The Rutgers football team began the 2021 season with a convincing 61-14 win over Temple on Saturday at SHI Stadium in Piscataway. It was the most points Rutgers scored in the first game of the season against an FBS opponent.
Rutgers led 26-7 at halftime, but the stats were close other than turnovers and special teams yards. Temple scored on a nine-play drive to make it 26-14, and then it was all Rutgers after that.
"I think, really, you look at it at halftime, I told the team, the score, there was a pretty big differential in the score but there wasn't really a differential in yards and those kind of things, the third down conversions. The difference was the takeaways in the first half. When they came out and scored to start the second half -- you know, I've been doing this a long time, and I knew that that was a pivotal time for this football team to see what we did. Were we going to be able to take momentum back or was this going to go down to the end and be decided by a field goal? We needed to do what we did today," head coach Greg Schiano said.
"So do I design it that way? I wish I could tell you that I do, but I was glad to see that they seized the momentum back after that first drive and took control of the football game."
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The game was played two days later than normal as it was postponed on Thursday due to flooding caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida.
"Well, it did change. You've got to remember, like it wasn't just a two-day delay, but just like everybody else, several of our kids got evacuated from their apartments. So they are worried about their stuff and we are in the hotel and they don't know; some of them have animals, dogs, all kinds of things," Schiano said.
"Had to make sure everybody was taken care of and then we literally talked about hitting reset. You can't just continue on that game prep that you were scheduled to play. You know, you build yourself, you build yourself up to play, so we had to hit reset. We came back on Thursday afternoon and had a Thursday practice because we had to go back in the week and start it over at Thursday. I thought our guys, that was another thing I was very proud of them. They did a great job of restarting the week and staying focused the final two days."
It was also the first time in 652 days (Nov. 23, 2019) since fans were in the stands in Piscataway. Public attendance was barred last season during the shortened year due to COVID concerns.
"It was really super. And I'm so proud of our student section. You know, they say students won't come early in the morning; students won't come at noon," Schiano said.
"Well, I was pretty darned impressed by our students. They did a heck of a job. They were loud. It was great energy, great excitement, and to all our fans, really. I mean, think about what this area, this state and this area just went through, and to have that kind of crowd, it's a testament to the fan base we have and to what we have to look forward to. So I was thrilled with that."
Noah Vedral got the start at quarterback for Rutgers and he wasn't at his best. Vedral was just 8-for-17 in the first half for only 48 yards. He finished 15-of-27 for 138 yards and a touchdown. He led the team in rushing with 58 yards.
Rutgers finished with 365 yards after the slow start, was 5-of-16 on third-down, and averaged 4.6 yards per play.
"You know, things didn't go smoothly for us, right. It wasn't like things were just clicking, and we'll find out why that is," Schiano said. "Like I sound like every coach, right, 'let me took at the tape.' But it's hard to tell on the field what's going on but that's okay. Because when you do it as a football team you have to find a way to keep poking and prodding and finding out where you're going to be able to make some yards and then make some points. And that's what we did today and eventually got it rolling a little bit with the help of some more takeaways and some good kicking plays.
"But look, we have a lot of work to do. It was nice to be able to win the game convincingly in the second half and be able to learn from all the mistakes we had from a good victory. But we've really got to get better here between now and next Saturday going up to Syracuse.
Johnny Langan scored two short rushing touchdowns, Isaih Pacheco scored once, and Kyle Monangai recorded two touchdowns on the ground including his first career score.
"I think you guys saw the scrimmages, right. So you guys were privy to this guy had a really good training camp and he runs with great pad level, and he runs very aggressively and decisively," Schiano said of Monangai.
"I like our running back room. I think it's going to take the whole room to win games. So we'll just keep rotating them, keeping them fresh. Pop is the starter. That's the way it is. But I think we have some guys that can play, between Aaron [Young] and Kyle, I think we have a very good running back room, and we've just got to keep building on it and spreading it around in different packages and all that stuff."
Rutgers defense won the day as the unit held Temple to 261 yards of offense and 2-of-13 on third down. The Owls committed five turnovers and gave up a safety as well.
They were the whole story in the first half," Schiano said. "Might have been a 10-yard differential in yards, right. The third down conversions were the same, so yeah, they were critical."
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
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