Rice 27, Florida Atlantic 26: What We Learned

[caption id="attachment_19346" align="alignleft" width="300"]Photo by Diana Porter Photo by Diana Porter[/caption] Rice came back to grab a thrilling 27-26 win over Florida Atlantic on Saturday in Boca Raton. What did we learn? DCTF's Greg Tepper breaks it down.Rice may have saved its season. With 13:50 left in the game, Driphus Jackson was pressured and threw an incomplete pass to Zach Wright at the Florida Atlantic 32. With FAU leading 26-14, there was a decent chance that the game was, for all intents and purposes, over. Rice was staring a 2-4 record in the face — and a 1-2 conference record as well — and against a 1-3 squad, that really may have spelled doom for the Owls’ season. But then something funny happened: Rice stepped up. The defense forced a three-and-out. Five plays later — thanks to a penalty, a 60-yard pass from Jackson to tight end Connor Cella, and a 21-yard touchdown run from Jackson — the Owls were in the end zone, cutting the lead to 26-21. The defense firmed again, another three-and-out, and Driphus Jackson launched a 9-play, 83-yard touchdown drive, capping it with a 14-yard touchdown pass to Darik Dillard with 2:07 to play, giving the Owls an improbable 27-26 lead. Five plays later, Rice had the ball back, and the game was over. Rice stared the abyss in the face, and survived. Now at 3-3 and 2-1 in Conference USA play, the Owls have gone from the brink to the driver’s seat. Driphus Jackson is the Owls’ unquestioned leader. You saw right. Go back and look at the play log, and it’ll verify it for you. After that moment with 13:50 left, when Rice was on the ropes, the Owls ran 14 non-kneeldown plays. Care to guess how many Driphus Jackson was involved in, either running it or throwing it? Nine of them. When the game mattered most, David Bailiff turned to his signal-caller and said, “Save us.” And he did. Driphus Jackson is a special player. The pass defense is still a problem. Not to take the shine off of what is a fantastic win, but this Owls’ secondary — and pass defense in general — continues to be the biggest issue facing the team. Florida Atlantic came into the game averaging about 6.5 yards per pass attempt; in this one, the Owls (of FAU, that is) got 7.5. Jaquez Johnson had plenty of time to throw, and completed 15 of 29 passes for 249 yards and two scores. If the Owls (Rice, that is) are going to survive the heart of Conference USA play, that pass defense has to firm itself up.