Mistakes, missed opportunities cost winless Owls
Defense shows improvement after week off
UTSA capitalized on Haden-Tobola’s missed field goal and an early 75-yard touchdown pass to edge Rice 14-13 before a crowd of 20,134 at Rice Stadium.
The Owls (0-6, 0-4 Conference USA) remain winless at the halfway mark of their season.
Coming off an open date helped Rice heal up physically. The extra week of rest and preparation seems to have benefitted its much-maligned defense in the process.
Rice’s defense stepped up and kept UTSA(3-3, 2-1) in check on Saturday night. The Owls had their moments, but Tobola missed a 42-yard field-goal attempt to the right with 1:27 remaining in the game that would have given the Owls the lead.
“The only way to get through this is to keep working,” Rice coach David Bailiff said. “These guys believe we can work through this.
“Haden had really been outstanding kicking this season, but today we missed a couple. It really shouldn’t have come down to that.”
Tobola had made all three of his field-goal attempts before Saturday’s game. What could have been
Rice had its chances. Even after Tobola’s missed attempt, the Owls got the ball back with 20 seconds remaining at their 36-yard line. After a couple completions from Tyler Stehling, the Owls got to the Roadrunners’ 27-yard line for a first down. But time expired before Rice could get off a field-goal attempt.
Stehling, who completed 23 of 37 passes for 237 yards, opened the offense on a 13yard run in the first quarter, completing a 75-yard, 13-play drive. In the third quarter, Stehling connected with Samuel Stewart on a 13-yard touchdown.
The Owls’ Tabari McGaskey made a crucial fourth-down stop to set up the drive that ended in Tobola’s missed field-goal attempt in the closing minutes. With Rice trailing by one point with 4:54 left in the game, McGaskey, the contain man, jammed Jalen Rhodes for a 3-yard loss on fourth-and-goal from the 2-yard line.
“It was an unbelievable play,” said McGaskey, who had three tackles for loss among his 10 tackles. “Everybody gave great effort. I was proud of how the defense played for four quarters.
“We were able to make unbelievable stops in the fourth quarter to give our offense another chance to score. It’s a tough loss, but we can learn a lot from this game as a team. And the defense, we can expect to start to make those kind of plays.” Marked improvement
Rice came into the Conference USA game allowing 568.4 yards a game, last among the 128 FBS teams. UTSA was coming off a 5532 win at Southern Miss, in which the Roadrunners set school single-game records for yards (532) and rushing yards (339).
Rice outgained UTSA 351-334. Stewart rushed for 77 yards. The Roadrunners’ Dalton Sturm passed for 209 yards — including a 75-yard first quarter touchdown to Josh Stewart — while completing 17 of 25 passes.
Rice’s defense shined Saturday. Offensively, the Owls had two 11-play drives that resulted in no score.
“I have to be more consistent throwing the deep balls,” Stehling said. “I have to be better. It’s tough to come out of this one with a loss. We have to work on finishing drives.”
Rice cut the deficit to 14-13 with 7:49 remaining in the third quarter following the Owls’ longest scoring drive of the season — 84 yards. The nine-play drive ended on the 13-yard pass from Stehling to Stewart.
Rice’s defense kept the Owls in the game. But a muffed punt early in the second quarter proved costly for the Owls. One play after JaColbie Butler recovered the ball at the Rice 28, Sturm connected with Stewart for a touchdown. Victor Falcon’s extra point gave the Roadrunners a 14-6 lead.
McGaskey returned a fumble 17 yards to the Roadrunners’ 38-yard line with just over two minutes remaining in the first half. But the Owls failed to capitalize.