Owls let early lead slip away
Collins passes for 327 yards and two touchdowns, but Mean Green rally for home victory
Rice has struggled just to get on the field and play football games this season. Against North Texas on Saturday afternoon, the struggles came after a promising start to the Conference USA matchup.
The Owls scored the game’s first 10 points, but couldn’t sustain the scoring and lost 27-17 to the Mean Green at Apogee Stadium in Denton.
“For 10 minutes we did the things we needed to do,” Owls coach Mike Bloomgren said. “But we quit doing things we were supposed to do. We didn’t play well enough and in college football you got to play well if you want to have a chance to win.”
Rice quarterback Mike Collins passed for 327 yards and two touchdowns, completing 23of-34 passes. His 17-yard scoring pass to Jake Bailey with eight seconds remaining in the game made the score more respectable. Rice totaled outplayed UNT over the first quarter. But the final three quarters belonged to UNT and its quarterback Jason Bean along with a relentless pass rush that sacked Collins seven times.
The turning point of the game came when Rice was unsuccessful in converting a fourth-and-2 at the Mean Green 11 up 10-0 with 8:20 to play in the first half. An incompletion in the end zone gave UNT the ball and the Mean Green only needed four plays to get their first points and climb back into the game. On a runpass option, Bean kept the ball and ran down the right side of the field for a 66yard touchdown with 6:56 remaining in the half.
“I thought we had a chance to really impact the game,” said Bloomgren on why he elected not to go for a field goal after Collin Ricciteli’s 45-yarder had put the Owls up 3-0 on their first possession. “We’re up 10-0 at that point, a chance to change the game.
“If you put seven on the board there, it feels different. And we got a quarterback we really trust in Mike Collins. So we put the ball in his hand and it didn’t work out.”
Late in the second quarter UNT took advantage of a Rice fumble that led to a score and a 14-10 halftime advantage for the Mean Green. Bean, who passed for 120 yards and ran for 94, threw a 25-yard scoring pass to Jaelon Darden. For Darden, it was the 11th touchdown reception this season for the Eisenhower product.
“All the good of that 10 minutes got evaporated by halftime,” Bloomgren said. “We just did not take advantage of them in any phase of the game.”
Playing only its third game of the season and first since Oct. 31, the Owls showed little rust in the early going. The offense was moving the ball and the defense was clamping down on the Mean Green, who came in the game with the nation’s No. 3 offense in yards per game (593.6) and playing for the first time in more than a month.
Rice (1-2, 1-2) scored on its first two possessions and led 10-0 through the end of the opening quarter. Over the first 15 minutes, Rice accumulated 125 yards, but more impressive the Owls held the Mean Green (3-3, 2-2) to a meager 22 yards on nine plays. In its previous game on Oct. 17, UNT put up a program-record 768 yards of offense.
Led by Blaze Alldredge’s team-high 11 tackles, the Owls held UNT to only 389 yards, just 13 more than the Owls accumulated. But North Texas was able to keep more drives alive, converting 7-of-15 third downs to the Owls’ 3-of-12. And UNT averaged 6.4 yards per rush to Rice’s 1.4. DeAndre Torrey ran for a game-high 102 yards and a touchdown for UNT.
“That big play (Bean’s 66-yard run) gave them the momentum,” Alldredge said. “As a defense we got comfortable and stopped focusing on our assignment and we let them bust a big one. When you’re facing the (No. 3 offense in the nation), those are things you can’t do.”
Defensive end Josh Pearcy collected seven tackles in his first start at Rice. Khalan Griffin rushed for 72 yards on 20 carries in his first college start.
Owls receiver Austin Trammell extended his streak of catching a pass to 30 consecutive games, hauling in six passes for 116 yards and a 14-yard firstquarter touchdown reception that culminated a 97yard drive. Tight end Jordan Myers had eight receptions for 73 yards.
Richard Dean reported from Houston.