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.

THE LONGEST KICK RETURN IN SCHOOL HISTORY!!!pic.twitter.com/j2xUjWlqb6

— The Roost (@AtTheRoost) October 26, 2024

“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.

.@RiceFootball gets on the board following a much-needed turnover. pic.twitter.com/S8hdE7qwSU

— The Roost (@AtTheRoost) October 26, 2024

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.

What's better than one takeaway? Two takeaways!pic.twitter.com/rlkHmYrLwm

— The Roost (@AtTheRoost) October 26, 2024

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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