Football defeats USM behind six Clement TDs
Although the Golden Eagles gave them a last-quarter scare, the football team held off a surging University of Southern Mississippi squad in the final seconds to secure a 45-40 victory last Saturday afternoon at Rice Stadium. For once the Owls were the ones looking in the rear view mirror as the two sides traded scores throughout the second half. Fortunately, USM was unable to tap the spirit of their 1969 alumnus Jimmy Buffett and Rice improved to 4-3 on the year. The Rice offense did not show any signs of rust from its bye week, as they continued their torrid pace. Senior quarterback Chase Clement tossed six touchdowns, tying the Conference USA record he set last season at the University of Texas-El Paso.
Rice exploited the USM defensive secondary to the tune of 444 yards of passing with three Owl receivers gaining over 100 yards on the day, a first for the season. Senior wide receiver Jarett Dillard led the way with seven receptions for 141 yards and three touchdowns. The Clement to Dillard touchdown total now stands at 45.
Sophomore wide receiver James Casey had seven catches for 113 yards. In only two years, Casey has hauled in 107 receptions, and on Saturday he leapfrogged two former Owls and moved into sixth place in Rice history for total receptions.
In the absence of injured junior defensive back Andrew Sendejo, Casey took over punt return duties and averaged over 16 yards per return. In addition to playing wide receiver, Casey has now taken snaps as a quarterback, holder, tight end and running back.
In one of the more bizarre plays, Casey acquired his second touchdown of the contest off of a fumble by sophomore wide receiver Patrick Randolph. Randolph lost the ball near the sideline, and Casey picked it up and took it 26 yards for the score.
"Some of the guys on the sideline thought I stripped the ball from him," Casey said. "It did go through my mind. It was one of those freak, lucky things that happen. Luckily, I was in a good place to make the play."
Rice played well throughout the first half and led 17-12 at intermission. The Owls could have a taken a larger lead were it not for a Clement interception inside the USM 10-yard line.
The Owl defense put together one of its better first-halves of the season, holding the USM offense to just 12 points. The second half was a bit more difficult for them, as the Golden Eagles turned deadly pass-heavy in an effort to keep pace with Clement and company.
USM quarterback Austin Davis was 32 of 61 on pass attempts for a total of 461 yards. His favorite target, DeAndre Brown, caught 12 of those passes for 221 yards and four touchdowns.
Four starters for the Rice defense missed last Saturday's game, and senior middle linebacker Brian Raines broke his forearm during the first offensive series of the game. Raines is done for the season and leaves a hole to fill in the middle of the field. He has 241 career tackles - the most on the team - and could have made a strong run at the Rice career record had he remained healthy.
The defensive fill-ins have had to grow up on the job, and there were signs last week of significant growing pains as missed tackles and blown assignments let the Golden Eagles back in the game.
"To get better at tackling, you have to do it at full speed," head coach David Bailiff said. "At this point in the season [bad tackling] really concerns you because you can't lose. We're down five defensive starters right now. We just have to continue to work [on] the techniques of tackling as fast as we can .... There were plays in that football game where we had four or five missed tackles on one play. We dropped three interceptions on the day, too, and those changed the game."
Saturday's match-up with Tulane University pits them against, arguably, the stoutest defense in the conference. The Green Wave held second-ranked University of Alabama to just 172 yards of total offense in a game they lost 20-6. Tulane followed up with another strong performance against then nationally ranked and conference rival Eastern Carolina University but lost on their final possession.
After back-to-back defeats in the past two weeks at the hands of UTEP and Army, Tulane enters this weekend's match-up with a 2-4 record on the season and ranks fifth in the West division of the C-USA standings with a 1-2 record.
Tulane brings a potent running game with its top two running backs averaging over five yards per carry. Last year the Owls were run over by the Green Wave rushing attack in a game which saw future Chicago Bears running back Matt Forte rush for five touchdowns and 194 yards.
"The good news is that we're in the right spots 98 percent of the time," Bailiff said. "A year ago we weren't even in the right spots, so we're making progress. As soon as this defense realizes that they are pretty good and they belong, you're going to see a great tackling defense. We're athletic enough to do it.
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