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Rice Football 2021: NFL Owls Week 1 Stats Update

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Rice Football is well represented on 2021 NFL rosters. Here’s the latest from the NFL Owls in action in Week 1.

There are former Rice football players scattered across the NFL. Stay tuned each week for their game results and notables from each player.

Week 1 results

Las Angeles Chargers (Covington) def. Washington, 20-16
Denver (Anderson, Callahan) def. New York Giants, 27-13 
Pittsburgh (Boswell) def. Buffalo, 23-16
San Francisco def. Detroit (Fox), 41-33
Tampa Bay (Leverett) def. Dallas, 31-29

Offense

Calvin Anderson – OT, Broncos

Anderson did not see any offensive snaps for the Broncos in their Week 1 game against the Washington Football Team. He’s primarily appeared on special teams since signing with the Broncos last year.

The Broncos visit the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 2.

Nick Leverett – OT, Buccaneers

Leverett was inactive for the Buccaneers Week 1 win over the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday night. The Buccaneers host the Atlanta Falcons in Week 2.

Defense and Special Teams

Chris Boswell – K, Steelers

Boswell was perfect in his 2021 debut. He converted all three of his field goal attempts, with a long of 45 yards. He was also successful on a pair of extra point tries. Scoring 11 of the Steelers’ 23 points on his own. The Steelers host the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 2.

Bryce Callahan – CB, Broncos

Callahan made his return to the gridiron in Week 1 after battling injuries last season. He recorded two tackles. The Broncos visit the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 2.

Christian Covington – DL, Chargers

Covington had a productive debut with the Los Angeles Chargers, finishing tied for third in tackles with five. He also had one tackle for a loss. The Chargers host the Dallas Cowboys in Week 2.

Jack Fox – P, Lions

Fox punted three times against the San Francisco 49ers, averaging a whopping 50.7 yards per punt. His long traveled 57 yards. He did not have any touchbacks. The Lions visit the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football in Week 2.

More Owls in the NFL

From practice squads to current free agents, there are other Owls on the cusp of returning to active rosters. Find more detail on current contractual agreements and former Rice football players waiting for their next opportunity here.

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Rice Football 2021 Game Preview: Texas Longhorns

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Rice Football heads to the state capital this week for a matchup with the Texas Longhorns in Week 3. How to watch, key stats, x-factor picks and more.

Both teams hope their second Southwest Conference reunion of the season turns out better than the first. Rice football fell to Arkansas in Week 1. Then Texas followed them with a loss to the Razorbacks in Week 2. Texas enters this game 1-1 with their win coming over a ranked Louisiana squad at home while Rice sits at 0-2 after falling to Houston their last time out.

Broadcast Info

Kickoff time | 7:00 PM CT
Venue | Darrel K Royal Stadium – Austin, TX
TV | Longhorn Network
Radio | Sports Map 94.1 (FM) / Stretch Internet (Online)

Audio / Visual Preview

We’ll preview Rice football vs Texas this week’s episode of the Blue and Gray Preview Show, streaming live on Wednesday at Noon on the Rice Athletics YouTube channel. You can also catch the recap of last week’s game on The Roost Podcast, which should be released shortly. Find us on the podcast page or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. (And consider leaving us a 5-star review while you’re at it.)

Sizing up the contenders

It’s been more than two years since Rice football last beat Texas, knocking off the Longhorns most recently in 1994. Should pull off the upset in Austin this time around, they’d push new head coach Steve Sarkisian to 1-2 and, turning grumblings generated from the Arkansas loss into a full-blown panic.

Reaching that point seems more even more daunting after last weekend’s dismal outing against Houston. But the Owls will find some solace in a reeling Texas team that doesn’t look nearly as invincible as it did after their opening weekend victory.

To some degree, the bulk of the pressure rests on Texas in this game. The Rice faithful expect clearly visible improvement. The struggles from the Houston game need to be rectified and this team needs to look competitive. Texas fans demand a win, preferably by a comfortable margin.

Series History

All Time | Texas leads 73-21-1
Last Five | Texas leads 5-0
Last Meeting | NRG Stadium 2019, Texas won 48-13

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Rice Stat Notables

Passing | McCaffrey – 14/29 (48.3 percent), 161 yards, 1 TD, 3 INT
Rushing | Griffin – 32 carries, 121  yards (3.8 yards per carry)
Receiving | Pitre – 4 receptions, 97 yards (24.3 yards per reception), 1 TD / Bailey – 5 receptions, 62 yards (12.4 yds/rec)
Tackles | Montero – 21 / Morrison – 14 / Schuman – 13
Pass Breakups/Interceptions | Smith, McCord – 2 PBU, Fresch – 1 INT

Texas Stat Notables

Passing | Card – 22/36 (61.1 percent), 285 yards passing, 2 TD, 0 INT
Rushing | Robinson – 39 carries, 172 yards (4.4 yards per carry), 2 TD
Receiving | Whittington – 12 receptions, 145 yards (12.1 yards per reception), 1 TD / Robinson – 5 receptions, 77 yards (15.4 yds/rec), 1 TD
Tackles | Overshown – 21 / Brockmeyer – 14 / Foster – 11
Interceptions/Pass Breakups | Cook – 2 PBU, Foster – 1 INT

Texas X-Factor | Quarterback

Hudson Card was named the Texas starter prior to the start of the 2021 season. He completed 14-of-21 passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns in the opener, effectively guiding the Longhorns to victory. He was much less composed in Week 2, compiling 61 yards on 8-of-15 passes before being benched in favor of Casey Thompson.

Thompson was more productive, primarily as a rusher. He scored twice on the ground and added 57 yards passing, but it came well after Arkansas had built a comfortable lead. Rice can sympathize about the struggles of finding consistent play at the quarterback position, but that doesn’t change the pressure the Texas coaching staff will be under this week.

Whether it’s Card or Thompson, someone is going to have to emerge for Texas to get into a rhythm along the lines of where they were in their opener. Whatever happened last week was not the answer for the Longhorns.

Rice X-Factor | Getting off the field

Last week against Houston, Rice was rather impressive on early downs and rather abysmal on third down. Try as they might, they just could not get off the field. The Owls allowed 3.3 yards per carry and 5.9 yards per attempt on first down. On third down, those numbers ballooned upwards to 12.8 yards per carry and 9.7 yards per attempt.

Houston converted 4-of-5 third downs of nine yards or more. For comparison, all five of the Owls’ third down conversions came with four yards to gain or fewer. Rice converted none of their third and long tries and only 38.5 percent of their total third down opportunities. Houston converted 61.5 percent, despite averaging almost a full yard more to-gain (8.1 to Rice’s 7.2) per attempt.

Rice did the right thing by forcing their opponent into third and long. They brought pressure, but Clayton Tune put the ball on the money, frequently finding his favorite target, Tank Dell. If Texas can assemble a similar third down performance, the Owls will be fighting a losing battle.

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Need More?

The Roost’s 2021 Rice Football Season Preview has FIVE pages dedicated to every opponent the Owls face. There are depth charts, important new arrivals and positional breakdowns for every team in Conference USA sourced from local beat writers and sources on the ground who cover these teams every day. It’s the most thorough C-USA publication on the market.

One Final Thing

Playing with a “goldfish mentality” is something various members of the Rice defense have mentioned over time. It’s something we’ve seen this unit improve upon. After being picked apart down the field in Year 0 and showing signs of shellshock like Riec football head coach Mike Bloomgren mentioned in his postgame comments last week, they’ll need to return to that state of being with haste.

Like the fleeting memory a goldfish memory, the Rice defense has long preached their commitment to putting the last play behind them and focusing on the task at hand. If they’re going to show positive improvement from Week 2 to Week 3, it’s going to be one play at a time. That same will be true for the offense, which couldn’t put more than one extended driver together.

Both sides of the ball need to forget the Houston game in its entirety. They need to bring whatever mindest they entered the Arkansas game with. That mentality, although lacking perfect execution, got them to where they wanted: into the fourth quarter with the chance to pull off a big win.

Rice would happily take a 17-17 fourth quarter state again this time around. But even if they get there, they’ll need to find a way to finish it.

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Rice football: Owls must put Bayou Bucket loss behind them, quickly

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Nothing went right for Rice football in a frustrating loss to Houston in the Bayou Bucket. Where do the Owls go from here?

“We can’t go out there and do what we just did,” Rice football defensive tackle Elijah Garcia said, point-blank following a particularly discouraging loss to crosstown rival, Houston. “It hurt. It was embarrassing. We just got to do better.”

From a defensive perspective, it seems plausible that better days are indeed ahead. Rice allowed 18.8 points per game last year in a schedule limited to five conference opponents. Through two games in 2021, Rice has allowed 41 points per game with largely the same personnel, with a few parts and pieces swapped out via injury or transfer. Surely, the defense will revert closer to that standard once the schedule eases up.

But the offense, that’s a tougher sell. To borrow a word from Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren in the aftermath of Saturday’s loss, this team looked a lot like its head coach felt: “shellshocked”.

That’s how Bloomgren opened his brief comments with the media following the loss. And that’s how this team looked in the first quarter of a game that — on paper — was more favorable to the Owls’ chances of winning than their previous contest. Except Rice managed to hang with their Week 1 SEC opponent, Arkansas, well into the fourth quarter. The Houston game felt like it might be out of reach in the first 15 minutes of regulation.

More: Takeaways from disappointing Rice football loss to Houston

Rice football has now played 86 minutes and 16 seconds of game time since Wiley Green hit August Pitre on a wide-open 44-yard bomb to open the third quarter against Arkansas. They have seven total points to show for it. Rice averaged 23.4 points per game last season. They’re down to 14 points per game in 2021, a small sample, but still a noticeable reduction.

“I thought we would be able to fight them tooth and nail,” Bloomgren said in disbelief. “That’s not the way it went.”

The Owls have seven days to pick up the pieces and ready themselves for a road trip to Austin where they’ll face Texas, a team they’ve beaten once since 1965. They last topped the Longhorns in 1994, before every member of the current Rice roster was alive.

A rough start was always possible, given how strenuous the schedule seemed to be. Two games in, those worries have turned into reality. Rice won’t play Arkansas, Houston and Texas every week, but they’ll have to deal with the repercussions of a brutal opening stretch. There’s no better time than the present.

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Conference USA Football 2021: Week 2 C-USA Roundup

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Conference USA Football was back in action this weekend. Here’s the latest from the teams on the gridiron in Week 2.

Team Week 2 Result Week 3
Charlotte vs Gardner-Webb W, 38-10 at Georgia St
FAU vs Georgia Southern W, 38-6 vs Fordham
FIU vs Texas St. L, 23-17 (OT) at Texas Tech
LA Tech vs SE Louisiana W, 45-42 vs SMU
Marshall vs NC Central W, 44-10 vs East Carolina
MTSU at Virginia Tech L, 35-14 at UTSA
North Texas at SMU L, 35-12 vs UAB
Old Dominion vs Hampton W, 47-7 at Liberty
Rice vs Houston L, 44-7 at Texas
Southern Miss vs Grambling W, 37-0 vs Troy
UAB at Georgia L,  56-7 at North Texas
UTEP at Boise St. L, 54-13 — OFF —
UTSA vs Lamar W, 54-0 vs MTSU
WKU at Army  L, 38-35 — OFF —

Notable Week 2 results – Standings

Non-conference nonsense

In Week 1, the Texas Longhorns handled Louisiana with ease and Rice came within one quarter of upsetting Arkansas. At the same time, Houston collapses against a Texas Tech team that nearly lost to SFA in Week 2. How then, did Arkansas pummel Texas and Rice get overwhelmed by Houston in their second games? Because this is college football and nothing makes sense.

Second-week snoozers

The seven Conference USA teams that won in Week 2 did so against non-FBS teams. For the most part, those victories were uneventful, save for a too-close-for-comfort escape by Louisiana Tech over in-state foe Southeast Louisiana, who never trailed by more than 10 points at any time in the contest.

Zapped

Western Kentucky quarterback Bailey Zappe lit up the boxscore, but it was too little, too late against Army on Saturday. The Black Knights jumped out to a 21-7 lead in the first quarter, putting the Hilltoppers in come-back mode early. Zappe went on to throw for 435 yards and three scores, but it was too big of a mounting for even him to overcome.

Looking ahead – Key storylines

Let the (conference) games begin

The first Conference USA matchups of the season start next week. Middle Tennessee visits 2-0 UTSA in San Antonio while North Texas hosts UAB in a battle of two programs coming off a Week 2 losss. There’s plenty of season still to be played, but the winners of those matchups can put themselves in favorable position right out of the chute.

More opportunities for marquee wins

FIU and Rice both draw Power 5 opponents this week and Louisiana Tech gets perennial AAC power, SMU. Each of those non-conference foes has struggled early in the season, with Texas coming off a Week 2 loss and neither SMU or Texas Tech looking too mighty following more harrowing wins of their own.

Sneaky, tricky games

Marshall would do well to keep one eye open when they prep for a home contest against East Carolina. The Pirates gave South Carolina a scare in Week 2 and were able to put up some points against Appalachain State the week prior. After consecutive snoozers against Navy and NC Central, this contest might take a bit more focus.

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Rice Football: Houston onslaught dooms Owls to disappointing 0-2 start

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The Houston Cougars threw the first punch, battering Rice Football early and keeping the Owls out of sync from the start.

The pressure was on from the start when Rice football took on Houston in the battle for the Bayou Bucket on Saturday. The usually stalwart Rice defense took their licks early before settling into a groove. The offense did them no favors, staying away from the scoreboard until the final minute of the first half.

Clearly flustered early, Rice didn’t truly get their bearings set until the start of the second quarter. At that point, the butterflies had subsided, but the Houston offense had made its mark. Trailing 17-0 in the early minutes of the game, the Owls had dug a hole too deep.

Rice football falls to 0-2 on the season with a trip to Austin to play Texas looming. There’s been a lot of good mixed in, but the sour taste that turned up late in the Arkansas game remains in the mouths of the Rice faithful.

Although it was hard to envision at halftime in Week 1, the start to the 2021 season has been rather disappointing with Houston delivering a final gut punch with a walk-off pick-six on the final play.

The Roost Podcast: Stay tuned for the game recap this week 

Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Owls stutter out of the gate

The beginnings of this rivalry game felt very one-sided, and that was true before the Rice deficit reached three scores. Houston pressed the ball down the field, finding holes in the Rice secondary and moving the ball well.

The Rice defense, usually chomping at the bit to make their presence felt swiftly, played rather loose. The typical early aggression was missing, and Houston capitalized. Rice entered the game having held 15 consecutive opponents scoreless on their first possession. Houston snapped that streak before anyone on either side broke a sweat.

Consecutive three-and-outs, followed by a Luke McCaffrey interception did nothing to help the slow defensive start. Perhaps it was nerves, or simply misfires, but McCaffrey put two balls on the hands of his receivers, one on each of the first two drives, but neither Zane Knipe or Jack Bradley was able to hang on. The entire unit just wasn’t in sync.

The Roost Podcast: Stay tuned for the game recap this week 

In a big moment, neither side of the ball was ready. Rice left the first quarter trailing 17-0. After running nine plays, they’d gained just 30 yards. Against Arkansas, Rice caught a lot of bad breaks, but they never looked unprepared. That wasn’t the case against Houston. By the time the second quarter rolled around, the defense looked fully engaged, but the early deficit would prove problematic.

Not winning in the trenches

Much was made of how Rice played for the majority of the game against Arkansas last week. Head coach Mike Bloomgren himself acknowledge that for three quarters, it didn’t look like a Conference USA team squaring off with an SEC foe. That was before the heat, injuries and several self-inflicted wounds turned the fourth quarter into a rout.

One week later, Rice looked like the fourth-quarter-against-Arkansas team in the trenches. The offensive line was bullied around from the beginning, constantly putting McCaffrey under duress. The line did open up holes for the Rice running backs from time to time, but the totality of the performance was decisively underwhelming.

On Saturday against Houston, it looked like Rice was fighting an SEC (or perhaps a Big XII) versus Conference USA fight. For a team that prides itself on toughness, on intellectual brutality, it was not an inspiring performance up front.

McCaffrey was sacked four times. Rice averaged 2.2 yards per carry before garbage time, and that number bumped up to 3.5 per attempt by the final whistle. Rice was hardly able to get anything going through the air or on the ground all night long, and the offensive line was carry a large portion of that responsibility.

McCaffrey isn’t the silver bullet, but he can be a difference-maker

When the news that McCaffrey was transferring to Rice football broke this summer, the anticipation was palpable. After churning through quarterbacks, from the transfer portal and the back ends of the roster, Rice was finally going to have a bonafide quarterback and one with more raw talent than perhaps any that had set foot on campus in a decade or more.

With one game as a starter under his belt, it’s abundantly clear that while McCaffrey might grow to become the Owls’ ace in the hole, he’s not going to be able to do it all on his own. Like 99 percent of other collegiate passers, he’s going to need some help.

McCaffrey’s second interception of the day looked like a clear misread. He went short and his receiver did not break off his route. Who made the mistake is unclear, but it’s something that should be ironed out over time. That’s exactly the kind of play the coaching staff had their concerns about when they opted to start Wiley Green against Arkansas rather than someone of McCaffrey’s skillset. Granted, knowing the scheme and executing it are different things, but it’s a factor nonetheless.

McCaffrey and the offense did settle down in the second quarter. He led Rice on an 11-play, 81-yard touchdown drive to close out the half, showcasing what made him special on multiple occasions, keeping this play alive:

Before finishing with a beautiful roll out touchdown to Jordan Myers:

The flashes of what could be are evident. As he matures and better understands the scheme, the Owls’ offense should continue to rise with him. Hopefully, that comes before conference play, just three weeks from now.

Digging deeper

Every week we’ll have a stat, storyline or key learning from the game reserved for our subscribers.

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