The Good
-Running Game
What seemed like it might be a thin position at RB looks to be well stocked. Smith was Smith, Rocket will be a solid back up that should push for more touches as the year moves on and Johnson looked good in the time he saw. KJ's is the runner we hoped he was going to be. Will help our passing game tremendously and lets face facts, it will need it.

-Defense
Line held up and got better as the game went on. We don't have a Marshall but our depth is better than last year with the transfer additions. Back 7 is still, overall, our strength and they looked the part. Considering we were without 3 defensive starters for a good part of the game I feel pretty good about this side of the ball.

The Bad
-Receivers/TE
Burks clearly wasn't 100%. Frankly I don't think Warren is back to it either, if he even ever can be. Can't be dropping the passes that are on time and hit you in the hands. Some guys are going to need to step up for us not to be one dimensional. Otherwise Burks is going to get doubled every play. TE was virtually non-existent I hope that we are saving Kerns wheel and Hudson for Texas. We need big bodies that can go get the ball.

-Passing game
Oof. After having Franks that was hard to watch. I don't think it's KJ's accuracy that's really the problem, it's decision making. Several of the passes that he sailed it looked like he was trying to fit it over defenders and were passes he shouldn't have thrown in the first place. He clearly isn't as comfortable in the pocket going through his reads. We need to move the pocket and let him make decisions on the move as he performed much better when we did.

-Offensive Play calling
I give Briles a bit of a pass here since I'm sure he didn't want to open it up before Texas but man, KJ isn't a pocket passer and continuing to try and force him to be is going to turn him into an interception machine. Also the hurry up has it's place and can be effective but you have to be able to build up to it and use it effectively. Several times we were rushing just to do it and it made us more unorganized than the defense.

The Ugly
-LG
Latham got absolutely worked all game. Missing assignments, getting instantly shed and one time just straight getting knocked back on his arse. The rest of the line had it's ups and downs but Rice's big boys got pressure through the left side almost the entire game

-Bishop
He had a pretty bad game. Blew several coverages, one going for a TD at the worst time, drew flags and frankly wasn't very impressive as a returner. Sark and others are going to attack him and Clark and they are going to have to play well and Odom is going to have to switch up coverages and looks to try and mask it.

-The 4th&2 sneak
I'm not sure how that play even came to be. The fact nobody called a timeout or was able to assess how dumb of a call that was is amazing. That's got to be one where both players and coaches hang their head a bit when watching the film.

-Penalties
Mostly sloppy stuff that should be easy to clean up. Targeting calls were pretty weak.

Overview
Can't take too much from this game. Rice played well but ran out of gas at the end of the 3rd. Good teams won't. We have a couple of glaring weaknesses but 6-7 wins still feels pretty achievable. We have talent and better depth than last year but Briles and the offense better have some aces up their sleeves for next week or we won't win.

I still think we win and will be going hard at the Texas posters on the rant. I'll have some crow to eat if we don't.......but I'm leaving for a week in Florida Sunday morning so I appoint Pio as my substitute crow eater. Please direct all fallout to him.

This post was edited on 9/5/21 at 7:41 pm