How Will Rutgers Deal With the Loss of Paul James?

Rutgers running back Paul James will miss the remainder of the season after suffering a torn ACL in the Scarlet Knights win over Navy two weeks ago. He was injured early in the second quarter when he took a helmet to the knee in the open field. James has suffered a number of serious injuries through out his career, and you can't help but feel awful for him.

James was the catalyst of the Rutgers offense that got off to a pretty good start to the season (save for the disastrous second half against Penn State), so losing him is obviously a big blow. It looked like he added some more speed and power to go along with the tremendous vision and quickness he displayed in the past, rushing for 363 yards (5.8 per carry) with seven total touchdowns through three games and a quarter in 2014. He was arguably the Scarlet Knights best player, but running back is one of the few positions Rutgers is equipped at to deal with an injury.

Desmon Peoples will step in as the nominal starter, but he will not be able to make up for James' production alone. This is going to be more of a replace Jason Giambi's numbers with David Justice and Scott Hatteberg kind of deal. Peoples (4.3 ypc) and Justin Goodwin (4.7 ypc) are both going to see an increase in carries, and they have both proved to be capable ball carriers over the last two seasons.

Goodwin is James lite, possessing patience, vision and quickness comparable to PJ, albeit it with out the speed and power. He did an admirable job starting a few games in place of James last year as a true freshman, and he has proven to be a dangerous receiving threat out of the backfield as well. Peoples is I still think more of a scat back since he doesn't have the patience necessary for the type of running game Rutgers deploys, but his speed has been an asset spelling James so far this year. The offensive line has been very good this year at opening holes for the backs, so that combined with these two should allow Rutgers to continue running the ball effectively with out James.

Another way Rutgers can make up for the loss of James is through the passing game. Offensive coordinator Ralph Friedgen has relied heavily on the running game in the early going since Rutgers has been with out their second and third receivers, Andre Patton and Ruhan Peele. The return of those two will obviously give quarterback Gary Nova more weapons to throw to and hopefully prevent defenses from double teaming Leontee Carroo on basically every play. Patton is a big target who has speed and can stretch the field vertically, while Peele is a slot guy who is tough over the middle and a good route runner.

Losing James obviously sucks for the team, but Rutgers offense should be able to survive his injury this year. The offensive line needs to play as well in conference play as they did in the non conference slate, and Goodwin and Peoples need to just keep being themselves and not try to do too much and the passing game should improve as two of their top three receivers come back from injury. It will be a group effort making up for James lost production, but I think the Knights are capable of doing it, especially with The Fridge at the helm.