency and forced the Owls to lean on Walter has been the inconsistent play from the offensive line. The same five guys have started every game: Uzoma Osuji at left tackle, Jacke Greene at left guard, Shea Baker at center, Joseph Dill at right guard and Sam Pierce at right tackle. For whatever reason, they haven’t been able to get on the same page.

Sam Pierce said this unit needs to “get on the same page, communicate, and work within ourselves.” So far that hasn’t translated from practice to the games. Bloomgren’s frustration has been evident, but there hasn’t been any sort of wholesale personnel change. The success of this unit will largely depend on these five guys and their ability to get in sync.

Biggest question – Which offense will show up on Saturday?

Mike Bloomgren indicated the Owls struggles on Saturday weren’t a result of a game plan that was any more complicated than they’d implemented so far this season. They ran the same plays and schemes they’d run earlier on in the year, but with much different results.

Rice hung around in shootouts with Houston and Hawaii, and that was without all the pieces working in concert. We still haven’t seen what this unit looks like at full strength, playing as one. The question is whether or not we’ll ever see it in 2018.

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Defense

The Good – Secondary seems to be turning the corner

The stat book for the Rice secondary is one of the most bizarre juxtapositions of the good and bad that comes with in-season growth. Here are the Owls’ passing yards and touchdowns allowed by game:

  • Prairie View: 244 yards, three touchdowns.
  • Houston: 320 yards, three touchdowns
  • Hawaii: 319 yards, four touchdowns
  • Southern Miss: 428 yards, four touchdowns,
  • Wake Forest: 243 yards, four touchdowns,
  • UTSA: 43 yards, zero touchdowns

One of those things is not like the others. The impressive showing against UTSA, which included season-best results in both metrics, is a clear sign that something is working for the back end of this defense.

The composition of the unit has changed. Brandon Douglas-Doctson has fought through injuries, Justin Bickham is coming off the heels of a breakout game and freshman Prudy Calderon has been inserted into the starting lineup. With no Houston or Hawaii looming, this unit stands a great chance to be closer to their UTSA showing than their regrettable road result against Southern Miss

The Bad – Pressure on the quarterback remains an issue

Entering their Week 7 game against UAB Rice has tallied eight sacks. That’s the third worst total in Conference USA, particularly when you take into account the fact that the Owls have played six games so far. The majority of the conference has played five games or fewer.

The lack of a pass rush has left the secondary out to dry on multiple occasions. It’s forced defensive coordinator Brian Smith to send more help than he’d like and left this unit vulnerable. The front four was thought to be one of the strengths of this team entering the season. To this point, they’ve only shown flashes of what they’re capable of becoming.

Biggest question – When will the turnovers start?

Four Conference USA teams have registered fewer than seven takeaways in the 2018 season: Old Dominion, Charlotte, Rice and UTEP. Those four schools have a combined record of 4-18. Turnovers matter and this defense hasn’t been able to generate enough takeaways so far.

That’s not to say they haven’t had their opportunities. They’ve knocked balls out and had passes deflect off waiting hands. The moments have been there. This defense has yet to seize them. UTSA’s points came as a result of takeaways and ultimately were the deciding factor in the loss. The Rice defense needs to reciprocate with some of their own.

Special teams

The Good – Jack Fox

Not enough good words can be said about Jack Fox. The good-natured former high school quarterback turned punter has been one of the most consistent members of this team. He’s shown up in every game, made the routine play and made a few incredible plays of his own. Whether it’s converting a fourth down on a gadget play or trapping a punt inside the 10, Fox has done it.

Without Fox, the Owls might be winless. They certainly wouldn’t have found as many opportunities in their close games as they did. He was named to the Ray Guy Award watch list earlier this year and to Ray’s Eight following the UTSA game. He’s one of the best kickers in the nation and Rice is lucky to have him.

The Bad – Rice special teams aren’t leading the nation in every statistical category

The job that Pete Lembo has done at South Main cannot be understated. He took a unit that was subpar a year ago and turned it into the national standard for excellence. Their only real detriment? Punt returns, and that’s being nitpicky.

The real reason for the Owls somewhat pedestrian 5.0 yards per return is their limited sample size. They’ve only fielded four returnable punts this season. Austin Trammell is electric with the ball in his hands, but he’s not been afforded many chances to break a long run.

Biggest question – Will the Owls run one back?

Jeremy Eddington, who took a kickoff 97-yards to the endzone against UTEP in 2012, is the last Rice football player to register a kick return touchdown. Both Walter and Trammell rank in the top 11 in the nation in yards per kickoff return. It’s almost unheard of for them to be stopped short, but they haven’t taken one all the way back for six, yet.

With the offense in a funk, the Owls could use points any way they can find them. A special teams score would be huge for this squad down the stretch. Given the caliber of athletes the Owls have fielding the ball it’s absolutely within the realm of possibility.

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Jerry Mack stresses simplicity the key for the offense against UAB

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The Rice football offense has some growing up to do. After a strong start to the season, it’s back to square one against AUB in Week 7.

It’s time to move on. That’s how offensive coordinator Jerry Mack described the mindset of this team following the Owls’ frustrating offensive performance against UTSA last weekend. They sustained one scoring drive, ending in a Haden Tobola field goal. No touchdowns. No explosive runs. They registered one play of 20 or more yards.

There wasn’t any semblance of momentum on that side of the ball against the Roadrunners. Something that head coach Mike Bloomgren promised to address during the week. He vowed to figure out what this offense was going to be able to do well and lean on its strengths.

The biggest change to the gameplan against UAB won’t be new plays or schemes. There won’t be any sort of personnel overhaul or new identity established. It’s going to be all about getting back to the basics. It’s cliche, but making things as straightforward as possible is something this team needs right now.

Mack said the goal of the coaching staff this week was to “simplify some things and compartmentalize some things a little bit better.” He asserted the issues unearthed against UTSA were “a lot of it was just base fundamental stuff that we screwed up on”, things like “a guy not taking the right step or a guy not communicating the way he’s supposed to.”

In a word, the direction for the offense this week is minimization. Communication up front with the offensive line remains an issue, and if the Owls can’t translate basic things like that from the practice field to Saturdays they’ll continue to find themselves in problematic situations.

There’s no rocket science being applied to the offense on South Main this week. As Macks says, they’re simply working on “taking the right steps.” It’s the same process, but hopefully one that produces different results on Saturday.

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Mike Bloomgren previews UAB, press conference notes (10/9)

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Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren addressed the media on Tuesday, highlighting the Owls upcoming game against UAB on Saturday.

Mike Bloomgren had nothing but praise for the Owls’ upcoming opponent, UAB. The Blazers are 4-1 (2-0 CUSA) and enter the game tied for first place in the CUSA West. Rice sits at 1-5 (0-2) and is still looking for their first conference win. They’ll face a tough test against the Blazers, an opponent whom both the Owls and coach Bloomgren have a lot of familiarity.

On head coach Bill Clark:

They’ve got a great football team. I think what Bill Clark has done in resurrecting that program is phenomenal… I think he’s an unbelievable football coach.

On the amount of experience UAB has on both sides of the ball:

They have 27 seniors on their two-deep right now, older bigger guys that have some good experience. They are a great challenge for our guys up front.

On the UAB schemes and plan of attack

Bill Clark knows how he wants to win games. He wants to win games with an unbelievable defense swarming to the ball and then he’s going to pound the rock. He’s not going to mess it up on offense. They’ll still try to get their explosive plays and take their shots, but he’s going to make you stop the run. He’s going to make you bow your neck and stop the run or he’s going to keep pounding it.

The [defense is] playing like their hair is on fire. They’re No. 11 in America (in team defense) right between Utah and TCU… They play the game angry and they’re having fun playing the game right now.

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Owls defense looks to build on promising showing against UTSA

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Rice football is on to Week 7. The loss to UTSA was tough to swallow, but the Owls defense has plenty to be happy about moving forward.

Lost in the midst of a negative result for the Owls against UTSA was a defensive awakening. It’s true the Roadrunners don’t pack the same punch on that side of the ball as some of the others teams the Owls have faced so far. Still, the results speak for themselves.

The UTSA offense tallied 178 total yards, was 5-for-16 on third down, averaged 3.6 yards per carry and 2.0 yards per pass attempt. With the exception of a few short-field points, the Rice defense was nearly perfect, allowing one sustained scoring drive in 60 minutes, which ended in a field goal.

The UTSA offense ranks near the cellar of most metrics. The Rice defense needed to prove they could silence a mediocre unit, and they did.

Assessing the results

Defensive coordinator Brian Smith was pleased with how his unit played, but knows they have a lot of work left to do on both sides of the ball. Even with the step forward against UTSA, the defense was back to what Smith dubbed the fundamentals on Monday – tackling, running to the football, getting off of blocks and footwork.

According to Smith, there was no switch flipped before the game or any secret sauce. His defense just came out and played sound fundamental football. “Guys have been in position to make plays, but we haven’t made them. That was the biggest difference between this week and previous weeks. The guys in position to make the plays actually made the plays.”

One of those guys that made the biggest plays was redshirt junior cornerback Justin Bickham. He led the team with three pass breakups and was critical in the secondary’s first shutout of the season. Rice allowed 43 yards through the air and zero passing touchdowns. Bickham had a hand in that, swatting away and endzone target and locking down his side of the field.

“We put our corners in tough positions,” said Smith, “[The corners] are a key to the success of this defense. If they hold up outside if gives us the freedom to do a lot of different things up front to make us more successful.”

That success was evident, and it’s a building block for this unit moving forward. “At the end of the day, it’s all about winning and losing,” Smith concluded. “If we don’t win none of the other stats matter.” In one important sense, he’s right. This team and coaching staff will be judged on wins and losses. As for incremental progress, this unit took a significant step forward on Saturday.

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Offense stalls as Owls drop home contest to UTSA

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Rice football put up a strong effort on defense but never found enough offense, dropping a home contest to UTSA and falling to 1-5 (0-2 CUSA).

After a long hiatus from Rice Stadium, the Owls returned home in Week 6 to play the UTSA Roadrunners. It was a low-scoring contest throughout much of the game that saw one touchdown scored in the first 30 minutes. Trailing 13-0 at halftime, Rice was unable to much in the way of reducing the deficit in the second half.

The Owls ended the game with nothing to show from their offense but a 28-yard field goal from Haden Tobola. Rice attempted six fourth down conversions, succeeding on three. On a night in which the defense played their best game yet, the offense never found the spark it needed to kick into gear.

When it was all said and done, Rice football walked away with a heartbreaking loss their to fall to 0-2 in conference play. There were a few bright spots, but there’s still work to be done if this team is going to find that second win. Here are the biggest takeaways from the defeat.

1. The defense is getting better

Who stole the defense? The unit that came out to play on Saturday against UTSA looked like a completely different set of players compared to those that took the field against Wake Forest and Southern Miss. The defensive line was aggressive, the linebackers were disciplined and the secondary kept UTSA from getting behind them.

Up front, the push from the starting four was enough to make UTSA quarterback Cordale Grundy pay attention to the pass rush. That opened up the door for defensive coordination Brian Smith to dial up a few blitzes, several of which put Grundy on his back. The Owls tallied one sack, three quarterback hurries and had seven tackles for a loss.

Earlier in the week Martin Nwakamma said all this defense needed to do was play top-down and do what the coaches had been telling them to do. Those words turned into action against UTSA. The Roadrunners still found a few holes between the second and third levels of the defense, but a strong pass rush prevented them from developing into big plays.

The secondary played what was hands down their best game of the year. Justin Bickham faced a lot of deep targets but battled all night, leading the team with three breakups, including a touchdown denying swat in the endzone.

After allowing 18 touchdowns and more than 300 yards per game through the air in their first five games, holding Grundy to 6-of-18 passing for 33 yards was a much welcomed first step toward improvement. He’s far from the best passer the Owls will face this year, but silencing him is proof this team has what it takes on the back end.

2. Stacked boxes remain a problem for the offense

Intellectual brutality invokes the very ethos of smash mouth football. Lining up in a power formation with several tight ends and pounding the rock is what this offense is supposed to do. That’s no secret, and it’s something that opposing defensive coordinators are prepared to face.

UTSA, like many defenses that have worked to contain the Rice offense so far, put body after body at the line of scrimmage and dared the Owls to run. Time after time, Emmanuel Esukpa plowed into the line of scrimmage only to be swarmed by all-white jerseys.

Part of the reason opponents have been able to throw the kitchen sink at the run game has been the inconsistent performance of the offensive line. Quarterback Shawn Stankavage was being harassed all night, giving him little opportunity to make plays down the field. Even when players did break open, he was forced to navigate a disintegrating pocket rather than throw the ball down the field.

Rice opened up the offense in the second half and found success in pistol and shotgun formations. They still ran the ball, but giving the defense a different look helped all aspects of the offensive attack.

3. Is there a quarterback battle brewing?

The short answer to this one is no, Rice has their quarterback. That’s not a blanket endorsement of Stankavage or a critique of Jackson Tyner. It’s more so a byproduct of what has caused the downward trend in quarterback play for the Owls. Poor pass blocking have limited what the Owls can do offensively. Knowing the playbook and making the right reads don’t come into play if the line doesn’t protect the quarterback.

With that crucial caveat, there are still opportunities for both guys to improve. Tyner saw his first snaps since the Houston game against UTSA and was not productive. Whether it was jitters or a rotten case of bad luck, he has an interception and a fumble to his name in the final box score from a game in which he played a handful offensive snaps.

Stankavage, as expected, saw more usage. He completed 15 of 26 passes for 175 yards. He was under duress all night but did not turn the ball over until garbage time. If you’re looking for one all-important stat that should solidify his status to start next week against UAB, that’s the one to look at.

4. Jack Fox is a stud and the special teams are still elite

Mike Bloomgren made sure he gave Jack Fox praise during his first ever postgame press conference as the head coach at Rice. Those words, “Jack Fox is a stud”, have continued to be his mantra about the Owls’ do-it-all specialist from that point forward. Fox lived up to the billing again against UTSA.

Fox put three punts inside the 10-yard line. He averaged 45.8 yards per punt with a long of 59 yards. He did everything he could to flip the field and keep the Owls in the game.

When the offense struggled, he remained consistent, even throwing in a little razzle-dazzle of his own. Rice lined up to punt on the opening drive of the second half, but Fox kept the ball and delivered a well-placed pass to Jordan Meyers to pick up the first down.

The return game was limited, but they weren’t afforded many opportunities. Austin Walter and Austin Trammell combined for 37 return yards. Walter with one kickoff return for 15 yards and Trammell with two punt returns for 22 yards.

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