I guess it can't be a rivalry if one team wins all the time, so congratulations to Rice for winning the Bayou Bucket for the first time since 2010. But honestly: the Owls were greatly helped by the fact that the Cougars didn't even bother to show up.
The Good: To the extent that coming back from a 28-point deficit to tie a game with fifteen seconds left - and scoring the first touchdown of overtime to string together 35 unanswered points - is "good," then I guess that's a positive. But obviously it never should have come to that. The comeback was actually triggered late in the first half when Rice QB JT Daniels was intercepted in the end zone by Cougar CB Isaiah Hamilton to keep Rice from going into the locker room up 35-7.
On a night where most of the Cougar players might has well have stayed on the bus, DE Nelson Ceasar (two sacks and three tackles for loss) and WR Samuel Brown (9 receptions for 138 yards) both played notably well.
The Bad: The Cougars' slow start. Rice scored touchdowns on their first four possessions, while the anemic Cougar offense went interception, punt and punt on their first three. Rice racked up 341 yards of total offense in the first half, while the Coogs could only manage 94. The Owls were clearly more motivated and played a faster and more physical game than the Cougars did: one team came out of the locker room prepared to play, while the other did not.
On their first possession of the second half, the Cougars elected to go for it on 4th and goal from the Rice 8 rather than kick an easy field goal. As it turned out, had the Cougars taken those points the game never would have gone into overtime. And in the second overtime, needing a two-point conversion to extend the game, Houston opted to attempt a fade route to the corner of the endzone: a low-percentage play that failed and gave Rice the win. Hindsight being 20-20 and all, these were both bad decisions.
As bad as the Cougars were in the first half, Rice was pretty awful in the second half. They were trying to play conservative, run-out-the-clock football but didn't do it very well; one Rice series was a three-and-out that only took 49 seconds off the clock! It didn't help that a Rice fumble late in the third quarter led to an easy Houston touchdown to bring the Coogs within two scores.
The Problematic: After the game, Nelson Caesar admitted that the team "took Rice for granted." But how do you take for granted a crosstown rival? How do you overlook a team that nearly beat you a year ago? Head coach Dana Holgorsen, for his part, offered up a stream of "maybes" as for why the Cougars didn't play well: maybe the team overexerted themselves in practice, or maybe they didn't take Rice seriously enough, or maybe they were looking forward to TCU the following week, or maybe whatever. While he did admit that he is ultimately responsible for his team's performance, these "maybes" simply speak to a team culture and identity that he's never been able to cultivate during his four-plus years (at four-plus million dollars per year) at Houston. I don't expect that's ever going to change as long as he's here, either.
What It Means: When the Cougars begin the season (first or second game of the year) with a win over Rice, they average eight wins per season. When they lose to Rice at the beginning of the season, they average 2.8 wins.
Up next for Houston is their Big XII Conference opener against 2022 CFP runner-up TCU at TDECU Stadium.
Ryan scratches his head at a "bizarre" game, while Chris Baldwin thinks the TCU matchup is a "near must win" for Houston. I'm not going to hold my breath.
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