11/24/2020 football Edit

Inconsistent Rutgers secondary to be put to the test against Purdue

Chris Nalwasky • TheKnightReport

Beat Writer

The Rutgers football team’s secondary will be put to the test on Saturday as the Scarlet Knights travel out to face Purdue at 4:00 p.m. EST (FS1).

Purdue (2-2) leads the Big Ten Conference with 320.8 passing yards per game and is fourth with 10 touchdowns. Jack Plummer got his first start last week against Minnesota and he threw for 367 yards while completing 35-of-42 passes (83.3 percent) with three touchdowns and just one interception. He also added five rushes for 22 yards.

Star wide receiver Rondale Moore returned to the field for his first action of the season and made a huge difference right away, making a whopping 15 catches for 120 yards.

“They're a good football team. Offensively they're very explosive,” Rutgers head coach Schiano said. “They got Rondale Moore back last week. He's one of the fastest, most explosive players in college football, period. That was a big guy for them to get back, and they were already doing well offensively. Coach Brohm is an excellent coach. Came up in the game as an offensive coach and still runs that side of the ball for them and does a tremendous job. So it's a huge challenge. We're gonna have to really be on at all three phases to have an opportunity to compete here this weekend.”

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This season, Rutgers is allowing 22.2 completions per game and 264.8 yards per game. It gave up 238 yards and three touchdowns to Indiana quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and 314 yards and five scores to Ohio State and Justin Fields.

“I would say inconsistent in the secondary,” Schiano said on how the defensive backs have performed.

Cornerback Avery Young owns the defense’s top ProFootballFocus grade on the year at 79.7. Young has excelled in run defense (88.9) and has done a nice job in pass coverage (75.2), but he’s allowed 14 completions on 18 targets. Tre Avery has been targeted more (26 times) and given up 16 completions. Freshman Max Melton has the lowest pass coverage grade of the three main CBs with a 64.3 and opponents have completed 63.6 percent of passes targeted at him.

At the safety spot, Brendon White has graded out at 45.8, Christian Izien is slightly lower at 40.0, and Lawrence Stevens has graded out so far with a 53.6. Coverage wise, the back end has struggled as White has a 36.8 rating and Izien has a 30.1.

White gave up a long touchdown last weekend against Michigan.

Avery and White each have an interception, but they both came in the season opener.

“We've done some really good things, and then we've done some things that I sit there and I'm not seeing them do that other than that one single situation,” Schiano said. “As a head coach I look at it and say okay why? That's always the question to me. Not what because I know anybody can watch the tape and see what, butt my question is why. And that's my job to figure out the why and help the coaches figure out the why. And for inconsistency in a position group, I need to do a better job of figuring out the why and giving them the answer. So, ultimately, it all comes back to the head coach because you're the guy in charge of the why.”