- Army Rolls Over Rice In A Rout On Military Appreciation Day - October 7, 2017
The Rice Owls (1-5) entered the day looking to snap a three game skid. Meanwhile, the Army West Point Black Knights (4-2) came into the game hoping to pick up their first road victory on what was Military Appreciation Day. Army represented in a major way, literally running away in a 49-12 rout.
Known for its extremely run heavy offensive attack, Army’s quarterback Ahmad Bradshaw threw an interception on his very first pass attempt. However, that turnover didn’t result in points unlike Rice’s quarterback Miklo Smalls, whose first quarter pick-six became the first score of the game.
On the first play of the following drive, Rice turned over the ball again in Army’s red zone, this time courtesy of a botched handoff. Bradshaw immediately capitalized, scoring on a quarterback keeper two plays later.
Rice fumbled on the subsequent drive yet again on a busted play and nine seconds later, Army running back Kell Walker punched it into the end zone.
Smalls was benched in favor of backup quarterback Jackson Tyner, but two plays later (you guessed it) a Rice fumble occured, this time by wide receiver Kylen Granson. By the end of the first quarter, the Army Black Knights led 21-0 and never looked back.
Army scored its fourth touchdown on the opening play of the second quarter and Kell Walker kept the pedal to the metal scoring his second touchdown of the day on a 47-yard run.
Midway through the second quarter, Owls fans had already begun filing out of Rice Stadium.
Rice scored on their opening drive of the second half on a 22-yard run by Emmanuel Eskupa but a blocked extra point attempt left the score at 35-6.
Bradshaw and the Black Knights answered with a seven-yard touchdown run.
The Owls coughed up their fourth fumble (the Owls would fumble a fifth time) in a nightmarish showing in front of their home crowd.
Quarterback Jackson Tyner led Rice to the end zone late in the fourth quarter in what hopefully can become a building block for the remainder of the Owls’ season.
Walker (three rush TDs) and Bradshaw (two rush TDs) led Army’s ground assault, which tallied six rush touchdowns in total.
Army will hope to carry this momentum into next week’s game versus Eastern Michigan, while Rice will travel on the road to face the University of Texas-San Antonio.
