Thoughts on the Rice game

Football
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  1. Rice will NOT be able to cover our “Big Three” receivers (Brown, Golden, Manjack). Smith should throw for 300 yards.

  2. Rice is not as stout up front as UTSA, so our run game (knock on wood), and pass blocking should improve.

  3. Our defense should be just as stout.

UH by two touchdowns or more.

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This is the only point where I’m not so sure. They sacked Ewers 2 times and recorded 8 TFLs. UTSA sacked US thrice and also recorded 8 TFLs. I think they’re quite similar.

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UH -9.5

But your savings account

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They kept it closer than I’d have expected against the horns, and that, along with them having a former 5-star QB under center, has me spooked, especially given how our offense looked Saturday. I think we’re the more talented team, and I ultimately expect us to win, but after last year’s game, I’m not taking this one for granted.

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If our offense remains as is then this will be a lot closer. Rice may even pull off the upset.

If Dana really (as he said but don’t trust he actually will) opens it up more and we get creative in the run game then we should cover easily.

For some reason our playbook on offense is getting smaller and smaller by the year.

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ESPN computers have us at 68% chance of winning over the nerds. I’ll go with that.

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Just show improvement and win

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We aren’t at a point to take anyone lightly, or assign a “W” to anyone on our schedule. I hope to see improvement against Rice, especially on offense. I don’t see any reason to think this won’t be a fairly close game, but if we win the turnover battle again maybe we can pull out a good margin. Heck, I just want to get a victory.

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Rices defense looked decent against Tu but wore down in the second half.
Of course they will be super hyped up and you can bet they will come after our quarterback.
We better not go over there over confident or it will be a war like last year.

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Yeah, I’m not super confident. This game will be their Super Bowl, and I think they’re an improved team that has a good shot at a bowl game. We often have trouble at Rice Stadium.

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Our DB’s were….not very good last year. Let’s hope they are better this year.

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I agree. First half they’re gonna come out swinging. Hoping we can “wear them down” by H2, though.

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Rice almost exclusively will force UH to put an extra man in the box so they can stop the run.

Rice’s defense since Holgo has been here is designed to stop the rush. The pass game!!?!? Maybe not so much!

We MUST be able to push our weight around on these guys and run the freaking ball!!!

If we can’t we’re at danger of losing this game!
Period.

Control TOP again and you can maybe cover the spread.

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I have faith in our team but let’s not jump the gun. I’m sure Baylor thought they would beat Texas State. I’m sure Tech thought they would beat Wyoming and we had trouble beating Rice last year.

Who thought Duke would slaughter Clemson? Lol

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Just don’t turn the ball over.

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  1. Rice will NOT be able to cover our “Big Three” receivers (Brown, Golden, Manjack). Smith should throw for 300 yards.

Agreed, but CDH will not target Brown, Golden, or Manjack enough to take advantage of their skill sets. He’d rather run up the middle for zero yards. Why throw it for 30 yards when you can run over and over again for zero yards? That’s page one of the CDH playbook. He rarely gets past page one.

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People look at Rice and rely on their view of them historically. I think Texas State hit the nail on the proverbial transfer portal head this past weekend. College football has changed. Rice is no longer Rice. From a talent standpoint, this is a game we could lose. From a coaching standpoint, we should win.

All of CDH’s many accomplishments have to be true at some point. This Saturday they will be tested.

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This is why I hate playing Rice. We’re always overconfident. And we’re rarely as good as we think against them.

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I’m expecting a low scoring game similar to UTSA. Prediction: UH wins 20-13 expect Dana to try to control the TOP & run as much clock as he can & Rice covers the spread.

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Well, we’ve beaten them seven straight times, 33 out of 44 meetings, and in our victories, our average margin of victory had been about 3 TDs, so I disagree with people that say that Rice usually plays us tough or that we shouldn’t be confident when we play them.

In the end, I saw our big three receivers getting open against USTA, and I can’t imagine Rice having a better defense.

Given that, I think we score points and cover.

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