The game began in a disastrous fashion for the offense when Gary Nova threw a horribly inaccurate pass that sailed over D.C. Jefferson's head and into the arms of a Howard defensive back. They followed that drive up with a punt, and things continued to get worse on the next possession when Jawan Jamison had a swing pass, that was actually a lateral, boink off his helmet for a loss of 19 yards. Following a delay of game penalty, Rutgers was faced with a 3rd and 34 situation.
On that ominous 3rd and 34 play, Jamison atoned for error and then some, taking a hand off on a stretch play 64 yards to the Howard 24, juking a defender out of his shoes and giving the Scarlet Knights offense some much needed momentum in the process. R.J. Dill made tremendous block on the play, hustling down field to block a safety to spring Jamison. Savon Huggins capped off the drive with a 1 yard plunge to give Rutgers a 6-0 lead.
The offensive line and Jawan Jamison once again lead a dominant ground attack, as Rutgers averaged 5.8 yards a carry. Jamison had a 110 yard day on only 10 carries (11 ypc), Huggins added 24 yards in addition to his TD, and walk on Ben Martin got some carries at the end of the game, rushing for 48 yards. Center Betim Bujari and right guard Andre Civil left the game with injuries, but Matt McBride and Taj Alexander stepped in and did a pretty solid job. They have only played Tulane and Howard, but this strong rushing attack has certainly been encouraging.
The passing game was once again terrible, despite the offensive line allowing no sacks for the second week in a row. Not only was there Nova's interception and the botched swing pass/lateral, but Nova struggled with his accuracy on short throws all day and his receivers had trouble hanging on to the ball. Not a good combination. Dave Brock continued calling a ton of screen passes and they continued to not work too well. That crap needs to stop. No one really stepped it up as the go to possession receiver either. Despite an awful day overall (4.8 yards per attempt is unacceptable against anyone), Gary Nova was able to connect with Brandon Coleman twice for scores on deepish passes. Maybe they should try going deep more often?
The defense stepped up in a huge way, as usual, leading the Knights to victory in a dominant, shut out fashion. After Nova's interception, Khaseem Greene was able to force a fumble and get the Knights the ball back, after 2 penalties pressed their backs against the goal line. Jamal and Jamil Merrill both had a huge days while playing with heavy hearts, as Jamal recorded 14 tackles, 3.5 for loss and Jamil picked up a sack.
Greene, Ka'Lial Glaud, and Kevin Snyder all had sacks of their own and Steve Beauharnais added 6 tackles. The interior line continued to wreck havoc, as Scott Vallone, Isaac Holmes, and Darius Hamilton rushed the passer and stuffed the run all day. The secondary also did its' part, limiting the Bison to 3.4 yards per pass attempt. Really, everyone on defense had a great game, and outside of one long run on a draw play, they totally shut Howard down. They did improve on 3rd down too, but they can still do a lot better than holding the opposition to 6-17.
Miles Shuler, who should really be on the field more often, blocked a punt early in the second quarter, and Brandon Jones scooped it up for a TD. It seems like the special temas unit always steps up and gives the team a jolt when they need it most. Elsewhere on special teams, I don't know what they were doing on the first PAT, when they lined up in that formation where everyone was split wide and had JT Tarcoff? throw an ill advised pass. They also failed another PAT because of a bad snap. Need to clean that up.
The Scarlet Knights had 11 penalties this week, more than the 9 they had against Tulane. They can't continue to shoot themselves in the foot on offense and extend opponents drives on defense like this against better opponents. Luckily for them, USF has had some penalty problems of their own.
Once again, it was not pretty and there weren't a whole lot of style points, but Rutgers got it done with a dominant defense, strong special teams, and a solid ground game. This formula can lead to success (Beamer Ball?), but at some point, Gary Nova and the receivers are going to have to pick their game up and make some plays consistently. Hopefully Rutgers is able to make their biggest improvement of the year between games 2 and 3.
Additional Thoughts-
-Hated the red uniforms. I could not see the numbers on their jerseys at all.
-Rutgers drew 10000 more fans to a game against an FCS team than Syracuse did against the #2 team in the coutry 50 minutes up the road.
-Flood really did his best Schiano impression in this game, getting red in the face yelling at an official. Speaking of Greg, congrats to him on winning his first game as an NFL head coach.
-Throughout the game I jokingly yelled "come on Schiano!" and got some weird looks. Totally worth it.
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