Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Rutgers Sloppy in Win Over Howard

In Rutgers' final tune up for their big 10 opener against Penn State, the Scarlet Knights took care of business against Howard, winning by a score of 38-25. It was not a particularly well played game by the team, especially on the defensive side of the ball, but it probably wasn't as bad as it looked. The coaching staff understandably kept things extremely vanilla and took it easy on some of their star players, and I would not be the least bit surprised if the players started looking forward to this week's show down with that team from Pennsylvania after jumping out to a 31-7 half time lead against their MEAC opponent. The backups --many of whom were getting their first tast of college experience-- played a big hand in uglifying the final stat line as well.

After going three and out on their opening possession, the Scarlet Knights offense caught fire. Paul James and Desmond Peoples moved the ball methodically down the field behind a powerful offensive line, but they had to settle for a field goal after a personal foul penalty set them back. Kyle Fedderico connected from 42 yards out to get Rutgers on the board mid way through the first. On their next possession Ralph Fridgen dialed up a perfect play call against the blitzing Bison defense, as Nova hit James on a swing pass, and James exploded 69 yards (hehe) down the sideline for the team's first touchdown of the day. James would later punch in a seven yard score behind a booming lead block from the pulling Chris Muller, and score again through the air after powering through some arm tackles in the open field. It was another outstanding day for Rutgers' junior tailback, and he was given the second half off.

Gary Nova was very efficient in this one, tossing four touchdown pass and no interceptions, while averaging close to 15 yards per attempt. It's easy to dismiss touchdown passes to runningbacks, but his second touchdown toss to James was a check down after scanning the defense. That's a good sign, taking what is there and not forcing it down field. He also threw a beautiful post pattern between two defenders to Leonte Carroo for a 38 yard score, and a 14 yard corner to John Tsimis in the end zone for the offense's final score of the afternoon. Andrew Turzilli, Tyler Kroft and Carlton Agodosi all hauled in their first receptions of the season, and fullback Michael Burton (who played a lot of tightend in this one) recorded a 22 yard reception on a bootleg. All in all, the first team offense did a great job, dominating an FCS defense that they should dominate.

The second team offense was another story. The line was getting beat, and two of Chris Laviano's three passes were dropped. This unit needs to improve a lot. If there are some injuries, it could spell trouble for the offense,

I wouldn't call the defense's game a complete disaster, but it was very troublesome. Howard marched rigt down the field on their opening possession and scored a touchdown, as Aquanis Freeman broke free for a twenty yard score. The defense then tightend things up a bit, forcing two successive Bison punts, before Quinton Gause was able to force a fumble that was then recovered by Nadir Barnwell. Howard then started to gain chunks of yardage through the air, got into the redzone, and dropped a would be touchdown pass, before having to settle for a field goal after a blitzing Jonathan Aiken notched a sack. The three point attempt was blocked by Kemoko Turay and again recovered by Barnwell. Howard got a poor snap off and their own ineptitude was the only thing that kept them off the board here. Howard again moved the ball into RU territory on their final possession of the half, before running out of time and coming away with nothing.

On their opening drive of the second half, Dave Milewski sacked Bison QB Greg McGee, forcing a punt that would be blocked by Anthony Cioffi, bursting in off the edge. The first team defense's penultimate series of the day was extended by a very questionable late hit called against Steve Longa and Howard took advantage by scoring their second touchdown of the afternoon. A sack by Turay and a three and out punctuated the starting defense's mixed results day. The second team defense was a total disaster. They were completely undisciplined and allowed Howard's zone read attack to run all over them and score two garbage time touchdowns. That's just unacceptable.

Julian Pinnix-Odrick also added a sack, giving Rutgers four on the day. The pass rush was not the problem with the defense. They were very sloppy, missing tackles and not staying in their gap (Turay in particular did not contain the edge on Howard's first touchdown). There were quite a few big plays, but the lack of fundamentals are disturbing. This defense has talent, but Joe Rossi and company need to polish this up. They have a lot of work to do before facing TTFP this week.

Rutgers offense fared very well in their last game situation before conference play, but the defense still has a lot to work on. Rutgers stayed healthy in this one and did not give away too much scheme wise and that's the most important thing. A lot of the mistakes they made Saturday are correctable, and it's up to the coaching staff to get this team ready for their inaugural Big 10 game a few days from now.



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