(12-31-2013 07:41 PM)I45owl Wrote:  

(12-31-2013 07:16 PM)cr11owl Wrote:  Doubtful. They will lose to Bama, Auburn and probably LSU. Ole miss is always a toss up especially since it's at ole miss. Then the OOC and eastern SEC I'm not familiar with next year. We were manhandled by a lower rung SEC team tonight. No pretty way to spin it.

Yikes. I didn't realize they play all three of those teams year-in, year-out. I thought Alabama and possibly Auburn were in the East. I figured them for a rung below those teams, which would lower their conference ceiling. Their OOC is UAB, USM, USA, and FCS UT-Martin, all of which they should dominate. They play Kentucky and Vandy inter-division. It still seems like they would wind up in the 8-9 win range.

Their schedule is why their 6-6 record was deceiving. They only lost to teams ranked in the Top 25, IIRC and many were very close.

Very disappointing. The play calling was questionable. Why didn't we ever throw on first down since our running game was non existent. Why didn't we try to throw downfield. I don't think I saw one deep ball the whole game. We need a new OC not one hired within.

(12-31-2013 07:41 PM)I45owl Wrote:  

(12-31-2013 07:16 PM)cr11owl Wrote:  Doubtful. They will lose to Bama, Auburn and probably LSU. Ole miss is always a toss up especially since it's at ole miss. Then the OOC and eastern SEC I'm not familiar with next year. We were manhandled by a lower rung SEC team tonight. No pretty way to spin it.

Yikes. I didn't realize they play all three of those teams year-in, year-out. I thought Alabama and possibly Auburn were in the East. I figured them for a rung below those teams, which would lower their conference ceiling. Their OOC is UAB, USM, USA, and FCS UT-Martin, all of which they should dominate. They play Kentucky and Vandy inter-division. It still seems like they would wind up in the 8-9 win range.

(12-31-2013 04:44 PM)talon owl Wrote:  Might need to move Gaines into slot some.

Just reading through the posts now after being there and boy ain't this right. Lewis just killed us

(12-31-2013 08:04 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(12-31-2013 07:41 PM)I45owl Wrote:  

(12-31-2013 07:16 PM)cr11owl Wrote:  Doubtful. They will lose to Bama, Auburn and probably LSU. Ole miss is always a toss up especially since it's at ole miss. Then the OOC and eastern SEC I'm not familiar with next year. We were manhandled by a lower rung SEC team tonight. No pretty way to spin it.

Yikes. I didn't realize they play all three of those teams year-in, year-out. I thought Alabama and possibly Auburn were in the East. I figured them for a rung below those teams, which would lower their conference ceiling. Their OOC is UAB, USM, USA, and FCS UT-Martin, all of which they should dominate. They play Kentucky and Vandy inter-division. It still seems like they would wind up in the 8-9 win range.

Their schedule is why their 6-6 record was deceiving.

And we similarly needed some tremendous luck to beat FAU, UAB, etc..

(12-31-2013 05:14 PM)Philoso-Owl Wrote:  The vanilla wild owl run toward RT on 3rd and 2 was a little too predictable for my tastes. Glad that Turner was upset to not get to go for it on 4th and 1 though.

Aaaaand Lewis in the slot burns us for a big gain again. Adjustments having been a consistent weak point of this staff, I am very concerned. We need a major defensive adjustment now -- not at halftime.

(12-31-2013 06:22 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  Mississippi State is flat out a much better team.

6-6 is not indicative of their quality based on this game.

Way better than that-bet in any other conference they're second or third

(12-31-2013 07:09 PM)Caelligh Wrote:  I am having trouble finding any positives in this game, and that saddens me more than a loss otherwise would. :(

Fortunately, I have painkillers.

First decent non mob only inside joke show in 2-3 yrs?

(12-31-2013 07:12 PM)I45owl Wrote:  I will be interested to see how this MSU team does next year. I'd expect in the neighborhood of 9-3, 6-2, if not better, depending on what their out of conference schedule is like.

MSU fans next to me said they are very young and had major QB injury issues this yr. Expectations are high much like us after our bowl last year

(12-31-2013 10:43 PM)texowl2 Wrote:  

(12-31-2013 07:09 PM)Caelligh Wrote:  I am having trouble finding any positives in this game, and that saddens me more than a loss otherwise would. :(

Fortunately, I have painkillers.

First decent non mob only inside joke show in 2-3 yrs?

We also kept our non-shutout streak alive - we haven't been shut out since that prick francionne and TCU in 2000. It was nice to get there, but from the game itself that was the only positive I can find.

Just back from game. Met some great Rice folks and great State folks. Haven't had time to review the posts so forgive me if this has been covered but looking at it live:
-weather was great, really about as good as could be expected which contributed to:
-pregame tailgating was great and afforded opportunity to socialize with the aforementioned fanbases
-would love to know what average distance to go on 2nd down was for Rice because it seemed live like it was 2nd and 9 or 2nd and 8 everytime.
-don't think this was a schematic defeat or getting outcoached. MSU was just bigger and faster. They were particularly faster when matched up against the Rice safties and linebackers.
-by the 2nd quarter MSU's line was also caving in the Rice d-line especially when they wanted the edge. Rice did a well enough on 1st and 2nd downs in the first half but could not get off the field on 3rd down. State could get whoever was matched up with the safties open whenever they liked.
-State's D had the speed to take away the big play and their d-line dominated the line of scrimmage.
-It was just State's day. They played well, were well prepared, and were the better team today

I don't think this should detract from Rice's great season. Sometimes you just hit the wrong match-up on the wrong day. Hope everybody had a fun visit in Memphis and -to heck with the conference tie-ins- hope the Owls come back next year and finish holding the bell trophy for some great fans.

(12-31-2013 10:36 PM)texowl2 Wrote:  

(12-31-2013 05:14 PM)Philoso-Owl Wrote:  The vanilla wild owl run toward RT on 3rd and 2 was a little too predictable for my tastes. Glad that Turner was upset to not get to go for it on 4th and 1 though.

Aaaaand Lewis in the slot burns us for a big gain again. Adjustments having been a consistent weak point of this staff, I am very concerned. We need a major defensive adjustment now -- not at halftime.

(12-31-2013 06:22 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  Mississippi State is flat out a much better team.

6-6 is not indicative of their quality based on this game.

Way better than that-bet in any other conference they're second or third

Agreed. MSU's team is much better than its 6-6, now 7-6, record. They played a good game. In the first half, when we had them in third and long, we couldn't stop them.

(01-01-2014 12:14 AM)CFBguy Wrote:  Just back from game. Met some great Rice folks and great State folks. Haven't had time to review the posts so forgive me if this has been covered but looking at it live:
-weather was great, really about as good as could be expected which contributed to:
-pregame tailgating was great and afforded opportunity to socialize with the aforementioned fanbases
-would love to know what average distance to go on 2nd down was for Rice because it seemed live like it was 2nd and 9 or 2nd and 8 everytime.
-don't think this was a schematic defeat or getting outcoached. MSU was just bigger and faster. They were particularly faster when matched up against the Rice safties and linebackers.
-by the 2nd quarter MSU's line was also caving in the Rice d-line especially when they wanted the edge. Rice did a well enough on 1st and 2nd downs in the first half but could not get off the field on 3rd down. State could get whoever was matched up with the safties open whenever they liked.
-State's D had the speed to take away the big play and their d-line dominated the line of scrimmage.
-It was just State's day. They played well, were well prepared, and were the better team today

I don't think this should detract from Rice's great season. Sometimes you just hit the wrong match-up on the wrong day. Hope everybody had a fun visit in Memphis and -to heck with the conference tie-ins- hope the Owls come back next year and finish holding the bell trophy for some great fans.

This guy knows what he's talking about. Yep, that's about it.

(12-31-2013 05:50 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  This shows how you can't teach size. Their o-line and d-line are the differences. They are making us hurry throws/get away from running, and they're giving the MSU QB enough time to kill us on third down.

BINGO

(12-31-2013 09:11 PM)OldOwl Wrote:  Very disappointing. The play calling was questionable. Why didn't we ever throw on first down since our running game was non existent. Why didn't we try to throw downfield. I don't think I saw one deep ball the whole game. We need a new OC not one hired within.

More than anything else, I think this game and games like it expose Rice's offensive approach as too one-dimensional and too prone to being completely shut down.

(01-01-2014 12:14 AM)CFBguy Wrote:  Just back from game. Met some great Rice folks and great State folks. Haven't had time to review the posts so forgive me if this has been covered but looking at it live:
-weather was great, really about as good as could be expected which contributed to:
-pregame tailgating was great and afforded opportunity to socialize with the aforementioned fanbases

First off, we appreciate your contributions on here. You're clearly a great fan of college football and support the local bowl, which by all rights enjoys a great history. I regret not being able to have made it, but just a little bit less so because of yesterday's outcome.

(01-01-2014 12:14 AM)CFBguy Wrote:  -would love to know what average distance to go on 2nd down was for Rice because it seemed live like it was 2nd and 9 or 2nd and 8 everytime.

That's a fair bet because Rice averaged 1.9 YPC rushing the ball and under 6 per passing attempt. Take away the first two drives, and that leaves 2nd and 9 for the remainder of the game. Watching the game felt like banging our head against a wall because it's almost literally the story of the game.

(01-01-2014 12:14 AM)CFBguy Wrote:  -don't think this was a schematic defeat or getting outcoached. MSU was just bigger and faster. They were particularly faster when matched up against the Rice safties and linebackers.

I think there are some pretty specific failures of coaching that we could see. One is schematic - when MSU continually beat Rice on corner patterns where there was no-one covering Lewis, that should have been addressed by the coaches. The other is that it's hard to conceive why you let MSU repeatedly beat Rice with their best player on offense without putting one or the other of Rice's corners on him. If MSU subsequently beats Rice, then at least that removes the one question that was pretty obvious to all Rice fans and even the ESPN sideline reporters.

(01-01-2014 12:14 AM)CFBguy Wrote:  -by the 2nd quarter MSU's line was also caving in the Rice d-line especially when they wanted the edge. Rice did a well enough on 1st and 2nd downs in the first half but could not get off the field on 3rd down. State could get whoever was matched up with the safties open whenever they liked.

One of the things that I was worried about is not just the size of the MSU line, but also the depth of the Rice front line. Something that struck me is that the MSU previews emphasized how many lineman they would rotate through on the defensive line, and I think that's probably one of the big differences between playing in the SEC and elsewhere. Rice lost two very good linemen prior to the season but I'd imagine that may equate to the Rice starters playing an extra 7-10 plays per game against significantly larger opponents.

While TOP doesn't mean everything, MSU held about 35-25 advantage in this game, which does give them the opportunity to run that much many more plays. If Rice had been mildly effective on offense beyond the first couple of drives, then I'd be comfortable with Rice's defensive performance with the exception of letting Lewis run wild without doing much to address it.

(01-01-2014 12:14 AM)CFBguy Wrote:  -State's D had the speed to take away the big play and their d-line dominated the line of scrimmage.
-It was just State's day. They played well, were well prepared, and were the better team today

I don't think this should detract from Rice's great season. Sometimes you just hit the wrong match-up on the wrong day. Hope everybody had a fun visit in Memphis and -to heck with the conference tie-ins- hope the Owls come back next year and finish holding the bell trophy for some great fans.

I am grateful that Rice had the opportunity to play against MSU. Games like this do expose weaknesses and show just how far we have to go.

(12-31-2013 07:16 PM)cr11owl Wrote:  

(12-31-2013 07:12 PM)I45owl Wrote:  I will be interested to see how this MSU team does next year. I'd expect in the neighborhood of 9-3, 6-2, if not better, depending on what their out of conference schedule is like.

Doubtful. They will lose to Bama, Auburn and probably LSU. Ole miss is always a toss up especially since it's at ole miss. Then the OOC and eastern SEC I'm not familiar with next year. We were manhandled by a lower rung SEC team tonight. No pretty way to spin it.

Actually this could be the best MS State team in school history coming back in 2014. We are very excited about our potential in 2014. I cringe when I read "bottom rung SEC team" even though it's true. But we are a bottom rung SEC West team which, as we indicated, can hang with or beat any other conference's best teams. Michigan laughed at having to play us in the 2011 Gator Bowl and we handed them their worst defeat in the history of Michigan football.