(09-05-2015 06:29 PM)Buho00 Wrote:  Whoa! Have we found our next QB? Looked sharp with short pass and then showed off his speed.

If you guys recall, German has been doing this at just about every scrimmage, but with the rules of limited QB contact some of those touchdowns were not allowed. This is why I have always said that if we don't play him at QB he needs to move over to WR. We can't leave that kind of speed on the sideline.

I wonder if the lack of plays for TE's was by design. Something that will be unleashed vs UT? Also, still haven't heard anything on Dennis Parks, maybe I missed it earlier, but we need him as the #1 WR, hope he plays next week.

Austin Walter - I don't think I've ever seen a Rice player who moves like him. Had over 100 yards and made it look easy. A major star in the making. Our running game is explosive with all the weapons we have and Driphus running the show. We should have some success against UT on the ground but I expect them to make us pass.

Conference USA had a good first week. WKU won @Vandy, FIU won @UCF, FAU won @Tulsa, UTSA had a good effort but fell short @Arizona. The only conference loss so far is UTEP@Arkansas. Lots of good wins for C-USA over P5 teams and other G5 conferences like the AAC and MWC, over the past two seasons. Rice fans don't give our team enough credit for wining so many conference games. C-USA could be the top G5 conference before we know it.

(09-05-2015 09:15 PM)Buho00 Wrote:  I wonder if the lack of plays for TE's was by design. Something that will be unleashed vs UT? Also, still haven't heard anything on Dennis Parks, maybe I missed it earlier, but we need him as the #1 WR, hope he plays next week.

Austin Walter - I don't think I've ever seen a Rice player who moves like him. Had over 100 yards and made it look easy. A major star in the making. Our running game is explosive with all the weapons we have and Driphus running the show. We should have some success against UT on the ground but I expect them to make us pass.

Conference USA had a good first week. WKU won @Vandy, FIU won @UCF, FAU won @Tulsa, UTSA had a good effort but fell short @Arizona. The only conference loss so far is UTEP@Arkansas. Lots of good wins for C-USA over P5 teams and other G5 conferences like the AAC and MWC, over the past two seasons. Rice fans don't give our team enough credit for wining so many conference games. C-USA could be the top G5 conference before we know it.

FAU lost at Tulsa in the last minute.

(09-05-2015 09:15 PM)Buho00 Wrote:  I wonder if the lack of plays for TE's was by design. Something that will be unleashed vs UT? Also, still haven't heard anything on Dennis Parks, maybe I missed it earlier, but we need him as the #1 WR, hope he plays next week.

Austin Walter - I don't think I've ever seen a Rice player who moves like him. Had over 100 yards and made it look easy. A major star in the making. Our running game is explosive with all the weapons we have and Driphus running the show. We should have some success against UT on the ground but I expect them to make us pass.

Conference USA had a good first week. WKU won @Vandy, FIU won @UCF, FAU won @Tulsa, UTSA had a good effort but fell short @Arizona. The only conference loss so far is UTEP@Arkansas. Lots of good wins for C-USA over P5 teams and other G5 conferences like the AAC and MWC, over the past two seasons. Rice fans don't give our team enough credit for wining so many conference games. C-USA could be the top G5 conference before we know it.

Edmondson has yet to utilize the TE since he took over OC responsibilities.

FAU lost in overtime. ODU won at E. Mich.

I think Parks was just being held out as precaution. He was suited, moving around fine. Davis' injury didn't look to serious at first glance, but that they put a boot on is a bit concerning.

Positives: Dillard, Walter, Stewart, DJ , German running. New young secondary (banks, ibe, white). LBs. new kickers looked pretty good. Womac.

Negatives: DJ passing. Receivers / tight ends getting open and catching the ball. Davis injury.

The two deep TDs Wagner got were somewhat fluke-y. First one Espinosa was in prime position for an INt or at least pbu but never reacted to the ball whatsoever even though it went about 6 inches above his helmet. Not sure what happened there, but it should be rare. On the second the victim was a freshman walk on against Wagner's top receiver. Simply overmatched and not a player likely to see meaningful PT.

Womac was a huge plus. Maybe he's the next big time DE for Rice. Our coach there is fantastic.

Agree on the two pass TD's we gave up. The first one might have been out of bounds too.

(09-05-2015 10:24 PM)talon owl Wrote:  I think Parks was just being held out as precaution. He was suited, moving around fine. Davis' injury didn't look to serious at first glance, but that they put a boot on is a bit concerning.

Positives: Dillard, Walter, Stewart, DJ , German running. New young secondary (banks, ibe, white). LBs. new kickers looked pretty good. Womac.

Negatives: DJ passing. Receivers / tight ends getting open and catching the ball. Davis injury.

The two deep TDs Wagner got were somewhat fluke-y. First one Espinosa was in prime position for an INt or at least pbu but never reacted to the ball whatsoever even though it went about 6 inches above his helmet. Not sure what happened there, but it should be rare. On the second the victim was a freshman walk on against Wagner's top receiver. Simply overmatched and not a player likely to see meaningful PT.

I didn't realize that about the second TD.

(09-05-2015 10:27 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Womac was a huge plus. Maybe he's the next big time DE for Rice. Our coach there is fantastic.

Agree on the two pass TD's we gave up. The first one might have been out of bounds too.

The first one was clearly in bounds on the replay. Good to hear the DB on the second one was not one of the top 2 on the depth chart.

(09-05-2015 09:43 PM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  

(09-05-2015 09:02 PM)Pan95 Wrote:  

(09-05-2015 06:55 PM)NYNightOwl Wrote:  

(09-05-2015 06:34 PM)That Guy 2012 Wrote:  

(09-05-2015 06:20 PM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  The honeymoon is over.

At kickoff, there were more students than any game since (at least) Marshall in 13. The heat index seemed well over 100 for most of the first half; do we really blame 'em for leaving an uncompetitive game?

That's great to hear! Hope it continues!

To those on the sports committee: has any consideration been given to moving the student section to the home side?

Yes it was brought up as something that needed to be looked at.

It needs to be done only if they move the tv cameras to the east side. Otherwise there would have been 17 people over there for the cameras to see during the game.

After UT looks at this game tape, I fully expect them to have 8 defenders within a couple of yards of the line of scrimmage, and just dare Rice to run or to beat man coverage.

(09-05-2015 10:37 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  After UT looks at this game tape, I fully expect them to have 8 defenders within a couple of yards of the line of scrimmage, and just dare Rice to run or to beat man coverage.

Yep. We'll need to be more effective/prolific throwing the ball.

(09-05-2015 06:14 PM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  

(09-05-2015 06:11 PM)RiceFootball2K5 Wrote:  Glad we are risking our season so we can beat Wagner worse. Not to mention not getting our young guys reps.

What's worse is our passing game is very poor. I guess DB is waiting for a good passing series from Driphus.

Reading through the thread post-game. That's kind of what I figured was going on at the time. Jackson was sacked a few times and was pressured a few more, and we didn't look like we were in synch throwing the ball, with a few exceptions. To me at least.

At the time I thought Bailiff was looking for one more good series/insurance score, and wanted DJ to get it.

(09-05-2015 10:24 PM)talon owl Wrote:  I think Parks was just being held out as precaution. He was suited, moving around fine. Davis' injury didn't look to serious at first glance, but that they put a boot on is a bit concerning.

Positives: Dillard, Walter, Stewart, DJ , German running. New young secondary (banks, ibe, white). LBs. new kickers looked pretty good. Womac.

Negatives: DJ passing. Receivers / tight ends getting open and catching the ball. Davis injury.

The two deep TDs Wagner got were somewhat fluke-y. First one Espinosa was in prime position for an INt or at least pbu but never reacted to the ball whatsoever even though it went about 6 inches above his helmet. Not sure what happened there, but it should be rare. On the second the victim was a freshman walk on against Wagner's top receiver. Simply overmatched and not a player likely to see meaningful PT.

Did they score on Espinosa? I thought that first touchdown was against Blasingame?

(09-05-2015 10:46 PM)Pan95 Wrote:  

(09-05-2015 10:24 PM)talon owl Wrote:  I think Parks was just being held out as precaution. He was suited, moving around fine. Davis' injury didn't look to serious at first glance, but that they put a boot on is a bit concerning.

Positives: Dillard, Walter, Stewart, DJ , German running. New young secondary (banks, ibe, white). LBs. new kickers looked pretty good. Womac.

Negatives: DJ passing. Receivers / tight ends getting open and catching the ball. Davis injury.

The two deep TDs Wagner got were somewhat fluke-y. First one Espinosa was in prime position for an INt or at least pbu but never reacted to the ball whatsoever even though it went about 6 inches above his helmet. Not sure what happened there, but it should be rare. On the second the victim was a freshman walk on against Wagner's top receiver. Simply overmatched and not a player likely to see meaningful PT.

Did they score on Espinosa? I thought that first touchdown was against Blasingame?

It was Espinosa

Our top 5 cornerbacks (banks, pollard, blasingame, bickham, Douglas) didn't really give up anything all day, except those bubble screens out of the strange tackles-split-wide formation


I'll add another positive: legitimate under center snaps! What a delight!

(09-05-2015 10:24 PM)talon owl Wrote:  I think Parks was just being held out as precaution. He was suited, moving around fine. Davis' injury didn't look to serious at first glance, but that they put a boot on is a bit concerning.

Positives: Dillard, Walter, Stewart, DJ , German running. New young secondary (banks, ibe, white). LBs. new kickers looked pretty good. Womac.

Negatives: DJ passing. Receivers / tight ends getting open and catching the ball. Davis injury.

The two deep TDs Wagner got were somewhat fluke-y. First one Espinosa was in prime position for an INt or at least pbu but never reacted to the ball whatsoever even though it went about 6 inches above his helmet. Not sure what happened there, but it should be rare. On the second the victim was a freshman walk on against Wagner's top receiver. Simply overmatched and not a player likely to see meaningful PT.

With regard to the passing game, which did look rough around the edges I'll admit, I wonder how much of it was due to pressure put on the QB? DJ was sacked a couple of times and was pressured on more than one occasion. You expect sacks during the season. I didn't expect the level of pressure I saw out there in this particular game.

In reviewing this thread, I noted a number of comments about DJ's passing, but none about the level of pressure Wagner was able to put on our QB.

(09-05-2015 10:47 PM)talon owl Wrote:  

(09-05-2015 10:46 PM)Pan95 Wrote:  

(09-05-2015 10:24 PM)talon owl Wrote:  I think Parks was just being held out as precaution. He was suited, moving around fine. Davis' injury didn't look to serious at first glance, but that they put a boot on is a bit concerning.

Positives: Dillard, Walter, Stewart, DJ , German running. New young secondary (banks, ibe, white). LBs. new kickers looked pretty good. Womac.

Negatives: DJ passing. Receivers / tight ends getting open and catching the ball. Davis injury.

The two deep TDs Wagner got were somewhat fluke-y. First one Espinosa was in prime position for an INt or at least pbu but never reacted to the ball whatsoever even though it went about 6 inches above his helmet. Not sure what happened there, but it should be rare. On the second the victim was a freshman walk on against Wagner's top receiver. Simply overmatched and not a player likely to see meaningful PT.

Did they score on Espinosa? I thought that first touchdown was against Blasingame?

It was Espinosa

Our top 5 cornerbacks (banks, pollard, blasingame, bickham, Jackson) didn't really give up anything all day, except those bubble screens out of the tackles split wide formation

Speaking of...I was not happen with how we defended those formations. Maybe my expectations are too high. I also thought that we did not dominate the line of scrimmage. Wagner impressed me with their pass rush and ability to generate pressure and them seemed to have some speed on the edge. I did not like the amount of drops that we had, the turnovers, or spells of poor tackling. Yeah, the more I think about it, my expectations were too high. Good win. Not great. There is a lot to work on. Next week we will have a mobile QB that will give us fits if we don't maintain leverage. For a 56-16 win, I can't help but be concerned especially given the improvement in CUSA. With that said, I read the write up on Riceowls.com. Per Coach Bailiff, 71 players saw action. Good to see.

(09-05-2015 10:56 PM)Rick Gerlach Wrote:  

(09-05-2015 10:24 PM)talon owl Wrote:  I think Parks was just being held out as precaution. He was suited, moving around fine. Davis' injury didn't look to serious at first glance, but that they put a boot on is a bit concerning.

Positives: Dillard, Walter, Stewart, DJ , German running. New young secondary (banks, ibe, white). LBs. new kickers looked pretty good. Womac.

Negatives: DJ passing. Receivers / tight ends getting open and catching the ball. Davis injury.

The two deep TDs Wagner got were somewhat fluke-y. First one Espinosa was in prime position for an INt or at least pbu but never reacted to the ball whatsoever even though it went about 6 inches above his helmet. Not sure what happened there, but it should be rare. On the second the victim was a freshman walk on against Wagner's top receiver. Simply overmatched and not a player likely to see meaningful PT.

With regard to the passing game, which did look rough around the edges I'll admit, I wonder how much of it was due to pressure put on the QB? DJ was sacked a couple of times and was pressured on more than one occasion. You expect sacks during the season. I didn't expect the level of pressure I saw out there in this particular game.

In reviewing this thread, I noted a number of comments about DJ's passing, but none about the level of pressure Wagner was able to put on our QB.

You beat me to it.

We had some young Rbs miss their blitz pickups which led to the blindsides on driphus. On some other occasions he had enough time initially but didn't find anyone / pull the trigger on time.

(09-05-2015 04:06 PM)owlatheart Wrote:  Very workman-like so far

(09-05-2015 04:26 PM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  Driphus not looking good passing thus far.

(09-05-2015 06:07 PM)RiceFootball2K5 Wrote:  Driphus still in. Unbelievable.

(09-05-2015 06:09 PM)Buho00 Wrote:  Passing offense has not clicked.

The above quotes would be my quick summary. Longer version...

Positives:
(1) Rice did what they were supposed to do.
(2) RB's look good
(3) Like using Stewart and Austin Walter as return guys
(4) Seemed like lots of guys got on the field

Negatives:
(1) Really, anything is nit-picking after a game like this
(2) Left Driphus in a little too long, then we with too much Bob instead of German/Stehling
(3) Passing game was unimpressive against an unimpressive opponent
(4) Wagner had quite a few decent returns, concerned about what that would mean when the opponent has significantly better athletes