I didn't watch the entire game, but from what I saw:

- DJ was A+. His throws are inaccurate, sure, but so were McH's, and if he keeps running and making decisions at this high a level, I'd consider our QB position upgraded over last year.

- Pass protection and run blocking were great.

- I liked what I saw of Dillard. Over the last few years we've had powerful backs (e.g. Ross) and fast backs (e.g. McGuffie), but I can't think of any that have had good speed and moves, which I'm now seeing in Dillard. Davis is solid too.

- Parks has good hands, size, and moves to boot

- Saw a number of great TFLs by the secondary. In general the tackling looked much better than ND.

- I thought the second half of ND was unwatchable. This game was actually enjoyable. (And it didn't hurt that at the ND Chicago watch party there was exactly one person [yours truly], while this week we had a turn out of 6 or so!)

Thoughts?

Are you sure you're not mixing up Dillard and Davis? I thought Davis far outplayed Dillard last night-- much greater acceleration, cutting ability and drive once he hits the line. Dillard was solid, but nothing more, IMO. His best play was the late 3rd and long screen out of the backfield, which he did a nice job of turning upfield and getting the first down.

DJ only had 3 or 4 inaccurate throws all game. That was the best overall game by a Rice QB in 4+ years, and it came against a Top 10 ranked opponent.

I'm not sure if the tackling was significantly better than the ND game. A number of their long gains-- both on running plays and passing-- including a ton of missed tackles (or taking awful angles at the ball carrier).

Punt coverage was infinitely better than against ND.

It's very weird, but when I think about how we played, I do not think the score accurately reflects that. But I also think it's partly because the Aggies shot themselves in the foot with a number of drops.

Losing two of our best defenders definitely didn't make it easy on us, especially at the two positions where we seem to be very exploitable. But I liked what I saw with each unit, keeping that in mind. We didn't really let anyone get wide open and score because of missed coverage/bad coverage, most of the open receivers were due to poor pressure by the D-line and the A&M wideouts eventually separating because they had all day to.

On offense, we obviously moved the ball well, but be it play calling or execution, we have to perform better when there are chances to put points on the board. The O-line did a stand out job, and DJ put on a great show. Both of those units rightly got plenty of love from the announcers.

Going into the season I wasn't sure what to expect from Jackson. After two games I am completely sold.

I'm a little behind this morning but any word on Covington?

Kick coverage improved vs. ND

(09-14-2014 09:16 AM)Orange County Owl Wrote:  I'm a little behind this morning but any word on Covington?

Chronicle reports just a sprained knee. It looked worse than that last night, as he had trouble half way off the field and had to get help. I hope they are right!

- No turnovers. Sure, the play calling was too conservative at times, but we didn't fumble once and really no bad decisions by DJ.

- DJ coming onto his own. He looked solid in his ball handling, decision making, lots of good throws, great runs, can create plays out of nothing.

- Running game breaks out. 240 yards rushing, 3 or 4 impressive backs, Davis I thought looked best but even Hamilton had his moments.

- Receiving group is deep. We'll be explosive with Taylor back. Glad to see Hull with a nice game. Wright again made some nice plays. Hunt could be a future star at TE and can be as good or better than Cella. He's 6'6 and showed great hands.

- O-line had a good game overall again. DJ has a good pocket presence, seemed to know when to escape, but the o-line gave him time, opened holes for running game, and was not pushed back by an SEC line.

- Secondary/pass coverage showed big improvements over week 1, despite allowing 300 yards and 4 TD's. Without Covington, the secondary was put in a difficult position, but looked decent. Even the long completions were not of the wide open variety.

- Defense held them under 40 points despite loss of Covington. I didn't expect this. Tackling looked improved.


Negatives:
- Need to finish drives better. Need better play calls on 3rd and short and 4th and short situations. Having Taylor back will help.

- Injuries! Really worried about the injuries from last night. Obviously, Covington is a huge blow. I don't expect him back for a while if he sprained his knee, but hope I'm wrong. Equally concerning are several other other injuries to key players on the D-line, which was already thin, and to JWIII.

Agree with all of the above..would add

- Good gameplan. Goal to keep them off the field. Mission accomplished.

- More Total Yards and First Downs than a top-10 team in their building.

- Thought OL did a good job.

- Thought our run D was solid. Especially with all the injuries.

- Liked the few DJ wrinkle plays w/ the option throw, screens, etc. Want to see more of that and less of zone read.

- LB's looked more present than Notre Dame.

- No turnovers.

- We play hard; Never see guys taking plays off.

- RB depth showed. Expect all guys to get some big runs this year against lesser competition w/ less speed.

- Despite the scoreboard results, I feel more optimistic about the teams over/under on W's (now 8.5 for me) after these two games than I did before the season started. I thought 7-5 in August. Now 9-3 looks very probable.

1) TOP: Over 43 minutes. I know all the arguments against this as a key stat (see Rice vs A&M score last night) but keeping the Aggie offense off of the field had to be first in our game plan. And we did that.

2) I'm really impressed with our O- line. Good pass protection. Supported well over 200 yards of rushing. That unit, in my opinion, was as good as the Aggie O-line.

3) no turnovers. Driphus did a great job of throwing the ball away at the right times. We never put the ball on the ground.

4) we hung almost 500 total yards on the #7 team in the country

5) he was only in for the last two series, but I was impressed with Hamilton. Has some speed and good size. Obviously a talent to be developed in the future for us.

I didn't get to see enough of the game, but I'd just add that the Boston watch party had a respectable turnout as well. We topped out at 10 people and were only slightly outnumbered by the Aggies in the room.

To no one’s surprise, Sagarin has us with toughest schedule to date.

(09-14-2014 12:46 PM)Sunny_BHY Wrote:  I didn't get to see enough of the game, but I'd just add that the Boston watch party had a respectable turnout as well. We topped out at 10 people and were only slightly outnumbered by the Aggies in the room.

Awesome. Good showing at the Chicago watch party too:

From Rice Webletter: "...how do you outgain your opponent (481-477), achieve more first downs (28-23), decidedly win third down (10-of-20 vs. 3-of-8), win the turnover battle (1-0), dominate time of possession (43:17 vs. 16:43), and lose 38-10? How does that happen?"

1- no turnovers and won the turnover battle
2- DJ looks very good, as does Stehling. Really happy with QB spot moving forward.
3- despite lack of points, like the way the offense moved the ball. Really liked the passes to RBs and getting DJ out of the pocket for some throws.
4- punt coverage infinitely better
5- I thought tackling overall and coverage by the safeties was much better

Concerns moving forward:
1- kicking and punting
2- injuries
3- uber-conservative playcalling on 3rd/4th and short

(09-14-2014 01:17 PM)Viejobuho Wrote:  From Rice Webletter: "...how do you outgain your opponent (481-477), achieve more first downs (28-23), decidedly win third down (10-of-20 vs. 3-of-8), win the turnover battle (1-0), dominate time of possession (43:17 vs. 16:43), and lose 38-10? How does that happen?"

Pretty easily: your opponent doesn't need much time or many third downs to score touchdowns and their defense bends, but doesn't break (and you have off play calling and missed FGs).

(09-14-2014 01:42 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(09-14-2014 01:17 PM)Viejobuho Wrote:  From Rice Webletter: "...how do you outgain your opponent (481-477), achieve more first downs (28-23), decidedly win third down (10-of-20 vs. 3-of-8), win the turnover battle (1-0), dominate time of possession (43:17 vs. 16:43), and lose 38-10? How does that happen?"

Pretty easily: your opponent doesn't need much time or many third downs to score touchdowns and their defense bends, but doesn't break (and you have off play calling and missed FGs).

Aggie scoring drives

TD 3:50
TD 1:10
TD 2:42
TD 1:34
TD 0:33
FG 0:55

Personal positive: the current Corps (or at least the Aggie band) has no idea about the historic animosity between the two sides and I didn't get any heckling for sitting with them. They apparently got a long speech in the morning about how the MOB was going to try to piss them off and mess them up, but everyone I met was very nice. Mostly one of their drum majors was disappointed in me not being surprised that Rice lost.

And they were pretty unhappy with the refs too. So we were united in disappointment.

Our TD (DJ to Hull) was a work of art. That was a perfect play call and execution was excellent as well.

(09-14-2014 01:17 PM)Viejobuho Wrote:  From Rice Webletter: "...how do you outgain your opponent (481-477), achieve more first downs (28-23), decidedly win third down (10-of-20 vs. 3-of-8), win the turnover battle (1-0), dominate time of possession (43:17 vs. 16:43), and lose 38-10? How does that happen?"

Yards per play is a key metric, and our 5.3 was pretty mediocre. They were at 8.1.