Down to their final seconds, EJ Warner hit Matt Sykes to elevate Rice Football over UTSA in a “do or die” moment for the Owls’ season.

As Rice football left the field following pregame warmups and started the trek up the ramp to the Brian Patterson Center, the jumbotron featured three lines of white text on a blue background: “Stop the run. Win third down. Win turnover battle.” Rice has keys to victory every week, but they’re typically recorded by head coach Mike Bloomgren for the broadcast prior to the game.

That technology didn’t work this week and the recording was never made. Instead, an assistant asked Bloomgren for the objectives before the game which were relayed to the booth for the world to see. Those three objectives set the tone for what was to follow, a game the Owls absolutely had to find a way to win.

Sixty minutes of game action later, Rice football emerged victorious, beating UTSA for the first time since 2014. The win snapped an eight-game losing streak to the Roadrunners and served as the Owls’ first AAC win of the 2024 season. The victory also marked the first time Rice football had come from behind to win a game in the fourth quarter since defeating UAB in October 2022. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game, starting with those stated objectives:

Stop the run

UTSA running backs did not have a good night against Rice. A swarming Owls’ front held Roadrunner backs to 24 attempts for 64 yards, a dismal 2.7 yards per carry. Unfortunately for Rice, that wasn’t the full story. UTSA managed to cobble together a decent amount of production on the ground, primarily on scrambles from quarterback Owen McCown.

Like Rice gunslinger EJ Warner, McCown isn’t known for his legs. That didn’t stop him from running for a career-best 53 yards on the ground. It wasn’t quite a vintage Frank Harris performance, but it was good enough to extend drives and make Rice pay when they weren’t able to get him on their pressures. UTSA wide receiver Devin McCuin took a jet sweep off the edge for 21 yards on their first offensive possession, but that was more or less it for the Roadrunners’ ground game.

On the other side of the ball, Rice’s running game was seldom used, but effective when called upon. The poor per-carry numbers were ameliorated by exceptional results and a wonderful day through the air. Despite only running the ball 17 times, the Owls had two rushing touchdowns, one from Dean Connors and another from Warner, his first rushing score in his career.

The first rushing touchdown of EJ Warner's career!pic.twitter.com/ZwYDoqRHbf

— The Roost (@AtTheRoost) October 13, 2024

Win third down

Each offense had its highs and lows on third down. UTSA faced a lot of third and mediums and third and longs, averaging 6.6 yards to go on third downs. Those advantageous situations for the Rice defense ended as they should have with the Owls’ coverage holding up and UTSA leaving the field without a fuss. On more than one occasion,

In the first half, UTSA was 3-for-8 on third down with two conversions coming on third and one runs. Rice stymied another third and short run on the third conversion and a whistle was blown, however instead of calling progress dead, the official declared the whistle an accident and awarded UTSA another try. UTSA converted through the air and would go down the field to score their first touchdown of the night.

Prior to UTSA’s furious fourth quarter barrage, Rice managed to hold the Roadrunners to 5-of-14 on third down in the first three quarters. UTSA went 3-for-4 in the fourth, nearly costing Rice the game.

As for the Rice offense, they were up and down on those key downs, going 1-for-5 in the first half. Connors converted on the ground on third and one followed by Sykes converting through the air, but a fumble rendered that moot and went down as a failed conversion in the box score. Warner struggled with accuracy on a couple of occasions but made it count on the first third-down attempt of the second half, hitting Dean Connors for a go-ahead 69-yard touchdown pass, Warner’s longest as a Rice Owl.

Warner –> Connors –> SIX!pic.twitter.com/onJjsh28Kv

— The Roost (@AtTheRoost) October 13, 2024

Rice finished the game 4-for-12 on third down, well below their season average of 36.5 percent. It was fitting, though, that the Owls’ last offensive play came on third. Rice didn’t get many of them, but the ones they did convert changed the game. This third down connection between EJ Warner and Matt Sykes was the biggest of the season and won Rice football this game.

Matt Sykes and Superman have never been seen in the same room! The game winner from No. 8!pic.twitter.com/mZRh602sFw

— The Roost (@AtTheRoost) October 13, 2024

What made that moment even more surreal was who caught the pass. Matt Sykes checked himself into the hospital on Monday evening. He missed practice on Tuesday and Wednesday and wasn’t released and cleared to return to the field until Thursday. Jokes were being made of him being raised from the dead and Sean Fresch wasn’t integrated into the offensive gameplan in any capacity until it became possible, if not likely, that Sykes wouldn’t be able to go.

Sykes’ emergence as Warner’s go-to guy has been an incredible journey to follow. In the Owls’ most dire moment, it was No. 8 who came through.

“That was a must-do, do-or-die moment, so I had to come down with it,” Sykes said after the game, calling the catch “an amazing feeling.”

Bloomgren was even more effusive in his praise of the Owls’ newfound savior. Sykes “Literally won the game with a guy draped all over him with a ball that he had to have,” he said of  Sykes. “Just intense focus on and finish the catch.”

Win the turnover battle

On the Owls’ first offensive play, EJ Warner dropped back and targeted Dean Connors who had broken past his defender and was wide open streaking down the middle of the field. Connors should have had a walk-in, 94-yard touchdown. Instead, it was an incomplete pass and second down. That missed opportunity proved even more painful a few plays later when Matt Sykes had the ball knocked out of his hands on a third down catch, fumbling the ball to UTSA in Rice territory.

Tyson Flowers nearly leveled the margin himself, deflecting a ball with UTSA backed up inside its own 10-yard line. Had he reached the play a split-second quicker, he very well might have had a walk-in touchdown. The Owls finally got their takeaway on the final play from scrimmage. Blaise Tita fell on the final UTSA lateral snuffing out any comeback attempts and securing the win.

Win the game

With a little more than two minutes remaining in the game, it looked like Rice football had blown it. A 10-point fourth quarter lead had evaporated and the Owls were staring down the barrel at a stunning 1-5 start. For them to rally and find a way to win this game, given the circumstances, was incredible.

“We talk about Rice fight never dies, what a great example of that in the way our team just kept fighting,” Bloomgren said. “They just kept swinging.”

There’s no doubt the outlook for this season is much rosier with this win. They’re not out of the woods yet and have a long way to go to turn one win into a winning streak, but things would have been rather dire had the Owls officially crossed the midpoint of the season two losses away from being eliminated from bowl eligibility.

Losing back-to-back conference home games would have been even harded to swallow, especially considering how much more daunting the road ahead appears. Rice football goes to Tulane next week then heads to Storrs, CT to take on UConn before games against Navy (at home) and Memphis (on the road).

That’s a gauntlet of three of the top five teams in the conference and three of their next four games on the road. If there’s any way to squint at the current iteration of the season and not call it a failed campaign, Rice absolutely had to find a way to get this one against UTSA. Now hope lives on for another week.

The new uniforms were exciting and inspiring. The play on the field backed them up. Rice football rocked their Luv-Ya-Blue jerseys to a perfect moment on Saturday. Now it’s UTSA that’s feeling blue, not the Owls.

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