Rice will try to spring an upset for the second consecutive week when it travels to Houston on Saturday night. The Owls were 12-point underdogs in their 33-21 win over Louisiana last week. Houston has now dropped two straight games to Texas Tech and Kansas since beating UTSA in its season opener.
Rice got off to a rough start this season when it was tasked with facing one of the most explosive offenses in college football, and it showed in the 66-14 loss to then-No. 14 USC. The Owls have been impressive in their two games since then, beating McNeese State 52-10 before pulling off a big upset against Louisiana last week. Louisiana entered the week with the nation’s longest winning streak, making it one of the biggest upsets of the week. Rice quarterback TJ McMahon has completed 63.8% of his passes for 642 yards and seven touchdowns through his first three games.
Battle for the Bucket.#GoOwls?? x #RFND pic.twitter.com/KCY9jXuQ45
— Rice Football (@RiceFootball) September 19, 2022
McMahon will be focused on avoiding mistakes on Saturday, as he has thrown six interceptions as well. Three of those picks came against USC, while the other three came in the first half against Louisiana last week. McMahon told reporters after the game that he needs to clean up mistakes, otherwise his team will not be able to beat some of the teams on the schedule—that is certainly true this week. Junior running back Ari Broussard is averaging just 2.8 yards per carry on 51 attempts, but senior running back Cameron Montgomery has turned 15 carries into 132 yards. The Owls have lost six straight games against Houston, including a 44-7 setback at home last season as 7.5-point underdogs.