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Offense flounders as Rice Football succumbs to UConn

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Rice Football delivered a dazzling defensive effort but never got the offense in gear, losing to UConn on the road and falling to 2-6 on the season.

“Obviously disappointed with the way we performed today on the offensive side of the ball,” head coach Mike Bloomgren, said, beginning his post game press conference at the heart of the Owls’ issues on Saturday. “I thought there were a lot of opportunities the defense gave us.”

Those offensive shortcomings were impossible to overlook and set the tone for what was an underwhelming afternoon on the East Coast. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Devillier debut comes up short

It wouldn’t be a Rice football season without a start from a backup quarterback. Seven years into his tenure, head coach Mike Bloomgren has not yet been fortunate enough to see the same passer take the opening snap in every regular season game. Facing a similar quandary this week, Bloomgren gave starter EJ Warner a shot to play against UConn on Saturday but when Warner was unable to go, it cleared the way (officially) for freshman Drew Devillier to make his first collegiate start.

Devillier had taken the vast majority of the reps with the first team offense during the week and his insertion into the starting lineup didn’t come as a surprise. But no amount of practice reps can simulate the real thing and mop-up duty against Texas Southern and Houston doesn’t produce the same stakes as a zero-zero tilt at the opening kickoff.

Add a strong wind, gusting up to 26 miles per hour, and a defense that ranks top five in the nation in third down stops to those first-start jitters and you get a tough day at the office for Devillier and the Rice offense.

“I think that’s what it comes down to. First start on the road against a very, very complex defense. That’s not an ideal situation,” Bloomgren said. “Those are tough things.”

Bloomgren was quick to acknowledge how difficult the UConn defense made it for Devillier, crediting their post-snap movement with confusion early in downs and acknowledging they were part of the reason for the young quarterbacks’ struggles.

“The ball disruption was real tonight,” Bloomgren said. They did a great job getting their hands up and not allowing some of those short completions that could have turned into big things to happen.”

UConn knocked down at least four passes at the line of scrimmage and sacked Devillier twice, including on the Owls’ penultimate snap of the game, thwarted any final hopes of a comeback.

Things would have looked even worse had it not been for a 100-yard kick return touchdown from Quinton Jackson, the longest in program history. His effort gave the Owls offense one more chance late in the fourth, but it would prove to be too little, too late.

“We know what kind of player QJack is,” his roommate, Tyson Flowers exclaimed after the game. “He’s explosive. It’s about dang time he got in the endzone. It was really cool, and for him to do it in a game at a time like this, as clutch of a score as that was, that was really, really exciting.”

Turnover fortune bounces back

Winning the turnover battle was a key talking point during practice this week, understandably so after Rice gave the ball away five times in their loss against Tulane. Even still, it was hard to be overly confident the Owls would be able to produce immediate results on this front given their struggles to produce takeaways of any kind during Bloomgren’s tenure.

Sure enough, Rice, not UConn, put the ball on the ground first. A botched exchange between the center and Devillier on a third and short produced a mass of blue and white jerseys fighting for the ball. The Owls were fortunate to come out of the pile with the pigskin, preserving an even turnover margin for at least a while longer until fortune finally found the turnover-starved Rice defense.

Daveon Hook came streaking out of the secondary on a safety blitz and hit UConn quarterback Nick Evers. As the signal caller was headed to the ground, reinforcements arrived allowing Hook to punch out the ball. Rice recovered. A few plays later Tim Horn kicked a field goal, putting Rice ahead and turning that takeaway into points.

Two drives later, Gabe Taylor stepped in front of a quick pass from Evers and picked it off, the second takeaway in the span of a few minutes of real time.

The jury is still out on whether or not any of this is sustainable. Another fumbled snap and a muffed punt from return man Tyson Thompson, who was able to fall on it, all went the Owls’ way. There’s another version of this game in which Rice loses the turnover battle despite those important takeaways they forced early on.

Penalty problems persist 

Whether it was the cold or the angst of two teams that really needed this game, the level of tension and angst was palpable in this contest from start to finish. Neither team played a clean game and mistakes and penalties were plentiful. Rice was the beneficiary of the games’ most impactful mishaps, the aforementioned turnovers, but the Owls shot themselves in the foot way too many times to pass over.

Rice committed 12 penalties for 95 yards in the game. At halftime, the Owls’ 70 penalty yards at that point were equal to UConn’s combined offensive output: 70 yards on 36 plays. The final Rice penalty before the break came on a botched center/quarterback exchange, the second of the afternoon. That resulted in a 10-second runoff, taking the game clock to zero and preventing Rice from attempting what would have been a 49-yard field goal attempt.

During Bloomgren’s first three years with the Owls, Rice averaged 3.97 penalties per game. The program might not have had the talent to contend, but they didn’t beat themselves with foolish mistakes very often. That hasn’t been the case for the last several seasons and it’s been noticeably problematic this year. Rice committed a season-high 11 penalties for 93 yards against UTSA.

Rice is now averaging seven penalties per game.

When you’re playing with margins as slim as the Owls have been working with this year, every yard counts. This team can’t afford to be giving so many of them away for free, particularly when it comes to dead ball, unsportsmanlike conduct fouls, which Rice was whistled for on multiple occasions on Saturday.

Out of options

Earlier this year after the Owls had gotten off to a tough start, Bloomgren commented that no more reinforcements were on the way. If this team was going to figure it out and get back to their winning ways, they were going to have to find their answers internally.

Those comments weren’t directed at individual players who had yet to see the field, but any illusions that there were remaining personnel waiting in the wings to save the Owls’ season were quelled on Saturday in East Hartford.

Against UConn, Rice saw extensive run from their backup quarterback — often the assumed savior whenever a starter struggles — and finally got receiver Thai Bowman back on the field. Neither was able to produce a meaningful difference in an offense that has been stuck in the mud in recent weeks. There aren’t any other players to turn to. This is the team. This is the coaching staff. And they’ve almost run out of time.

Sitting at 2-6, any subsequent loss will knock Rice football out of bowl contention. A failed season is staring Bloomgren and Co. in the face and putting his future at the head of the program in jeopardy. Running the table feels improbable, at best, but that’s the only hope this team can cling to as they move ahead.

“We have been playoff football mode many times, where we got to win out and we gotta get this thing done to get to a bowl,” Bloomgren said. “I think this team wants to play in a bowl, badly. And I think this team can earn the right to do that. But you also know, 1-0 next week ain’t going to be easy. We’re gonna have to play our butts off and we’re gonna have to find a way to score some points and get our defense to stop an offense that’s been scoring a lot of points in Navy.”

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Defensive prowess not enough

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The Roost Podcast | Ep 189 – Rice Football misses shot at Tulane upset

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Rice football missed their shot to take down the Tulane Green Wave on the road. What to make of the turnovers, defensive showing and more.

A heroic defensive effort could not make up for five turnovers by the Rice football offense. Tied midway through the fourth quarter as multi-touchdown underdogs, the Owls were unable to pull off the upset and must now wrestle with the repercussions which include a rough record and a few looming injuries.

You can find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 189.

Episode Notes

DCTF

The Roost Podcast is now part of the Dave Campbell’s Republic of Football Podcast Network. You’ll still get the same content with the same hosts, but now under the DCTF banner.

Homefield

We’re thrilled to partner with Homefield Apparel, the premier proprietor of college football clothing. First-time buyers can use the code ROOST for 15% off their order. The Owls hoodie is a personal favorite as is the Luv-Ya-Owls shirt. Make sure you check out the brand-new sailor hat (pictured below) as you shop the Rice collection or pick up something else (or both)!

You can also grab the Luv-Ya-Owls shirt if you haven’t picked one up yet!

Homefield

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Recapping Rice Football vs Tulane

  • Five turnovers. Five!
  • EJ Warner plays pretty good, picks or no picks
  • The running game is still strangely absent
  • This defense could be really special, even if it’s not perfect
  • Picking up the pieces after the loss

Where can you find us?

The Roost Podcast is part of the Dave Campbell’s Republic of Football Podcast Network. You can find this podcast and all of our partner podcasts on Apple, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Five turnovers doom Rice Football in road loss to Tulane

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Rice Football traded blows with a heavily favored Tulane squad at home before a series of back-breaking turnovers ruined the Owls’ upset bid.

Tied in the fourth quarter, Rice football still managed to lose by multiple scores to an unyielding Tulane team which took advantage of seemingly every mistake the Owls made. Those miscues were, unfortunately, far too many to overcome as Rice fell to 2-5 on the season and 1-3 in AAC play. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game, starting with those stated objectives:

Defense leads the way

In a perfect world, you’d build a super team. The offense would score 100 points a game. The defense wouldn’t allow any. Special teams would ensure a smooth transition back and forth. Voila.

But as any Rice football fan is well aware at this point, we don’t live in that perfect world. And since we don’t the Owls must wrestle with the reality of three phases of football all playing at different levels of competency and consistency. One thing has become abundantly clear is the defense is going to set the tone for the Owls moving forward.

Following a first-drive punt by the offense — which hasn’t scored on its first possession against an FBS opponent this season — the defense quickly engineered a three-and-out, nearly putting points on the board themselves on this crushing sack from Ty Morris on the goal line.

The defense allowed a field goal on a short field following a Rice turnover, but held star Tulane quarterback Darian Mensah to zero passing yards in the first quarter. Mensah wasn’t going to be blanked for a full four quarters, but the redshirt freshman quarterback looked much more like a youngster than the poised distributor who had diced up AAC defenses thus far.

“That’s winning football, what our defense did,” head coach Mike Bloomgren summarized. “The only thing we can ask of our defense to better is create some turnovers. That’s something that we’re emphasizing, it’s something that we’re just not getting done right now and we have to, very simply, to be the team that we want to be. But if we can play with that kind of effort, defensively, we can win a bunch of football games.”

Tulane wideout Mario Williams dropped two surefire touchdown receptions in this game, but sometimes the ball does bounce your way. Two fourth-down stops prove this showing wasn’t a fluke. This defense is very good. If they can take that next step and become truly elite, the shortcomings in other phases can be overcome.

The Green Wave scored 10 points off turnovers. When forced to drive the length of the field, Tulane only mustered 14 points. That should always be good enough to win a college football game. It has to be.

Turnover gremlins can’t be silenced

Turnovers kill. Entering Saturday Rice football had turned the ball over eight times in six games, a rate that put them smack dab in the middle of the AAC, but it sure didn’t feel that way. That’s partly because the Owls’ four turnovers gained are second from last in league play and tied for 120th in the nation. Only one program in America has fewer turnovers against FBS opponents than Rice does: UAB.

Warner’s interception and a fumble by Dean Connors following a long run spoiled an otherwise effective first half. Those mistakes aren’t any more or less excusable by what is (or isn’t) happening on the other side of the ball, but they are felt more deeply when the margins are close like they were on Saturday.

Despite being down two giveaways on the stat sheet, Rice football was absolutely in this game at halftime, trailing 10-7. If the Owls had been neutral in the turnover department it’s hard not to project a tied game at the break, if not swinging things all the way over toward a Rice lead.

Warner’s second INT in the redzone was the most egregious offensive mistake of the afternoon. A veteran quarterback has to understand the situation better and not leave that opportunity without points. Likewise, the Owls’ star position player can’t put the ball on the ground twice. Connors’ second fumble was returned for a touchdown, officially ending any hopes on an upset bid.

Connors fumbled once in his first 220 career carries as a Rice Owl before fumbling twice today. Some of the turnover problems are systemic. Some are variance. The sum total today was overwhelming.

If this team could just get back to neutral in the turnover department, whether by way of fewer offensive mistakes or more defensive help, they’d have a puncher’s chance in most of their games moving forward. Being allergic to such game-changing plays doesn’t make sense, but it’s been a reality at the program for years.

“It’s hard to think you’re gonna win a game with a 5-0 turnover margin,” Bloomgren admitted. “It just doesn’t happen in this game.”

Warner imperfect, but improved

It’s hard to comprehend the degree to which the level of quarterback play Rice football has gotten from EJ Warner has improved over the last two months. His debut against Sam Houston and subsequent rough outings against Houston and Army had most onlookers wondering if this really was the same guy who had led the AAC in passing in each of the last two seasons. He just didn’t look comfortable whatsoever and the offensive production reflected that unease.

The Charlotte game was the first sign of growth. Then it got better against UTSA and was good again on the road against Tulane on Saturday afternoon. Warner had already thrown for more than 100 yards and a touchdown. He started this game 8-for-10 with his only real mistake an interception thrown into traffic.

The pick, along with some less-than-stellar accuracy on throws deep down the field — where most college quarterbacks struggle — provide evidence that there’s more growth needed for Warner and the Rice offense to reach their ceiling. But to have reached a point in the season where the flaws in this offense and in Warner’s game can be nitpicked is, to some degree, stunning.

Warner finished the game 26-for-46 for 271 yards one touchdown and three interceptions. He’s thrown for more than 250 yards in three consecutive games after failing to reach that mark once in his first four with the Owls, including against FCS Texas Southern. Some well-designed offensive playcalling from Marques Tuiasosopo like this jumbo-formation touchdown to Elijah Mojarrow deserve some credit, too:

“He’s seeing things well, He’s delivering the ball well and giving us a real chance,” Bloomgren said, declining to absolve his quarterback of all blame for the turnover-plagued day but noting, probably correctly that Warner “played a whale of a football game” outside of those mistakes, at least one of which Bloomgren attributed to protection issues at first glance.

Warner has grown a lot over the span of seven weeks. If he’s got even a bit more progress in him, he’ll take one more step and clean up those crushing interceptions, one of which came on a garbage time heave. This offense could be punchy in the second half of the season. Needless to say, that development would be massive and might hinge on Warner’s health following an injury suffered on the Owls’ final offensive play.

Where to go from here

Losing to Tulane on the road in a highly competitive game would typically make for a respectable, albeit disappointing, result. One needs to look no further than the complete dismantling UAB underwent against that same Green Wave squad a game prior.

But given the year Rice football has had and just how winnable this contest was makes it hard to argue for that silver lining.

There are no moral victories; this game marked the fifth loss of the season, and the calendar still has yet to reach Halloween. We’re now forced to play the schedule game with a Rice team attempting to tightrope to their third consecutive bowl appearance.

At 2-5, Rice has to beat either Navy or Memphis, who own a combined one loss between them at the time of this writing. If Rice can do that — and that’s a high bar to clear in itself — the Owls can get to the postseason through a perfect run through their other three games: at UConn, at UAB and home against South Florida for the regular season finale.

This team has shown flashes of high-level play over the past three weeks. They have the talent to win a few more games. Whether or not they can win enough is the question at hand. If they are going to make the run they absolutely must take care of business against UConn.

Being at this point in the season which began with such high expectations is crushing, but there’s no rewriting the past now. There’s still a chance. Please, please, please beat UConn.

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Where’d the running game go?

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The Roost Podcast | Ep 188 – Rice Football tops UTSA plus Soccer, Volleyball w/ Jason Metko

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Rice football sideline reporter Jason Metko joins the show this week to recap the UTSA win and share the latest from soccer and volleyball.

It was a storybook weekend at South Main. Rice football knocked off UTSA for the first time in a decade and soccer and volleyball continued their impressive seasons. Owls’ sideline reporter and broadcaster for soccer and volleyball joined the show this week to share his perspectives from the field, court and everywhere else.

You can find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 188.

Episode Notes

DCTF

The Roost Podcast is now part of the Dave Campbell’s Republic of Football Podcast Network. You’ll still get the same content with the same hosts, but now under the DCTF banner.

Homefield

We’re thrilled to partner with Homefield Apparel, the premier proprietor of college football clothing. First-time buyers can use the code ROOST for 15% off their order. The Owls hoodie is a personal favorite as is the Luv-Ya-Owls shirt. Make sure you check out the brand-new sailor hat (pictured below) as you shop the Rice collection or pick up something else (or both)!

You can also grab the Luv-Ya-Owls shirt if you haven’t picked one up yet!

Homefield

Patreon

Get exclusive insight on Patreon. Be the first to get the inside scoop on what’s going on with Rice football and stick around for even further analysis. That includes practice updates, analysis and more. Your support matters and makes The Roost better.

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Recapping Rice Football vs UTSA, Soccer and Volleyball seasons

  • EJ Warner and Matt Sykes come through in the clutch
  • Offense finds some momentum
  • Defensive makes just enough plays
  • Special teams uncertainty
  • Rice Soccer keeps winning
  • Rice Volleyball is on a roll

Where can you find us?

The Roost Podcast is part of the Dave Campbell’s Republic of Football Podcast Network. You can find this podcast and all of our partner podcasts on Apple, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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Rice Football stuns UTSA with fourth quarter rally

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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.

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.

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.

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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Thanks for the yards, but don’t count on it

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