(09-15-2014 09:47 AM)Pan95 Wrote:  7. I don't know if anyone is talking about the masterful execution of the 53 yard field goal. Yes, we all know the insanity that followed. But wow, Rice never would have pulled this off 4 years ago. This team is so close to getting to that Top 25 window of performance.

Very good point! I didn't think they would ever get lined up in time when the offense was running off the field. That was a very quick and organized transition, too bad it didn't pay off.

(09-15-2014 09:47 AM)Pan95 Wrote:  Rice vs ND 367 Total Yards (141 R / 226 P)
Mich vs ND 289 Total Yards (100 R / 189 P)
Purdue vs ND 290 Total Yards (56 R / 234 P)

SC vs A&M 433 Total Yards (66 R / 366 P)
Lamar vs A&M 243 Total Yards (90 R / 153 P)
Rice vs A&M 481 Total Yards (240 R / 241 P)

I was making a similar point to my father-in-law, an LSU fan, last night. I told him that while 0-2 sucks, Rice lost to two top-10 teams and looked better against Notre Dame than Michigan and better against A&M than South Carolina. That doesn't necessarily mean Rice is better than Michigan and South Carolina, but it does mean Rice could at least compete with both of them if given the chance. Too bad we didn't play those teams this year instead of catching ND and A&M in what look like great years for them.

Completely unrelated point, but does anyone else feel like Sumlin has been overlooked on the national stage? Did a pretty damn good job and UH and now is kicking tail at A&M.

(09-15-2014 11:13 AM)mrbig Wrote:  

(09-15-2014 09:47 AM)Pan95 Wrote:  7. I don't know if anyone is talking about the masterful execution of the 53 yard field goal. Yes, we all know the insanity that followed. But wow, Rice never would have pulled this off 4 years ago. This team is so close to getting to that Top 25 window of performance.

Very good point! I didn't think they would ever get lined up in time when the offense was running off the field. That was a very quick and organized transition, too bad it didn't pay off.

(09-15-2014 09:47 AM)Pan95 Wrote:  Rice vs ND 367 Total Yards (141 R / 226 P)
Mich vs ND 289 Total Yards (100 R / 189 P)
Purdue vs ND 290 Total Yards (56 R / 234 P)

SC vs A&M 433 Total Yards (66 R / 366 P)
Lamar vs A&M 243 Total Yards (90 R / 153 P)
Rice vs A&M 481 Total Yards (240 R / 241 P)

I was making a similar point to my father-in-law, and LSU fan, last night. I told him that while 0-2 sucks, Rice lost to two top-10 teams and looked better against Notre Dame than Michigan and better against A&M than South Carolina. That doesn't necessarily mean Rice is better than Michigan and South Carolina, but it does mean Rice could at least compete with both of them if given the chance. Too bad we didn't play those teams this year instead of catching ND and A&M in what look like great years for them.

Completely unrelated point, but does anyone else feel like Sumlin has been overlooked on the national stage? Did a pretty damn good job and UH and now is kicking tail at A&M.

Don't feel like he has been overlooked at all.

There has been chatter about him going to a few NFL teams, and A&M has paid him a ton of money to be there, as well as strengthened up his buy-out.

Color me thoroughly impressed with DJ. Not that he's an RG3 or whomever (yet), and he can still get much better... but that he's FAR better than he had been in the past and makes solid decisions.... throwing it away when he needs to... etc etc.

Color me enthusiastic about both the offense and the defense. Not that they are exceptional because we're missing guys... or have young guys... or are thin or small or whatever else... but they hang tough and play hard every down it seems.


Color me thoroughly unimpressed with our 3rd and 4th down calls.. and yet another game where time-outs and delay calls seem unnecessarily taken.

Of course, SOME of that will change when we play teams that aren't quite as skilled as A&M and ND. Those 2 yard runs up the middle will become 3+ yards... those 5 yard passes where the WR is taken down immediately will become 7 yard plays and we're suddenly doing far more 3rd and 2 than 3rd and 4... where the 4 yard run up the middle means a first down.

I see some good AND some bad things with the receivers... I STILL wish it appeared we spent more time understanding why we're running a route rather than merely because it is drawn on the page that way. I think we'd do far better running the routes/throwing the ball to where we have the best chance of completing it than throwing it to where the defense 'lets' us throw it (unless they mess up/get beat). Of course, they'll mess up/get beat more often in conference play and with JT back... but still.

(09-15-2014 01:10 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  Color me thoroughly impressed with DJ. Not that he's an RG3 or whomever (yet), and he can still get much better... but that he's FAR

Completely tangential to what you are saying, but I hope he doesn't develop into an RG3 - we don't need a injury prone primadonna on our team.

But yes, he was impressive. I really liked that he was willing to throw it away - too often in the past few years when the play broke down we would force the ball in places where we shouldn't. DJ is displaying a good level of maturity to let the one play go by, regroup and try again.

(09-15-2014 10:15 AM)owl95 Wrote:  

(09-14-2014 10:21 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  I think you're giving A&M way too much credit. I thought ND and Golson look far superior to A&M and Hill.

Second, the play calling most definitely changed once we got into Aggie territory; it suddenly went much more conservative and we'd abandon the hurry up entirely. Same old, same old-- let's stop using what has worked to get us in scoring position. IMO, we were not outplayed by the Aggies, even after losing Covington and White. Rather, we were outcoached. Badly. Sumlin never took the foot off the accelerator, even when he had a 4 TD lead. Bailiff and Edmondson were content to milk the clock and settle for FG attempts knowing full well that approach was not going to keep us in the game.

I don't think I'm giving ATM too much credit. I wouldn't say that ND looked better, I would say that we looked WORSE against ND. Sagarin has ATM at #4 and ND at #12. They are both great teams this year and if we could beat them...well we'd be a lot things that we aren't yet as a program. I just hope that we can bring this same level of solid, mistake-free play to CUSA, with the addition of scoring a ton more points. If we can, then we will have a pretty good season.

Tackled much better and were more defensively "sound" against A&M than vs. ND.

An Aggie friend watching from the 50-yard line told me he and his fellow Ags were all impressed by the size of our offensive line. He said that was not what they're used to seeing from Rice.

(09-15-2014 02:25 PM)S.A. Owl Wrote:  An Aggie friend watching from the 50-yard line told me he and his fellow Ags were all impressed by the size of our offensive line. He said that was not what they're used to seeing from Rice.

Our offensive line play shocked me with how good it was. For a significant majority of the game we pass protected well and run blocked even better. Davis was exceptional on most of the runs with his vision, but plenty of times he actually had holes to hit on the inside.

The game reminded a bit of the game at HRS in 92 or 93 (musta been 93 as we played at Kyle in 94) when we kicked them up and down the field, dominating the line of scrimmage and lost because we couldn't stop kicking it to Vann McElroy and returned two kickoffs for TDs. Geesh, if we could just get one of those ridicoulously blessed players (Imagine our team last year with Mike Evans) and keep him and/or not use him in a stupid way (see Mcguffie, Sam running up the middle).

One positive is that after playing two top teams in arrow, Rice will know what it takes in playing the rest of schedule. Conference should be easier.

(09-15-2014 03:37 PM)75src Wrote:  One positive is that after playing two top teams in arrow, Rice will know what it takes in playing the rest of schedule. Conference should be easier.

I hope we don't think like that.

(09-15-2014 04:02 PM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  

(09-15-2014 03:37 PM)75src Wrote:  One positive is that after playing two top teams in arrow, Rice will know what it takes in playing the rest of schedule. Conference should be easier.

I hope we don't think like that.

The way I would put it is the kids know they can go toe to toe with the best, so they should have a good deal of self-confidence the rest of the year.

But no, nobody needs overconfidence, least of all us.

(09-15-2014 03:26 PM)texowl2 Wrote:  The game reminded a bit of the game at HRS in 92 or 93 (musta been 93 as we played at Kyle in 94) when we kicked them up and down the field, dominating the line of scrimmage and lost because we couldn't stop kicking it to Vann McElroy and returned two kickoffs for TDs. Geesh, if we could just get one of those ridicoulously blessed players (Imagine our team last year with Mike Evans) and keep him and/or not use him in a stupid way (see Mcguffie, Sam running up the middle).

Different McElroy at a$m. Van McElroy played for Baylor/Oakland.

(09-15-2014 04:29 PM)wrysal Wrote:  

(09-15-2014 03:26 PM)texowl2 Wrote:  The game reminded a bit of the game at HRS in 92 or 93 (musta been 93 as we played at Kyle in 94) when we kicked them up and down the field, dominating the line of scrimmage and lost because we couldn't stop kicking it to Vann McElroy and returned two kickoffs for TDs. Geesh, if we could just get one of those ridicoulously blessed players (Imagine our team last year with Mike Evans) and keep him and/or not use him in a stupid way (see Mcguffie, Sam running up the middle).

Different McElroy at a$m. Van McElroy played for Baylor/Oakland.

Leland McElroy right?

(09-15-2014 03:26 PM)texowl2 Wrote:  The game reminded a bit of the game at HRS in 92 or 93 (musta been 93 as we played at Kyle in 94) when we kicked them up and down the field, dominating the line of scrimmage and lost because we couldn't stop kicking it to Vann McElroy and returned two kickoffs for TDs. Geesh, if we could just get one of those ridicoulously blessed players (Imagine our team last year with Mike Evans) and keep him and/or not use him in a stupid way (see Mcguffie, Sam running up the middle).

Thresher on that game:
http://www.rice.edu/projects/thresher/is...ory02.html

I was encouraged by what I saw against A&M. We were physically overmatched by far, we lost our top defenders and played again without our best WR. Despite all this, the team performed well. I'm anxious to see how playing the tough competition early pays off. We should be faster and tougher now. I'm proud of the team.

(09-15-2014 04:34 PM)Pan95 Wrote:  

(09-15-2014 04:29 PM)wrysal Wrote:  

(09-15-2014 03:26 PM)texowl2 Wrote:  The game reminded a bit of the game at HRS in 92 or 93 (musta been 93 as we played at Kyle in 94) when we kicked them up and down the field, dominating the line of scrimmage and lost because we couldn't stop kicking it to Vann McElroy and returned two kickoffs for TDs. Geesh, if we could just get one of those ridicoulously blessed players (Imagine our team last year with Mike Evans) and keep him and/or not use him in a stupid way (see Mcguffie, Sam running up the middle).

Different McElroy at a$m. Van McElroy played for Baylor/Oakland.

Leland McElroy right?

um yes, correct.....