Once again, Gary Nova turned the ball over way too often. I've long been one of Nova's biggest supporters, but it's getting really unacceptable how often he turns over the ball. He is in his third year as a starter, and this can't keep happening. He is making the same mistakes over and over by forcing passes into triple coverage. He was so good earlier in the season, and he needs to get his act together, shake off these last two awful performances and start playing better. He's clearly the most talented player Rutgers has at the position (they have no other legitimate options at the moment, honestly) and he needs to start showing it again.
Justin Goodwin had another big day in the loss, and running the football was the only competent thing Rutgers could do all day. Kaleb Johnson and Keith Lumpkin did a great job clearing the way for him on the left side, and the offensive line played much better as a whole, especially in pass protection, than they did last time out against Louisville. Unfortunately, they had to overly rely on the passing game since they were behind by so much, and couldn't fully exploit their advantage up front. I've loved what Ron Prince has done this year, but I'm not sure why Desmond Peoples was running the ball on a third and one in the second quarter or why Savon Huggins was throwing passes while Rutgers was playing catch up.
The defense once again could not stop the other team's spread passing attack to save their lives. They are obviously young and short handed in the defensive backfield, but have you seen a modicum of improvement out of them this year? Have you seen one defensive back make a tackle in space? Intercept a pass? Knock a ball down? The extremely poor play is alarming. The coaching staff should have made some adjustments to improve this by now and the young players should be improving. Neither thing is happening. The Knights could not stop the run either, but that's probably in large part due to selling out against the pass. This isn't much of a concern. Yet.
Not only was the team a no show today, but the crowd was too. I don't understand how you can not show up until half way through the second quarter and then have the nerve to boo the team. They should boo you, you are an embarrassment. Can you just imagine what a laughing stock Rutgers will be next year if their Big Ten debut against Penn State is at noon and ESPN shows how empty the stadium is at kick off?
I'm not saying he should be fired, but I'm really starting to have a lot of doubts about Kyle Flood leading this program. The team is far too talented to lose games like this at home against teams like Houston, no disrespect to the Cougars. Rutgers should be long past having games like this, yet here we are. The team is starting to perform below expectations again, and I'm going to write more about this issue in my next post.
Rutgers has been stuck in neutral for quite a few years now, and it looks dangerously close to going back in the wrong direction after Saturday's nightmare of a game. They still play three very bad teams in their final five games (Temple, UConn and USF), so they should still make a bowl game. They will do no better than the Pinstripe Bowl, and they will almost definitely end up there thanks to proximity, even though they might end up belonging in the BBVA Compass Bowl or St Petersberg Bowl. They will most likely play Notre Dame in the Bronx.
It's also probably time the school considers canceling home coming. To recap the last four home coming games: this one, a loss to Kent State, a 21-20 win over Navy where the Midshipmen had a field goal blocked late in the 4th quarter, and a loss to Tulane. Yea. That's pretty bad.
No comments:
Post a Comment