Thoughts on the Rice game

[JasonB]

The best team since the death penalty? On paper?

Yes. look at the other teams that had at least 5 wins in conference and then try and find any of them that were anywhere close to +158 at any point of the conference season.

[HubbaHubba]

Don't do that. Sounds like every UT fan who thinks that whenever the Longhorns get called for anything, it's because the Big 12 is "out to get them."
Let's be better than whiny UT fan.

Whiny SMU fan is always better than whiny UT fan!

[crazy horse]

I joked about it on Twitter, but that hit on Stone after he ran in for a TD was egregious. Stone was 4-5 steps into the end zone and starting to celebrate when the Rice player lunged, head-first into his back. That could have caused a career-ending injury.

The clowns called a penalty, but surely that rated some additional punishment like ejection, an assault charge, a lifetime ban to Hooters - something. That was just EVIL.

Bad Officials and Dirty Rice. Not a good combination.

[SmooBoy]

Just got back in town from attending the game.

1. Fantastic attendance by SMU (and I mean a lot of loud engaged fans, I don’t how it looked or sounded on tv) - our fans were incredible. Thank you Houston area Ponies!
2. First half was a nightmare, special teams… I’m still shaking my head. Hideous.
3. Refs were egregiously bad
4. Rice played dirty, period
5. It felt like a rivalry game
6. We won it, time to focus on some buzzards

I like this team!

There were some Houston resident Ponies, but there were MANY who made the trip from DFW. Very boisterous and the team took note of the support at several key moments in the game.

[BUS]

Woke disney and tv.

[Charleston Pony]

I joked about it on Twitter, but that hit on Stone after he ran in for a TD was egregious. Stone was 4-5 steps into the end zone and starting to celebrate when the Rice player lunged, head-first into his back. That could have caused a career-ending injury.

The clowns called a penalty, but surely that rated some additional punishment like ejection, an assault charge, a lifetime ban to Hooters - something. That was just EVIL.

Bad Officials and Dirty Rice. Not a good combination.

It was a REALLY late hit as the Rice defender # 41 was already in the end zone when he launched himself and hit Stone from behind but he lead with his shoulder. I chalked it up to a frustration hit but was disappointed we didn't try a squib kick or something on the ensuing kickoff after having 15 yards tacked on

[gostangs]

The best team since the death penalty? On paper?

Yes. look at the other teams that had at least 5 wins in conference and then try and find any of them that were anywhere close to +158 at any point of the conference season.

Love you Jason but i thought you were wildly optimistic on your assessment on this one before the game and sad to say i was right. Rice is better than their record and we are worse than ours. You cant say passes are flukes for the other team when there were several of them.

I think at home we handle UNT pretty easily. VERY concerned about Memphis having seen our road efforts so far. For whatever reason this team seems to be 10-14 points worse on the road.

Looking for improvement on Preston's check off to mid range options, and also underthrown deep balls. Glad to see more running out of him since that is a strength - hope that doesn't change after the tough hit.

[JasonB]

The best team since the death penalty? On paper?

Yes. look at the other teams that had at least 5 wins in conference and then try and find any of them that were anywhere close to +158 at any point of the conference season.

Love you Jason but i thought you were wildly optimistic on your assessment on this one before the game and sad to say i was right. Rice is better than their record and we are worse than ours. You cant say passes are flukes for the other team when there were several of them.

I think at home we handle UNT pretty easily. VERY concerned about Memphis having seen our road efforts so far. For whatever reason this team seems to be 10-14 points worse on the road.

Looking for improvement on Preston's check off to mid range options, and also underthrown deep balls. Glad to see more running out of him since that is a strength - hope that doesn't change after the tough hit.

Fluke is maybe the wrong word. Unrepeatable is what I mean - the pass that Daniels hit in the first half was 30+ yards on a rope in perfect stride when our guy has perfect coverage. The other pass by the backup to the sideline looked like a throwaway on a scramble and their player made a crazy catch. Those plays happen at times, but relying on that isn't sustainable.

Again, we match up really, really well against Rice. They have a poor interior OL against our strength, and I thought because McCaffrey lines up in the slot most of the time we would take him out (1 catch for 2 yards). They really rely on him offensively. Sure, maybe my prediction was over-optimistic and the special teams issues kept the game closer than it should have been. But that is a team that we have the talent and the matchups to beat by at least 3 touchdowns, and there are some big warning signs we shouldn't ignore - more missed tackles than we have seen all season. Adimora getting caught man on man on a WR on a go route with no help, which is a matchup we never want. Megginson got toasted on that last defensive play and got bailed out when NWO ranged over and made a great INT.

I don't think we are worse than our record. We are a very good G5 team. My honest thoughts:
- I think part of the road problem is inexperience at QB
- I think a really big part of the road problem is not being able to travel as many players. It impacts rotations, especially on special teams, and I think that is part of the reason we saw punt blocks at OU and Rice - we have to play different players on teams on the road then we do at home.
- I also think that type of game is HUGE as a team - you haven't been in a close game all season and so nerves are really, really high. But yet you went out and made a play when it mattered to win the game.
- I wouldn't dismiss the UNT game. While Rice's best WR was inside, I think both UNT and Memphis are going to test our outside corners more than any other team has all season. For both of these games, we need two injuries back. First, we need Crossley. Sanders has been phenomenal covering at the nickel slot, but when Crossley is out, and McMorris out, McGill has to slide up into that spot when Sanders needs a rest. That means more time for Moses at FS who, while he has been great against the run, is not good in coverage yet. It opens a hole. The second injury is Smoke. Woods has been solid, but relatively untested at one corner, and has not played that great the last two games. Megginson has been picked on more over the course of the season and hasn't been horrible, but we haven't played against great passing attacks. Smoke was really coming on and playing exceptionally well before he was hurt against Tulsa, and he might be ready to take over if any of the other corners struggle. Without him Rogers is your backup guy, and he has never really shown an ability to take it to the next level. UNT is going to be a big stress test for our corners before we get to the Memphis game.

[PerunaPunch]

Fluke is maybe the wrong word. Unrepeatable is what I mean - the pass that Daniels hit in the first half was 30+ yards on a rope in perfect stride when our guy has perfect coverage. The other pass by the backup to the sideline looked like a throwaway on a scramble and their player made a crazy catch. Those plays happen at times, but relying on that isn't sustainable.

Again, we match up really, really well against Rice. They have a poor interior OL against our strength, and I thought because McCaffrey lines up in the slot most of the time we would take him out (1 catch for 2 yards). They really rely on him offensively. Sure, maybe my prediction was over-optimistic and the special teams issues kept the game closer than it should have been. But that is a team that we have the talent and the matchups to beat by at least 3 touchdowns, and there are some big warning signs we shouldn't ignore - more missed tackles than we have seen all season. Adimora getting caught man on man on a WR on a go route with no help, which is a matchup we never want. Megginson got toasted on that last defensive play and got bailed out when NWO ranged over and made a great INT.

I don't think we are worse than our record. We are a very good G5 team. My honest thoughts:
- I think part of the road problem is inexperience at QB
- I think a really big part of the road problem is not being able to travel as many players. It impacts rotations, especially on special teams, and I think that is part of the reason we saw punt blocks at OU and Rice - we have to play different players on teams on the road then we do at home.
- I also think that type of game is HUGE as a team - you haven't been in a close game all season and so nerves are really, really high. But yet you went out and made a play when it mattered to win the game.
- I wouldn't dismiss the UNT game. While Rice's best WR was inside, I think both UNT and Memphis are going to test our outside corners more than any other team has all season. For both of these games, we need two injuries back. First, we need Crossley. Sanders has been phenomenal covering at the nickel slot, but when Crossley is out, and McMorris out, McGill has to slide up into that spot when Sanders needs a rest. That means more time for Moses at FS who, while he has been great against the run, is not good in coverage yet. It opens a hole. The second injury is Smoke. Woods has been solid, but relatively untested at one corner, and has not played that great the last two games. Megginson has been picked on more over the course of the season and hasn't been horrible, but we haven't played against great passing attacks. Smoke was really coming on and playing exceptionally well before he was hurt against Tulsa, and he might be ready to take over if any of the other corners struggle. Without him Rogers is your backup guy, and he has never really shown an ability to take it to the next level. UNT is going to be a big stress test for our corners before we get to the Memphis game.

Also, add 14 pts for the bogus holding call on Maryland's TD and the premature whistle on Hudson's TD and all the sudden the score looks a lot more like JasonB's prediction.

[Webmaster]

My thought on the Rice game?

As much as I hate to give any props to Rice's Mob band, I think they had it right.

We're not dead yet!