Saturday, November 16
Murfreesboro, TN
3:30 p.m.
Rice University
31
at
28
Middle Tennessee
Photo by: ©2019 JIM BROWN
Owls Defeat Middle Tennessee 31-28
11/16/2019 7:25:00 PM | Football
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Rice's Tom Stewart and Bradley Rozner connected for three first half touchdown scores to help pace the Owls football team to a 31-28 Conference USA road victory over Middle Tennessee Saturday afternoon in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
The Story
Rice jumped on the board in the first quarter with 42-yard field goal by Chris Barnes, but the Owls weren't quite finished. Stewart found Rozner for the first of three first half TD passes. The initial one was at the 2:11 mark in the period. The second was early in the second half that capped off an eight play drive to give the Owls a 17-0 lead.
Middle Tennessee fought back for a pair of scores to cut the margin to 17-14, but the Owls held firm. On Rice's next possession Aston Walter broke an electric 34-yard TD run through heavy traffic that helped put the Blue & Gray back up by 10. Stewart then found Rozner for a 30-yard scoring strike on the Owls' next possession to make it a 31-14 game at the intermission. The Blue Raiders added two scores in the second half to pull within three, but Rice took enough time off the clock on its final drive before the defense closed out the victory.
First Meeting
Saturday's contest was the first football meeting between Rice and Middle Tennessee. The teams had never met even though the Blue Raiders joined Conference USA in 2013.
Next Up
Rice next returns home to host C-USA West Division foe North Texas on Saturday, Nov. 23, at 2:30 pm. The game is scheduled for a live television broadcast on the NFL Network.
Game Notes
Individual
The Story
Rice jumped on the board in the first quarter with 42-yard field goal by Chris Barnes, but the Owls weren't quite finished. Stewart found Rozner for the first of three first half TD passes. The initial one was at the 2:11 mark in the period. The second was early in the second half that capped off an eight play drive to give the Owls a 17-0 lead.
Middle Tennessee fought back for a pair of scores to cut the margin to 17-14, but the Owls held firm. On Rice's next possession Aston Walter broke an electric 34-yard TD run through heavy traffic that helped put the Blue & Gray back up by 10. Stewart then found Rozner for a 30-yard scoring strike on the Owls' next possession to make it a 31-14 game at the intermission. The Blue Raiders added two scores in the second half to pull within three, but Rice took enough time off the clock on its final drive before the defense closed out the victory.
First Meeting
Saturday's contest was the first football meeting between Rice and Middle Tennessee. The teams had never met even though the Blue Raiders joined Conference USA in 2013.
Next Up
Rice next returns home to host C-USA West Division foe North Texas on Saturday, Nov. 23, at 2:30 pm. The game is scheduled for a live television broadcast on the NFL Network.
Game Notes
- Rice won the coin toss and deferred to the second half. It was the Owls' seventh win of the toss this year.
- The Owls snapped a nine-game losing streak overall, a 10-game losing streak on the road and a nine-game road losing streak in C-USA.
- This was the first meeting between the Owls and Blue Raiders.
- Rice held MT without a score on its first offensive possession. It is the seventh game that Rice has held the opposition without a score on its first possession since closing the 2014 season with 10-straight such games.
- Rice scored on its first possession of the game for the fourth time in six C-USA games.
- The Owls' did not surrender the lead at any point in the contest.
- Rice's 10-0 lead after the first quarter was their largest of the season. The team previously led at UAB 7-0.
- Their 31-17 lead at halftime was their first lead at the half on the road since 9/9/17 when taking a 10-0 advantage on UTEP… The 31 points at the half were four more than their single-game high of 27 at UTSA and were their most at halftime since they led UTEP 34-6 in 2016.
Individual
- Chris Barnes' 42-yard field goal in the first quarter was the longest of his career and the longest by an Owl since Haden Tobola converted a 51-yarder at LSU in 2018.
- Brian Chaffin returned to action after missing the last two games and made his first career start at guard.
- Nahshon Ellerbe's 37-yard KO return in the second quarter was a career-long. He returned a kick 34 yards vs. Prairie View in 2016.
- Zane Knipe recorded his first career carry and gained 12 yards.
- Tom Stewart's 30-yard TD pass to Brad Rozner was the longest for the Owls in 2019 and the longest by the Owls since Shawn Stankavage connected with Austin Walter for a 68-yard score at LA Tech in 2018.
- Stewart completed 18-of-22 pass attempts for 222 yards and three touchdowns. His previous yardage best at Rice was 185 yds. vs. Wake Forest on 19-of-30 passing. He previously threw two touchdowns vs. Texas.
- Brad Rozner caught a career-high three touchdowns.He is the first Owl to have three TD receptions in a game since Jordan Taylor caught three vs. UTEP on 10/26/13.
- Rozner finished the night with 8 catches for 130 yards. His career highs are 9 for 138. He had two TD receptions entering the game.
- Andrew Bird's interception at the end of the half was the first of his career.
- Aston Walter eclipsed the 100-yd barrier for the fourth time this season. He had 15 carries for 106 yards.
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