A heartbreaking loss as a result of a missed field goal isn’t a new phenomenon in football. For that reason, the Rice football team should perhaps be celebrated for their innovation in creating a new level of misery associated with that form of defeat on Saturday.
All the Owls needed to win their overtime game against Middle Tennessee was one single score. In response to that situation, the team got conservative with their play-calling and set up a tough-but-still-manageable field goal to take home the victory. Collin Riccitelli lined up to kick the 45-yarder, ready to be the hero, and instead became the goat — the scape kind, not the all-caps kind — when the ball bounced off all three bars of the goal post, including the crossbar twice, only to fall back into the endzone.
It’s bad enough when an unpaid collegiate kicker ends up on the wrong end of these kinds of situations, but things only got worse for Riccitelli as the overtime periods continued. Middle Tennessee ended up winning in double overtime as the Blue Raiders blocked a Rice field goal and then Asher O’Hara scored on a walk-off touchdown on the subsequent drive to give Middle Tennessee a 40-34 overtime victory.