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Rice hosts #21 Baylor on Friday
By: Staff Writer - StatFox
Published: 9/13/2016  at  12:05:00 PM
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BAYLOR BEARS (2-0)
at RICE OWLS (0-2)

Rice Stadium – Houston, TX
Kickoff: Friday, 8:00 p.m. ET
Line: Baylor -30, Total: NA

A Rice team that was unable to stop Western Kentucky and Army must now subject itself to #21 Baylor’s offense on Friday.

If Baylor’s players have been particularly affected by Art Briles’ departure this offseason and the scandal that precipitated it, it hasn’t shown up in box scores yet: They’ve outscored opponents 95-20 in their two games so far this season (0-2 ATS). Granted, their schedule has been about as easy as it could at this point in the season, as matchups with Northwestern State and SMU likely weren’t candidates to host College Gameday. With few paying attention, the star-studded Bears offense has continued to roll, with players like senior QB Seth Russell, junior WR KD Cannon and senior running back Shock Linwood putting up their standard eye-popping numbers with few eyes actually watching. For young men in a program under such intense scrutiny, it may be a blessing to start the season with little fanfare. That likely won’t change this week, even though Friday night’s game at Rice will be nationally televised. After a surprisingly bad 5-7 campaign a year ago, the 2016 Owls look even worse, losing to Western Kentucky 46-14 and Army 31-14 (0-2 ATS). The 2015 Owls entered their game with Baylor in decent shape, sitting at 2-1 (3-0 ATS) with hopes of acquitting themselves well against the Bears as 33-point underdogs. Instead, they lost 70-7. Giving Baylor something of a game would be a first step in the right direction for Rice this year. Favoring Baylor is the statistic that teams that have allowed fewer than 14 points in their previous two games are 39-13 ATS in the past five years against teams that have allowed more than 31 points in their previous two games. David Bailiff is 12-4 OVER in his career as Rice head coach after two straight losses of 17 or more points. He’s also 9-2 ATS at home in games following two or more consecutive losses against the spread.

It was a tale of two halves for Baylor in their game against SMU. The offense sputtered in the first half, scraping together two second-quarter field goals to tie the game at 6-6 heading into halftime. Head coach Jim Grobe probably had a word or two for his guys in the locker room, as they came out and looked like the Baylor people have come to expect. Russell had a mediocre day overall, finishing 26-47 for 261 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. The running game was unspectacular but got the job done, as sophomore RB Terence Williams carried 19 times for 81 yards, redshirt freshman JaMycal Hasty ran for 64 yards on only nine carries and Linwood had only 59 yards on 18 rushes. Heralded as one of the best running backs in the country entering the season, Linwood has actually received three fewer carries than (the also highly-touted) Williams. Of course, there’s been no reason to put a heavy burden on either of them this early on, especially with the recent announcement that junior RB Johnny Jefferson would miss the entire season for personal reasons. Jefferson rushed for 1,000 yards last year, and seemed to break out with 299 yards and three touchdowns in the Russell Athletic Bowl. Cannon has performed well thus far (15 catches, 139 yards, 2 TDs) and redshirt freshman wideout Blake Lynch has been a revelation (8 catches, 126 yards, 2 TDs). Less vaunted than the offense, the Bears’ defense has arguably been better than its counterpart early on this year. First in the Big 12 with 241.5 yards and 10 points allowed per game, the D wreaked havoc on Wednesday by causing four turnovers, including a pick six by senior safety Orion Stewart. Do-everything safety Travon Blanchard missed the first two games with a torn meniscus that he suffered over the summer, but announced on Twitter Sunday night that he was cleared to play this week (although there has been no official announcement).

Senior QB Tyler Stehling was the second-stringer for the past two years at Rice and, unfortunately, his first two games as a full-time starter have been rather ugly. He’s completing 57.4 percent of his passes for 383 yards, a touchdown and three interceptions. Things looked to be on the upswing early last week at Army, when he hit senior Connor Cella for a 64-yard touchdown, but the rest of the game saw little in the way of aerial progress. Junior WR James Mayden leads the team with six catches and 84 yards receiving. The run game hasn’t been much better, as Stehling actually leads the team with 81 yards on the ground. If the Owls can put themselves in a position where they don’t need to pass the ball to play catchup, however, there may be some hope—running backs Darik Dillard and Austin Walter each averaged over five yards per carry last season, and each averaged over six YPC on limited touches against Army. The offense currently ranks 119th in the country with 290 yards per game. The defense has somehow been worse, ranking 121st nationally with 532 yards allowed per game. Nine starters return this year from last season’s defense that allowed 10.2 yards per play against Baylor, and a rematch with the Bears is a nightmare scenario for a unit that could really use a confidence boost.


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