Southern Miss QBs throw 4 interceptions in close loss to Rice
Conference USA play wasn’t any nicer to Southern Miss than the non-conference games.
The Golden Eagles opened the conference schedule with a disappointing 24-19 defeat at the hands of Rice Saturday night at Rice Stadium.
USM dropped to 1-4 overall; Rice improved to 2-3 and 1-0.
“One more play,” said Golden Eagle coach Will Hall in his comments on the Southern Miss radio network. “We’ve got find a way to make one more play.”
Instead, it was the Owls who made the extra play, on more than one occasion, picking off four passes from Southern Miss quarterbacks.
“This was a really tough loss, tough on everybody in our entire program,” said Hall. “We lost the turnover battle four-to-zero. At the end of the day, that’s the reason we lost the game.”
It started on the opening series of the game, freshman Ty Keyes’ deep pass was picked off by George Nyakwol, setting the stage for the first score of the game.
The Owls drove 74 yards on nine plays, scoring on a 39-yard catch-and-run over the middle by Jake Bailey, who skipped out of the tackle of safety Camron Harrell and dashed untouched into the end zone.
“We played well together, for each other,” said Harrell. “We have a great defense, from front to back and end to end, but we need to work on some communications things.”
When the Golden Eagles came back on the field after the ensuing kickoff, it was back-up Jake Lange who came out to play quarterback. Keyes had turned his ankle and did not return to the game.
“I thought Jake played his butt off,” said Hall. “He came in and laid it on the line for our program. He’s a winner, and he’s going to give you everything he’s got. He’s going to be a coach someday, and he’ll be a good one.””
Indeed, the freshman from Jackson Prep made his first appearance for Southern Miss look like he’d been doing it forever.
Lange was 4 for 5 on the six-play 75-yard scoring drive, converting passes of 15 and 16 yards to Jason Brownlee, then the touchdown on a 31-yard pass to freshman Chandler Pittman, who ran a sideline pattern down the right side and beat the coverage to the end zone.
“I’ve always prepared like I was the guy,” said Lange. “I knew my preparation was good. I knew I was going to put everything into it that I had.”
Lange finished the night 23 of 38 for 304 yards, but the pass to Pittman was his only touchdown pass, and he was picked off three times. For good measure, Lange was sacked five times.
“I put this loss on myself,” said Lange. “Our line, our skill guys, our coaches, all had a great game plan. Three throws, and a couple of situational things that I’d love to have back. But that’s football.”
The Nasty Bunch defense kept Rice at bay for a while, but in the latter stages of the second quarter, the Owls got their passing game going behind quarterback Jake Constantine.
The senior transfer from Weber State had big passes of 18 yards to Cedric Patterson and 21 yards to Bailey, before the Golden Eagles stopped the drive at the USM 23.
Rice head coach Mike Bloomgren debated going for the fourth-and-2, but instead elected to let senior Christian Van Sickle try a college field goal, from 41 yards out.
Van Sickle, whose career as a kicker at three colleges, including Rice, has been entirely on kickoffs, rewarded his coach’s confidence with a boot that caromed off the right upright and into the net for the field goal.
With 3:46 to play in the first half, and two time-outs, Southern Miss had plenty of time and opportunity to score and moved into position to do just that.
Frank Gore Jr. had his best run of the night, a 17-yard scamper of third-and-1 from the USM 34, Lange passed 19 yards to Antoine Robinson, then Dajon Richard rumbled 11 yards to the Rice 21.
There, however, the Golden Eagle faltered, and got nothing out of it when Brooks Bourgeois’ 33-yard field goal attempt on the final play of the half was partially blocked and fell wide left.
It mattered, because Rice took the first possession of the second half and drove briskly 75 yards on nine plays. Almost all of them were covered via the pass as Constantine was 5 of 6 for 73 yards on the drive.
The touchdown came on a 19-yard strike from Constantine to tight end Robert French. Constantine also completed passes of 16 yards to Jordan Myers, 15 yards to tight end Jack Bradley and 14 to Cedric Patterson to set up the score.
“I thought we played real well on defense in the first half,” Hall said. “I was disappointed in the opening drive of the second half, when they took it down and scored. But we played really hard on defense against a good offensive team.”
Instead, it quickly got worse for Lange and the Golden Eagles. Lange first play in the series was successful, a 16-yard pass to Brownlee. On second down, Naeen Smith was in the right place for an interception to give the Owls the ball at the Southern Miss 38.
Patterson gobbled up those yards in a hurry, taking a reverse around right end behind a wall of blockers and dashing down the right sideline untouched to give Rice a seemingly comfortable 24-7 lead.
Harrell made the Owls uncomfortable in a hurry. Taking the kickoff at the 5-yard-line, Harrell found an opening in the pursuit, broke through an arm tackle and motored 95 yards for a touchdown to get the Golden Eagles back in the game.
“We had a game plan coming in, and the coaches were telling us to believe, believe, believe,” said Harrell. “It takes everybody to make a play happen.”
Southern Miss narrowed the margin to 24-17 early in the fourth quarter.
Taking over at their own 14-yard-line, the Golden Eagles marched into position to score. Gore picked up 10 yards on a third-and-1, then Lange connected with Brownlee for a 32-yard gainer. The next play was a 14-yard pass to Brad Dennis for a first-and-goal at the Rice 8.
But from there, things went south for Southern Miss. A false start moved the Golden Eagles back 5 yards, followed by an incomplete pass, and an 8-yard sack. From the 21, Lange and Robinson got 11 of it back, not enough to chance going for it.
Instead, Bourgeois was successful on a 26-yard kick, and the Golden Eagle special teams weren’t through, as Harrell jumped on an onside kick at the Rice 49.
But Southern Miss squandered that opportunity, and the next two possessions ended in interceptions, the second giving Rice the ball at their own 7-yard-line with 1:15 to play.
“We needed one more play, on defense, one more turnover,” Hall said. “One more play as a program and we win this football game.”
The Golden Eagles were able to prevent Rice from getting a first down, but not from milking the clock of all but seven seconds. Facing a fourth-and-8 from the Owls 9, Bloomgren chose to give USM a safety, rather than risk a punt.
The Golden Eagles managed to get the free kick for one last play, but Lange’s Hail Mary was knocked down by the Rice defenders near the 20-yard-line.
Gore led Southern Miss with 79 yards rushing on 17 carries, Brownlee had a breakout night with eight receptions for 127 yards and Malik Short led the defense with seven tackles.
“The culture is great,” Hall said. “Our kids battle, our kids fight, our kids believe. But we’ve got to find a way to play better.
“The heart, the effort, the belief and all the things you pour into the foundation when you’re building a program, those things are being poured. We’ve just got to get to the point where we can win the game.”
Southern Miss returns to the more friendly confines of Roberts Stadium next week, when UTEP comes to visit. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday. Rice has an open next week, then plays October 16 at UTSA.