(09-21-2019 11:42 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  But to what extent did our ‘pounding of the rock’ open up some passing opportunities that might not have otherwise been available?

Zero, as it's quite obvious, based on formation, when we're going to pass. Pound the rock is never going to work for us if we run every single time we line up with the two RB formation. Just way too easy and predictable for the defense. You'd think we'd try to run some screens or option roll outs using that formation, but we haven't to date.

My 2 cents...

Glad nonconference is over. Schedule was really brutal this year. Really even worse than expected, and I thought it would be bad. Besides the first half of the Texas game, we were competitive through most of it, so that’s something.

The good tonight: mainly the defense effort. The team as a whole showed up, even with some injuries keeping some good players out (didn’t see Servin, Gooseberry, Williams, Knipe, Bull, Schuman, Battley, or Ellis tonight...and probably another player or two I’m forgetting). Defensively, good stuff. They flat got after Baylor most of the night. D line and LBs showed up. Our DBs simply couldn’t keep up with their speed a few times. That’s to be expected. And sure, Baylor handed us a few freebies but we earned them with our effort in the second half. Overall really encouraging effort. We have something in Smith.

On the flip side, it’d be hard to be more pessimistic about the offense than I am right now. I understand the theory of shortening the game. I understand the “NFL curriculum” pitch. But somebody let me know when you watch an NFL game tomorrow where a team continually runs inside zone, power, counter, and toss over and over and over again and tries to “pound the rock” over and over again all day. Maybe I misunderstood but I sure don’t see the “brutality” part, unless you are talking about how brutal it is for fans to watch. Imagination, wrinkles...nope we don’t do that here. The whole approach is just too conservative. Our coaches’ (and AD’s) beloved Stanford is 1-3 this year after struggling last year, so it’s not just us. Not asking for Lincoln Riley or Sean McVay to show up next week, but get with the times a little bit, folks.

Green I thought looked the best I’ve seen him. Then of course he gets knocked out again. Stewart provided a spark but couldn’t sustain it. The passing attack is so limited. Our receivers get very little or no separation. Our tight ends, aside from boots to Myers (which thankfully re-emerged tonight...more play action PLEASE) are nonexistent. Play calling was downright awful to end the first half. And I guess we are going to continue to run a bubble screen or two every game that gets our receiver blown up and has no chance of succeeding.

Special teams...we’ve got to figure out a kicker. Shouldn’t be this difficult. Punters were fine.

Overall I’m encouraged but also afraid. I’m encouraged by Bloom’s injection of energy into the program, and by his staff’s recruiting (landed another commit yesterday, a good looking pass rusher from Florida). I’m encouraged by our s&c program which kept the boys playing hard all the way. I’m encouraged in the improvement in discipline and especially of the defense. I think they can keep us in games during conference play. But I’m worried that we are still going to be disappointingly short on W’s because it is too much to ask our D to totally shut down teams. The offense has to do their fair share, and thus far have not shown anything to make me think they are capable. Our conference isn’t good but most teams have offenses that can put up some points. It’s simply a fact that we are going to have to score more than 13 points to beat most of them. Can we do it with this offensive approach and personnel? I’m afraid of the answer.

"Pound the rock" - Rice is averaging 3.0 yards/attempt rushing the ball. For a team whose offensive philosophy is "pound the rock," that just doesn't work. As a frame of reference, Navy is averaging 5.7 yards/attempt and Army is averaging 4.9 yards/attempt.

"NFL curriculum" - sorry, but this is malarkey. Maybe "NFL curriculum circa 1960" would be more accurate. I watch the Saints. The Saints have an NFL curriculum and have had one of the more creative offenses in the NFL for a decade. Sure, it helps to have Drew Brees and he makes some incredible throws. But there are also a lot of open receivers and the RBs and TEs are heavily involved in the passing game. And they take calculated risks. They are fun to watch. Rice's offense does none and is none of those things.

Rice's defense looked great, particularly in the 2nd half. They did get lucky on the turnovers, as one was completely unforced and the other was only partially forced (Montero's pressure forced a quick throw, but the ball just popped out of the QB's hand as he tried to make the throw). I still think we are weak enough against the pass that opponents should just be chucking the ball against us when they can. Run defense has generally been pretty stout in all 4 games.

The good news is that the offense should find a little more success now that we are away from the P5 defensive fronts. The bad news is that we scored 7 against Army, who doesn't have a P5 defensive front. But Wiley Green has looked much sharper since the Army game, so hopefully he can get/stay healthy. Rice has dropped a few passes every game. Can't do that when the team is pounding the rock away at 3.0 yards per pound.

It was fun seeing Rice competitive in the 4th quarter.

I have no idea what kind of OC Jerry Mack would be if allowed to run the offense without Bloomgren's influence. But I am 100% ready to find out.

Booker seemed to be a more effective runner last night than Walter, who seemed to be limping around a bit. I'm also surprised we're not letting Ellerbe have a chance to carry the ball as he's a bigger runner than Walter for sure. And he made a couple of nice tackles on special teams so he seems like he's fully healthy.

Getting the two starting tackles and Williams back would help the running attack for sure. There is no question our blocking was significantly worse last night (Baylor was fast on defense but not particularly big).

Our defense could be really, really good in 2020 as long as we don't lose anyone. It's fun to watch some of those sophomores and juniors play. I also thought Smith, the JUCO DB, had a nice game.

(09-22-2019 09:36 AM)mrbig Wrote:  It was fun seeing Rice competitive in the 4th quarter.

Twice so far during the toughest stretch.

(09-21-2019 10:07 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(09-21-2019 10:01 PM)owl40 Wrote:  Scheme will get you 7-5 in C-USA though but that is not the goal.

Not your goal.
Not my goal.
The goal for some people, though, I think.
I wonder what Blomgren’s goal is. Has he said?

I thought Rice was to be Top 25 in all sports.

(09-22-2019 11:20 AM)Da.Owl Wrote:  

(09-21-2019 10:07 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(09-21-2019 10:01 PM)owl40 Wrote:  Scheme will get you 7-5 in C-USA though but that is not the goal.

Not your goal.
Not my goal.
The goal for some people, though, I think.
I wonder what Blomgren’s goal is. Has he said?

I thought Rice was to be Top 25 in all sports.

Jk’s Goal.

I would assume Bloom’s goal would be for football.

But looking good in VB and WBB. A fair start.

The defense is giving us chances to win games. And the O-line through this tough schedule has looked comparatively better to the Rice we're used to. Improvement in the trenches - if that continues, Bloomgren will soon be taking us to bowl games.

Offense needs to turn the corner though, don't feel we have enough running back talent to pound the rock, but maybe that changes in conference. QB play looks better than last year. This was a game where Willy Green showed me something. Despite not being able to punch it in, he made some gutsy plays to keep drives alive, and showed fearlessness and ball security answering his doubters. He showed command of the offense that Bloomgren has talked about, compared to Stewart. Green does a better job of making quick decisions and getting rid of the ball quickly/avoiding sacks but Stewart still shows the stronger arm and run game (and better stats). Both contributed, neither ran away with it. Willy is the starter, Stewart will play.

Any word on Cephus? We're him away from having a good pass offense.

(09-22-2019 12:42 PM)Buho00 Wrote:  The defense is giving us chances to win games. And the O-line through this tough schedule has looked comparatively better to the Rice we're used to. Improvement in the trenches - if that continues, Bloomgren will soon be taking us to bowl games.

Offense needs to turn the corner though, don't feel we have enough running back talent to pound the rock, but maybe that changes in conference. QB play looks better than last year. This was a game where Willy Green showed me something. Despite not being able to punch it in, he made some gutsy plays to keep drives alive, and showed fearlessness and ball security answering his doubters. He showed command of the offense that Bloomgren has talked about, compared to Stewart. Green does a better job of making quick decisions and getting rid of the ball quickly/avoiding sacks but Stewart still shows the stronger arm and run game (and better stats). Both contributed, neither ran away with it. Willy is the starter, Stewart will play.

Any word on Cephus? We're him away from having a good pass offense.

The RBs (either being told or that's what they do) just seem to be hitting whatever hole is in the play and generally not looking for space.....

Baylor came in sleepwalking, and Rice was ready to give a great effort because of the name opponent and energy generated by the VB win over Texas. I predicted the circumstances were right for a surprise and I'm just a dumb fan so certainly the coaches should have known that this was a prime opportunity to shock the world. Yet for 3 of the 4 quarters they schemed offensively as if the goal was to minimize the extent of the blowout they assumed was already underway. For 3 quarters Bloomgren seemed more afraid of poking the (Baylor) bear rather than of the belief that the bear was actually beatable.

Even as it was, Baylor still got tight in the 4th quarter. Turning the ball over, committing penalties, and literally puking on our field! What if we'd applied pressure to that wobbly team earlier? But we'll never know now.

And it is certainly not automatic that just because we nearly beat a P5 team, we've turned some sort of corner and we're definitely going to win a bunch of CUSA games. For me, this was not a bellwether game at all, but instead a one-off game with a unique set of motivational circumstances that made an upset possible.

The bellwether is in 6 days vs. La. Tech. For quite a lot of students and alumni, Rice's season just ended. Not a whole lot of people give a flip whether Rice beats any given CUSA team or not. There will be an entirely different atmosphere -- and far fewer people -- at HRS. With a win against Baylor that was there for the taking, there might have been something to build on. But Bloomgren squandered that opportunity, and that was the last one for this year.

(09-22-2019 02:44 PM)illiniowl Wrote:  Baylor came in sleepwalking, and Rice was ready to give a great effort because of the name opponent and energy generated by the VB win over Texas. I predicted the circumstances were right for a surprise and I'm just a dumb fan so certainly the coaches should have known that this was a prime opportunity to shock the world. Yet for 3 of the 4 quarters they schemed offensively as if the goal was to minimize the extent of the blowout they assumed was already underway. For 3 quarters Bloomgren seemed more afraid of poking the (Baylor) bear rather than of the belief that the bear was actually beatable.
Even as it was, Baylor still got tight in the 4th quarter. Turning the ball over, committing penalties, and literally puking on our field! What if we'd applied pressure to that wobbly team earlier? But we'll never know now.
And it is certainly not automatic that just because we nearly beat a P5 team, we've turned some sort of corner and we're definitely going to win a bunch of CUSA games. For me, this was not a bellwether game at all, but instead a one-off game with a unique set of motivational circumstances that made an upset possible.
The bellwether is in 6 days vs. La. Tech. For quite a lot of students and alumni, Rice's season just ended. Not a whole lot of people give a flip whether Rice beats any given CUSA team or not. There will be an entirely different atmosphere -- and far fewer people -- at HRS. With a win against Baylor that was there for the taking, there might have been something to build on. But Bloomgren squandered that opportunity, and that was the last one for this year.

But not that long ago, they could have come in here sleepwalking and still blown us out.

There is no question Baylor was sleepwalking or just rusty as hell. They had 3 fumbles and some near interceptions. Their defense won them the game. We're 1 silly kickoff play away from winning the 2nd halves against Texas and Baylor.

I'm not sure that Baylor is going to be a winning team in the Big 12. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if they don't qualify for a bowl. Brewer impressed me as a runner but not necessarily as a passer. In fact, I'd put him a distant 3rd behind Ehlinger and Newman from the past 3 weeks.

(09-22-2019 03:02 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  There is no question Baylor was sleepwalking or just rusty as hell. They had 3 fumbles and some near interceptions. Their defense won them the game. We're 1 silly kickoff play away from winning the 2nd halves against Texas and Baylor.
I'm not sure that Baylor is going to be a winning team in the Big 12. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if they don't qualify for a bowl. Brewer impressed me as a runner but not necessarily as a passer. In fact, I'd put him a distant 3rd behind Ehlinger and Newman from the past 3 weeks.

Baylor's 3-0. They can be bowl eligible going 3-6 in the XII. I think they can do that.

I haven't given up hope of bowl eligibility for Rice this year. I still think we will probably be something like 4-4 in CUSA. But I don't think 6-2 is impossible. There are advantages to being in an awful conference.

(09-22-2019 01:04 PM)texowl2 Wrote:  

(09-22-2019 12:42 PM)Buho00 Wrote:  The defense is giving us chances to win games. And the O-line through this tough schedule has looked comparatively better to the Rice we're used to. Improvement in the trenches - if that continues, Bloomgren will soon be taking us to bowl games.

Offense needs to turn the corner though, don't feel we have enough running back talent to pound the rock, but maybe that changes in conference. QB play looks better than last year. This was a game where Willy Green showed me something. Despite not being able to punch it in, he made some gutsy plays to keep drives alive, and showed fearlessness and ball security answering his doubters. He showed command of the offense that Bloomgren has talked about, compared to Stewart. Green does a better job of making quick decisions and getting rid of the ball quickly/avoiding sacks but Stewart still shows the stronger arm and run game (and better stats). Both contributed, neither ran away with it. Willy is the starter, Stewart will play.

Any word on Cephus? We're him away from having a good pass offense.

The RBs (either being told or that's what they do) just seem to be hitting whatever hole is in the play and generally not looking for space.....

What holes? But honestly, it's hard to blame the RBs or even the OL when we go with our 2-back formation and the opposition stacks the box with 8 defenders. We need to do some play action off that formation, or at least run outside on occassion, to mix things up....but, no, we continue to run up the middle or off tackle every single time we line up in that formation, which is over 50% of the time.

(09-22-2019 02:52 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(09-22-2019 02:44 PM)illiniowl Wrote:  Baylor came in sleepwalking, and Rice was ready to give a great effort because of the name opponent and energy generated by the VB win over Texas. I predicted the circumstances were right for a surprise and I'm just a dumb fan so certainly the coaches should have known that this was a prime opportunity to shock the world. Yet for 3 of the 4 quarters they schemed offensively as if the goal was to minimize the extent of the blowout they assumed was already underway. For 3 quarters Bloomgren seemed more afraid of poking the (Baylor) bear rather than of the belief that the bear was actually beatable.
Even as it was, Baylor still got tight in the 4th quarter. Turning the ball over, committing penalties, and literally puking on our field! What if we'd applied pressure to that wobbly team earlier? But we'll never know now.
And it is certainly not automatic that just because we nearly beat a P5 team, we've turned some sort of corner and we're definitely going to win a bunch of CUSA games. For me, this was not a bellwether game at all, but instead a one-off game with a unique set of motivational circumstances that made an upset possible.
The bellwether is in 6 days vs. La. Tech. For quite a lot of students and alumni, Rice's season just ended. Not a whole lot of people give a flip whether Rice beats any given CUSA team or not. There will be an entirely different atmosphere -- and far fewer people -- at HRS. With a win against Baylor that was there for the taking, there might have been something to build on. But Bloomgren squandered that opportunity, and that was the last one for this year.

But not that long ago, they could have come in here sleepwalking and still blown us out.

Well, let's be honest, Baylor is not anywhere near where they used to be not that long ago. So I would say that if your statement is true, at least 75% of it is because of Baylor.

I do think we've improved on defense. But to be honest again, because of how historically bad we were in that phase, we could literally improve a lot and still be solidly below average. And I don't think we know enough yet to conclude if there's been a lot of improvement. We have one good performance against an unconventional offense that we had months to prepare for, one good performance -- that was helped by a fortuitous convergence of circumstances -- against what will likely turn out to be an average-to-below-average P5 team, and two outings where we were wholly outclassed as usual.

On offense the national scoring average for FBS teams against FBS opponents is about 28 ppg. In 15 tries under Bloomgren we still haven't cracked that mark on offense, not even once (we scored 29 on Hawaii but with the benefit of a safety), and haven't even been in the neighborhood most of the time -- and now we no longer have even a competent kicker. So, unless we magically develop a well-above-average defense, which would not seem to be in the immediate offing, what we are seeing on offense simply cannot be tolerated, one way or the other. Either something clicks and soon, or a change has to be made.

(09-22-2019 06:58 PM)illiniowl Wrote:  

(09-22-2019 02:52 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(09-22-2019 02:44 PM)illiniowl Wrote:  Baylor came in sleepwalking, and Rice was ready to give a great effort because of the name opponent and energy generated by the VB win over Texas. I predicted the circumstances were right for a surprise and I'm just a dumb fan so certainly the coaches should have known that this was a prime opportunity to shock the world. Yet for 3 of the 4 quarters they schemed offensively as if the goal was to minimize the extent of the blowout they assumed was already underway. For 3 quarters Bloomgren seemed more afraid of poking the (Baylor) bear rather than of the belief that the bear was actually beatable.
Even as it was, Baylor still got tight in the 4th quarter. Turning the ball over, committing penalties, and literally puking on our field! What if we'd applied pressure to that wobbly team earlier? But we'll never know now.
And it is certainly not automatic that just because we nearly beat a P5 team, we've turned some sort of corner and we're definitely going to win a bunch of CUSA games. For me, this was not a bellwether game at all, but instead a one-off game with a unique set of motivational circumstances that made an upset possible.
The bellwether is in 6 days vs. La. Tech. For quite a lot of students and alumni, Rice's season just ended. Not a whole lot of people give a flip whether Rice beats any given CUSA team or not. There will be an entirely different atmosphere -- and far fewer people -- at HRS. With a win against Baylor that was there for the taking, there might have been something to build on. But Bloomgren squandered that opportunity, and that was the last one for this year.

But not that long ago, they could have come in here sleepwalking and still blown us out.

Well, let's be honest, Baylor is not anywhere near where they used to be not that long ago. So I would say that if your statement is true, at least 75% of it is because of Baylor.

I do think we've improved on defense. But to be honest again, because of how historically bad we were in that phase, we could literally improve a lot and still be solidly below average. And I don't think we know enough yet to conclude if there's been a lot of improvement. We have one good performance against an unconventional offense that we had months to prepare for, one good performance -- that was helped by a fortuitous convergence of circumstances -- against what will likely turn out to be an average-to-below-average P5 team, and two outings where we were wholly outclassed as usual.

On offense the national scoring average for FBS teams against FBS opponents is about 28 ppg. In 15 tries under Bloomgren we still haven't cracked that mark on offense, not even once (we scored 29 on Hawaii but with the benefit of a safety), and haven't even been in the neighborhood most of the time -- and now we no longer have even a competent kicker. So, unless we magically develop a well-above-average defense, which would not seem to be in the immediate offing, what we are seeing on offense simply cannot be tolerated, one way or the other. Either something clicks and soon, or a change has to be made.

I generally agree with this. But we are heading into conference play, where slightly below average FBS defense may be enough to keep us in the game 75% of the time. However, our offense, in its present iteration, may be problematic. I’m optimistic we will see 28 point Owl games against the likes of UTEP, UTSA, MTSU and probably LaTech and/or USM.
Speaking of offense... any word on our injured kicker?

For those of you who saw the 2nd half, was our defense able to generate more pressure on the QB?
If not, how exactly were we able to improve defensive performance in 2nd half?

(09-21-2019 09:57 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  Would it be biased to put Rice back at the top of my CUSA ballot?

If nothing else I think it’s fair to say this team should be able to be competitive in CUSA West.

You're definitely right. I watched the Louisiana Tech-FIU game. LTU is a decent team, but they have nowhere near the talent of our last four opponents. All the home games are in play, as are the road games against UTSA, UTEP, and Middle Tennessee.

We need Green back. He's a damn good QB. He makes our offense much better.

Well, it is Monday, and everybody, save for a few Owls and professional sports betters, has forgotten our moral victories. We are just another winless, 0-4 teams to the world at large.

I think we will get rid of the zero soon, though.