![]() |
|
X Front Page RiceOwls.com Rice Forum CUSA Forum CUSA site Chronicle Rice roster Quicklinks Last Update Email us
|
UNT 21, Rice 17![]() ![]()
DENTON (Nov. 26) -- In the waning moments of the third quarter of this game,
with the score tied at 14, our Rice Owls found themselves facing first and
goal at the North Texas four yard line with the score tied at 14.
The play was a quick fullback dive, frosh QB AJ Padgett to Juma Otaviano.
Juma sliced his way to inside the one yard line, where the Owls would be
facing second and goal, needing only a few more inches to go up 21-14.
Doubtless, there were Rice fans
out there in TV land and among the surprisingly vocal group that weathered
the unfavorable climate and showed up for the game, where the thought at
that time had to be along lines of, “We’re gonna win this damn thing. We’ve
outplayed them up to now. With a green freshman quarterback, we’ve taken
everything they’ve thrown at us. We’re going to win this thing.“
But, alas, it seems that Mr. Magoo had other ideas. On a lightning quick
handoff and dive for the goal, the striped shirts perceived a holding
infraction somewhere among the Rice interior linemen, nullifying the gain,
and moving the Owls back to the 14 yard line, still first and goal.
It was at that point that
momentum utterly changed. The Owls had had the Mean Green on their heels,
punching the ball up through the middle and completing key pass plays to
little-known reserve receivers virtually since the opening kickoff. But
there is where the air went out of the tires.
In fact, the Owls regained
as far as the 6 yard line, and from
there chipped in an easy field goal to take the lead 17-14. But 17-14 was
not 21-14, and, as said, as a result of the call, the worm turned, and in a
big way.
It was not the only bizarre holding call against the Rice interior line
during that benighted quarter of play. Previously, the Owls had lined up for
a very makeable field goal at the UNT 12. Before the kick went away, the
striped shirts here too found a hold, and that set back the Owls 10 more
yards, where, going against a swirling wind, Christian Van Sickle missed his
second field goal try of the day, and the Flock got no points out of their
effort.
Christian was fairly well deadeye the first two months of the season, but
had his troubles in the cold and rain in Denton.
Sad, because his two missed field goal attempts also could have been
the margin of victory, even given the escapades of the gendarmerie.
In that regard, we take time out to ask: when was the last time you saw an
interior offensive lineman get
flagged for a holding penalty on a halfback dive at the 4 yard line that
executed within a microsecond? Have you ever seen that? Well that makes one
of us. In 60-some years of observing college football, we’ve never seen that
call made.
And let’s back up a little. What about the holding call on the field-goal
try? Surely it’s happened before, but when was the last time you can
remember our boys were flagged for such a thing? Ever? Yeah, surely it’s
happened, but when? Was King Hill the kicker then?
Those two holding calls completely took the starch out of a Rice offense
that prior to then had gotten the job done, working behind the field
generalship of a green freshman quarterback who never before started a
varsity game, and in fact only had only seen a few garbage-time signal calls
here and there. The kid did everything he needed to do for Rice to win the
game, and the stat sheet shows it – up to that point.
For those who are counting, A J Padgett
became the 13th Rice starting
quarterback during the Bloomgren regime.
“I felt ready,” he said afterwards.. “Going through the week, my mind-set
was -- I play football, I’m going out there and play football. I felt
prepared. The nerves, they were all gone; I got it out of my system before
the game.”
AJ’s tale of the tape showed 229 yards, almost all in the first three
quarters, including a 48-yard TD strike to an excited freshman receiver
Braylen Walker, who wound up with four receptions for 77 yards.
Padgett also connected
to Juma Otoviano on a 48-yard
pass-and-run which carried to the UNT six yard line, oh so close to the end
zone. No matter, another
newcomer, Uriah West, plunged in from the one yard line to tie the score at
seven early in the second quarter.
“A.J. did some great things, and you can see how bright his future is, and
Braylen Walker was doing things as well,” head coach Mike Bloomgren said
When AJ connected with Braylen Walker for his 48-yard TD romp just before
the half, the home contingent in the stands was as silent as sisters of the
poor at midnight mass.
But by contrast, those holding calls
amped up the rain-soaked crowd, and North Texas got things going early in
the fourth. Suddenly gashing the Owl middle on previously unsuccessful
running plays, the Greenies surged to a 21-14 lead with 10 minutes left in
the game.
On the stat sheet, the Owls exceeded a prolific Mean Green offense in total
yardage, 415 to 362
But in that fateful,
post-holding-calls fourth quarter, the UNT offense took over, outgaining the
Owls 115-32, 109 of them on the ground.
“We had the lead in the fourth quarter and they were able to run the ball
down our throats, and that hurts” Bloomgren said. “We think the foundation
of our team is stop the run, and we were unable to do it.” Rice’s game-opening possession under its green frosh quarterback was not without its bright moments, as AJ led the Flock from the Rice 29 to the UNT 31. But there, facing a third and short, there was a bobble in the exchange between AJ and the running back on the made-to-order Bloomgreen halfback dive on third and short.
The handoff never materialized, UNT got their hands on the ball, and
proceeded to march the length of the field behind the passing of Austin Aune
to take a 7-0 lead.
During the entire first half, it seem that Aune’s biggest weapon was a quick
down-and-in pass to one or more receivers headed across the middle. Didn’t
matter what was the down, third and eight, third
and 11, first and 10 -- the pass
seemed to clear for 10 or 12 yards each time. That was the only thing,
frankly, that worked consistently for UNT during that juncture, but it kept
the visitors playing defense more than they needed to.
Nevertheless, UNTs first scoring
strike came on a 45 yard pass from Aune to Jyaire Shorter when a
defensive coverage breakdown reared its ugly head. Other than that, the Rice
defense had been stout, early on.
The next drive, the Owls reached as far as UNT 28, where Christian
VanSickle‘s field goal attempt from 46 yards out was a miss, and not a near
miss. The swirling wind had something to do with that effort.
But the Owl defense shut down UNT on its next possession,
Josh Pearcy, Chris Conti and Isaiah
Floyd making key pass breakups to shut down that ten yards down-and-in
trash.
On Rice’s ensuing possession, the Owls got in gear. Four straight rushing
attempts each netted short yardage but but kept the drive going. Then
AJ Padgett found Juma Otoviano in the open on the home sideline, leading to
the aforementioned first Rice score. The wiley UNC quarterback Austin Aune brought the Mean Green back right quickly with three long passing plays culminating in a 7 yard touchdown jaunt on first and goal by UNT‘s Ikaika Ragsdale.
At that point less than 4 1/2 minutes left in the half, and the supposition
was that the Owls would be content to go in to the locker room down by only
a touchdown.
But not so. AJ Padgett once again got good and cranked up, hitting Bradley
Rosner for 20 yards down the middle, and then, on a wheel route play which
sprung totally unheralded freshman Braylen Walker free down the visitors
sideline, AJ hit him right over the shoulder and he never broke stride,
sprinting 48 yards for the TD to tie the score at 14.
The third quarter was frustrating for the Owls, as the defense kept the UNT
offense on its heels, and in return the Rice offense managed to move the
ball on the ground, getting tantalizingly close to breaking things open, but
never quite getting there. Of course, as mentioned, our boys had help from officialdom in not getting there.
Alas, the momentum was picked up by the UNT offense, having rediscovered
their running game. During the Eagles’ ultimate scoring drive, the Flock was
gashed for runs of 36 and 28 yards leading to a first and goal from the
eight. From there, the Rice defense bucked up, but facing third and goal
from the six, Austin Aune hit Akaika Ragsdale in the flat, where an Owl
defender narrowly missed pinning him to the floor. Instead, the scatback
shook lose and slithered into the end zone, giving the Mean Green a 21-17
lead they would not relinquish.
There still remained 8:15 left in the game, but by then the Owls were spent
and down in the mouth, the
thermometer was falling, the rain was beginning to come down harder, and
damned fate seemed to take effect as one might expect. The Owls had the ball
a couple of times, and were subject to a couple more questionable calls by
the officials then, but the bottom line was they never seriously challenged
to go the distance to score the
winning touchdown.
They were on the cusp of doing so late in the third quarter, their efforts
were nullified, and the game was lost.
“We were really close, but we did not find a way to get this win,” said
Coach Bloom. “I’m frustrated because there are a lot of things that
affected the outcome. We’re capable of making some of those plays and
winning this football game.”
“We didn’t get it done,” he added. “Wished we had found a way to win this
game.” Us too.
|