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2018 Wake Forest game page
Wake Forest 56, Rice 24

A
little jersey snatch, outside the view of gendarmes, never hurts a
bit (PTH photo)
WINSTON-SALEM, NC (Sept. 30) – Just over ten minutes into Saturday’s
game between our Rice Owls and the homestanding Wake Forst Demon
Deacons, the visitors had spotted the home team to a 21-0 lead,
while during the same interval having compiled zero first downs and
eight yards of total offense.
At
that point, did it kind of look as if it was going to turn out to be
a long afternoon for the Boys of the Institute? Guess you could say
that, yes.
For
the second straight week, the Owls started slowly, generating little
snap and crackle on offense and lacking much of a killer instinct on
defense. Meanwhile, the Deacons, fresh off a stinging 56-27 home
loss to Notre Dame last week, came out ready to do business. And do
business, they did.
The
primary negotiator in this session was a quietly spectacular Deacon
wide receiver and deep back by the name of Greg Dortch.
The
diminutive 5-9, 170-pound sophomore from Richmond, Va., seemingly
was everywhere on field, usually with two or three Rice defensive
backs vainly chasing after him. He hauled in four touchdown passes
on the day in about 40 minutes of action, garnering a total of 163
yards in receptions. And it was only the huge punt hang time and the
deep kickoffs of Jack Fox which most likely kept Dortch from
torching the Rice special teams in like manner as he did the
beleaguered Owl secondary.
Turns
out, they had it all figgered out from the get-go.
“Me
and Sam (WF QB Sam Hartman) just found each other,” Dortch said in
his postgame interview. “All week in practice, we knew what defense
Rice was going to run, and game day came and they ran the exact
same. So everything was just clicking.”
Dortch started the scoring three minutes deep into the game when he
got behind three Rice defenders and hauled in a 54-yard TD pass on
the fly.
Next,
after a second, consecutive Rice three-and-out, Wake ground out a
55-yard, 7-play touchdown drive utilizeing the delayed handoff to
Carlton Carney six out of seven plays to go the distance. Take the
snap, belly the ball, assess the defense, bob and weave to daylight,
and pick up 6, 8, 10 yards each time.
After
another Rice three-and-out, next possession Wake decided to have a
little Fun with Passing, distributing the ball to Dortch and Time
Surratt en route ton all-through-the-air seven-play, 61-yard drive.
Next
possession, the Owls picked up their intial first down of the game
when Shawn Stankavage hit Austin Walter on a third-down crossing
pattern. Alas, a couple of plays later, a Stankavage passed was
tipped (again) and picked off by Wake’s Luke Masterson, who returned
the ball 49 yards to the Rice 18.
From
there, the Deacons’ Cade Carney got the call seven straight times,
eventually pounding the pill across from the one yard line on third
and goal 28-0, Deacs.
A
little of this, a little of that.
After
Austin Walter returned the ensuing kickoff 36 yards to the Rice 40,
the Owls finally got something going on offense. Fullback Giovanni
Gentosi had the key carry on the drive, surging 20 yards up the gut
for a first down at the Wake Forest 28. (So you say we’ve got no
players? This grad transfer started at fullback for several games
for his previous alma mater, a little outfit that goes by the name
of UCLA. Expect him to assume a bigger role in the Owl offense as
season develops.)
An
Emanuel Esupka dive as stuffed on third and three at the 21,
however, and the Flock had to settle getting on the board by way of
a 39-yard Jack Fox field goal.
Next
possession, it took Wake QB Hartman little time to find Greg Dortch
in the clear again, this time for 38 yards and the score.
Things went from worse to worser next Owl turn with the ball when
Emmanuel Esupka was separated frm the pigskin whereupon it bounced
right into the hands of Wake’s Essang Bassey who romped in untouched
for a 51-yard scoop ‘n score. 42-3, Wake, a little under 25 minutes
deep into the game. Yep, you heard that right.
“It
wasn’t the way we’d envisrioned it after a good week of practice,”
Rice senior DL Zach Abercrumbia said afterwards. “We just came out
and laid an egg, right from the beginning.”
“The
X’s and O’s are just something you draw up on the board; it’s up to
the players to come out and make the plays come alive. And we just
didn’t do so.”
The
Owls did move the ball on their next possession, ending the half
with a missed Jack Fox field goal try from 38 yards out.
Rice
played harder, more intensely, and at a greater level of
self-awareness in the second half, and did manage three touchdowns
in the last two stanzas, but you’ll of course want to spoil the
notion that this was any kind of bona fide comeback effort by
insisting it was against Wake Forest’s second and third unit
players.
That’s only partly true. WF coach Dave Clawson began to substitute
hear and there, but kept his starting quarterback and, of course,
Greg Dortch, until the waning moments of the third quarter.
Consequently, the Owls and the Deacons spent the better part of the
second half trading scores.
To
begin with, the Rice defense forced its first three-and-out of hte
game when Houston Robert got a big sack of WF quarterback Hartman on
second and 12.
First
play after the ensuing punt, Austin Walter took a deep handoff –
more or less a draw play -- and immediatel stiff-armed a couple of
would be tacklers, bouncing outside and sprinting 47 yards down the
sideline to the Wake Forest 25.
Austin Trammell next snagged a pass across the middle for 17 more,
almost scoring on the play. And then on first and goal, Austin
Walter grabbed a sideline pass and sprinted in for the Owls’ first
touchdown of the day.
They’d get two more before the final whistle.
While
Wake roared back for an all-in-the-air quickie response TD to make
it 56-10 (so there! Take that!), Austin Trammell returned the
ensuing kickoff 54 yards to the Deacon 38. First play, then, Austin
Walter took the inside handoff and burst up the middle for the
score.
The
Owls added one more tally just as the fourth quarter began, having
driven 62 yards in 13 plays, with Shawn Stankavage hitting Aaron
Cephus, who’d boxed out his defender near the end zone front pylon
on fourth and one for the touchdown..
After
that, and for most of the fourth quarter, the two squads were
content to run clock with repeated dives into the line scrum. Rice
had a possession with four minutes left in the game, but, pinned
back to their 17 yard line, elected to keep the ball on the ground.
On
the day, Austin Walter ran 18 times for a career-high 165 yards and
two TDs. Afterwards, though, he said he didn’t particularly think
he’d had a good day.
“Statiscally, you’ll see that I might have had a good game, but
really, it’s not me. I’m ding the easy part. The one’s who’re in the
trenches, blocking it up – it starts with that O-Line. ..The O-Line
is just allowing me to be special; I’ve got to be thankful and
appreciative that those guys are being selfless and blocking it up,
and it’s my job to take care of the ball, make people miss, and just
do what I was recruited to do.”
Rice
head coach Mike Bloomgren did his best take positives from the
positively awful day, saying he hoped this debacle marked the nadir
of the season and things would begin to improve markedly, starting
with next week’s home bout with UT-San Antonio.
“That’s all I can focus on right now,” he said. “We’re going to
watch this film, make those correctioins – and every fiber in my
body is going to go towards beating UTSA.”

WINSTON-SALEM (Sept. 28) – In a half-way
rational world, two institutions such as Rice and Wake Forest would
be expected to line up on even terms on the athletic field, and go
toe-to-toe in their game coming up here Saturday (2:30 CDT).
Similar
academic philosophies, commonly small enrollments, generally
equivalent aspirations, if not out out-and-out scholastic peerage,
at least in the same echelon – one could hardly expect any more
evenly-situated athletic opponents.
But here we are, on the eve of tomorrow’s kickoff between the Owls
and the Demon Deacons (huh?) in Winston-Salem, and the contest is
being described by local scribes, and assumed by local hoi-polloi,
as a virtual week off for the local contingent.
Such is the lot with which Rice must face, as it strives to escape
the nadir of a long, downward slide away from major college
athletics relevance.
Now it is true that there is a new management present on South Main,
and differences in approach and style and effort can be seen
already, on the gridiron, in the locker room, and around athletic
climes generally.
Still, after last week’s disappointing loss to Southern Mississippi,
one could hardly expect any self-respecting Power Five program,
either on the field or among the stands, to consider this week’s
opponent in any other way.
And yet there exists at least some evidence to suggest that Old Gold
and Black clad fans populating the bleachers of BB&T Field here
Saturday might have reason to find their pulse a bit quickened, if
not hopes completely dashed, by the team Coach Mike Bloomgren trots
out in their all-white padded PJs.
Let’s look at this opponent’s record. They’re an even 2-2 on the
season, which comes to the Deacs as a mild disappointment, what with
their 2017 season-capping bowl win over Texas A&M in the Belk Bowl.
The Demon Deacons (quick fact: they’re a Baptist-affiliated school,
kind of a politcally correct Baylor) managed a 23-17 overtime win
over the Tulane Green Wave in New Orleans to open the season– hardly
a shot heard ‘round the world.
They then added a 51-20 win over powerhouse Towson State, a
Baltimore school that compares less than favorably to the University
of Houston.
Then, at home for the first time, and in the shadow of an oncoming
hurricane, they lost to Boston College, 41-34 after havimg been
favored by a similar tally. The Wake defensive secondary was laid
bare in that loss.
Next came the home game of the year, a bout last Saturday with Notre
Dame – hmm, Catholics versus Baptists – where in the Domers pounded
the home team willy-nilly, taking a 49-13 lead into the fourth
quarter before giving up a couple of garbage-time TDs leading to a
56-27 final score.
The Wake Forest defense was so impressive in that one, that the
result had the team’s defensive coordinator summarily been given the
pink slip, whereupn the WF defense is new being managed by a troika
of defensive assistants.
What we’re trying to say is... these guys put their pants on one leg
at a time, too.
They’ve allowed 97 points across their last two games; sure it was
against BC and ND, but the Rice defensive fails have come against
high-tempo, high-scoring outfitls Houston and Hawaii, as well.
The Golden Domers rolled up 556 offensive yards while scoring
eight touchdowns against the Southern Baptists. Granted, ho-hum, the
Irish are currently ranked number eight in the nation.
Not that we’d ever wager on our Insitute Boys, one way or the other,
but it’s informative to consider Wake's season success against the
bettors’ point spread. In a nutshell, there hasn’t been any.
The Deacons are 0-4 against-the-spread in their last four games
following an ATS loss, and also 0-4 against the spread in their last
four home games. Continuing....Wake Forest is also 0-4 ATS in their
last four non-conference games and 0-6 against the spread in their
last six games overall.
The betting spread in Saturday's Rice-Wake
Forest game? 24.5 points.
--PTH
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