First of all, I am very disappointed in this loss. Texas' offense accounted for 21 points. Special teams led to 14 points. An poor decision regarding pitching the ball led to 7 points. We had three red zone turnovers. Three!!! On a night were Texas' Defense had no answer for our run game. This loss is 1 part special teams and 3 parts turnovers. Turnovers and special teams.
With that said, the sky is not falling:
1. Offensive line - one word: Dominant. I don't know why Trey Martin got the starting nod over Spencer Stanley, but as whole the unit performed extremely well.
2. Running backs - Samuel Stewart just had his coming out party. It's going to be very difficult distributing reps when Jowan returns.
3. Defense - It's easy to look at the scoreboard and think that the defense gave up 42 points. But that is not true. Obviously we need to better coach our guys to get their heads around, but the reality is that the defense performed very well. Jonathan Gray did not have his way with us. And although Heard rushed for nearly 100 yards, we can fix that by working on our gap integrity and containment.
4. Talent - We belong on the field with Texas. Period. Fix the special teams and fix the turnovers and there isn't anyone left on our schedule that we can't beat...Baylor perhaps being the exception.
I agree with your positives. Worried about Driphus after 2 poor games throwing to start the year. Walter for 100+ last week and Stewart for 100+ this week, the future at RB looks bright.
I think we would've won in Houston. The crowd noise and scoreboard noise was truly deafening, and led to procedure penalties early on. These then led to difficult down and distance problems which then led to turnovers and the punt returns.
Take away 4 bad plays and we win 28-14. We outgained them by a lot, but I'm not telling you anything you don't already know....
Sam Stewart is the best-looking freshman I can remember in a very long time. He is a very special talent.
Stehling was very poised and very accurate.
I thought DJ played an outstanding game, except for a few errant throws and one bad decision. He was operating in deafening noise and was nearly always under intense pressure. He was head and shoulders better than the UT QB's.
Dennis Parks kept us somewhat in the game.
I didn't think I'd ever see a Rice OL push around a UT DL like they did. Handling blitzing speed and pass blocking was a different matter.
Our defense was solid all night, except for the one gift long-ball.
The opening kickoff return play was thrilling.
I told my wife before the game that we'd outgain Texas and lose - - because of big plays, including at least one kick return. And that's exactly what happened.
(09-13-2015 12:00 AM)Barney Wrote: I think we would've won in Houston. The crowd noise and scoreboard noise was truly deafening, and led to procedure penalties early on. These then led to difficult down and distance problems which then led to turnovers and the punt returns.
Somehow we need to be better prepared to step onto a big stage. We will have the same crazy atmosphere in Waco in 2 weeks and we need to be better prepared.
We only have one more opponent that will spook us with branding.
Aside from that, I think any positive has to be based on the assumptions that Texas is something special and that turnovers and special teams breakdowns will be fixed.
That was the quietest I've heard DKRMS since the Mackovic era.
There were some aspects of the game that Rice did well in, but the cold hard truth is that this game was out of reach a little over halfway through the third quarter. And that was because Rice made some colossal errors that led to huge gifts for UT.
No matter how one slices it, that isn't even close to good enough.
+ Our O-line; GREAT push and acceptable pass protection
+ RBs; finding their holes, running with a purpose, and breaking more than a few tackles
+ D-Line; didnt get pushed around like I expected
+ Defensive play calling - we looked like we were mixing it up, keeping UT from getting comfortable. Aside from a few 1-1 big plays, we really kept them in check, and there were not many sustained drives.
- QB play; hate to single out players, but DJ has got to play better than this as a senior. The option pitch with a LB screening the play perfectly is something you get benched for in high school. Not to mention on multiple occasions, DJ either decides not to pass to the open slot or RB (or doesnt go through his passing reads) in favor of a deep ball that's poorly thrown, or an ill advised scramble out of the pocket that plays right into the hands of UT's size and speed on the edge. You can't play C-USA hero ball against a Power-5 defense full of guys faster than you.
- Special teams; good lord. We best be running punt and kickoff coverage all week in practice.
- Secondary; CBs had some tough 1-1 matchups where they were left on an island and burned because we weren't helping with the safeties, but it killed us. First touchdown looked like he lost the ball, second was a straight up burn. Got to improve here, and I believe they will.
-Tackling in general; Special teams, on the edge, everywhere we were arm tackling and just plain not wrapping up. Was miserable to watch UT broken plays go for 20 yards time and time again because of missed tackles (not to mention both returns).
(09-13-2015 04:08 AM)EOL_Owl Wrote: -Tackling in general; Special teams, on the edge, everywhere we were arm tackling and just plain not wrapping up. Was miserable to watch UT broken plays go for 20 yards time and time again because of missed tackles (not to mention both returns).
As I'm constantly telling my rugby players, you tackle with your feet. You don't arm tackle because you try to tackle with your arms instead of using proper technique. You arm tackle because your feet didn't get you in position to use the proper technique. Part of that is athleticism. You get out-athleted and all you can do is reach and hope. Part of that is scheme and execution. We are very vulnerable to long kick returns because our kick coverage doesn't stay in proper lanes.
While there were periods of the game where we were highly competitive from the line of scrimmage, the fact remains that this was in reality a 42-14 game with 1s against 1s.
(This post was last modified: 09-13-2015 08:20 AM by Orange County Owl.)
No ready yet to read the chronicle article, but looked at the box score. tu had 11 first downs, ELEVEN. 2 telling stats as should be no surprise: Return yards 0-243. Turnovers 5-1.
They completed 5 passes, sadly 2 were long tds.
Is this bad scheming/play? Or is this just a function of superior athletes "making plays" as they say.
(09-13-2015 12:00 AM)Barney Wrote: I think we would've won in Houston. The crowd noise and scoreboard noise was truly deafening, and led to procedure penalties early on. These then led to difficult down and distance problems which then led to turnovers and the punt returns.
Take away 4 bad plays and we win 28-14. We outgained them by a lot, but I'm not telling you anything you don't already know....
Sam Stewart is the best-looking freshman I can remember in a very long time. He is a very special talent.
Stehling was very poised and very accurate.
I thought DJ played an outstanding game, except for a few errant throws and one bad decision. He was operating in deafening noise and was nearly always under intense pressure. He was head and shoulders better than the UT QB's.
Dennis Parks kept us somewhat in the game.
I didn't think I'd ever see a Rice OL push around a UT DL like they did. Handling blitzing speed and pass blocking was a different matter.
Our defense was solid all night, except for the one gift long-ball.
The opening kickoff return play was thrilling.
I told my wife before the game that we'd outgain Texas and lose - - because of big plays, including at least one kick return. And that's exactly what happened.
???
That was the quietest 90k crowd I've ever witnessed.... It's like they filled a stadium with Rice fans. The only time it was reasonably loud was on 3rd downs. I thought it was pathetic.
DJ did not have a good game. In fact I would say he flat out choked. He looked confused. His passes were not crisp. He made bad decisions both with throws and a pitch that cost us 7. He's a 5th year senior and your comment is exactly what is wrong with Rice athletics. We have to hold our guys accountable when they don't play well.
Defense didn't keep containment on their mobile QBs who are terrible passers. 1 of their 2 long balls wasn't thrown well at all and our guy didn't even look for it. The other they beat us with pure speed.
I agree with some of the positives in this thread (RBs) but let's not go giving out praise where it isn't deserved. This team is supposed to be taking the next step and they showed last night that we haven't.
(09-13-2015 04:08 AM)EOL_Owl Wrote: + Our O-line; GREAT push and acceptable pass protection
+ RBs; finding their holes, running with a purpose, and breaking more than a few tackles
+ D-Line; didnt get pushed around like I expected
+ Defensive play calling - we looked like we were mixing it up, keeping UT from getting comfortable. Aside from a few 1-1 big plays, we really kept them in check, and there were not many sustained drives.
- QB play; hate to single out players, but DJ has got to play better than this as a senior. The option pitch with a LB screening the play perfectly is something you get benched for in high school. Not to mention on multiple occasions, DJ either decides not to pass to the open slot or RB (or doesnt go through his passing reads) in favor of a deep ball that's poorly thrown, or an ill advised scramble out of the pocket that plays right into the hands of UT's size and speed on the edge. You can't play C-USA hero ball against a Power-5 defense full of guys faster than you.
- Special teams; good lord. We best be running punt and kickoff coverage all week in practice.
- Secondary; CBs had some tough 1-1 matchups where they were left on an island and burned because we weren't helping with the safeties, but it killed us. First touchdown looked like he lost the ball, second was a straight up burn. Got to improve here, and I believe they will.
-Tackling in general; Special teams, on the edge, everywhere we were arm tackling and just plain not wrapping up. Was miserable to watch UT broken plays go for 20 yards time and time again because of missed tackles (not to mention both returns).
Exceptional summary of my observations! At least we beat the line; but should have beaten the WHORN$ straight up! But superior SPEED and ATHLETICISM will always win when mixed with MISTAKES and TURNOVERS!!
(This post was last modified: 09-13-2015 09:43 AM by OWLmanz.)
Exceptional summary of my observations! At least we beat the line; but should have beaten the WHORN$ straight up! But superior SPEED and ATHLETICISM will always win when mixed with MISTAKES and TURNOVERS!! 
