Rutgers offense hoping for more long plays this upcoming season
The Rutgers football team had a total of 711 plays on offense in 2017 -- just 32 of them went for 20-plus yards or "long plays" -- including 22 passing and 10 rushing and four touchdowns each.
Rutgers tallied 61 "chunk" plays which are 10 yards for a rush and 20 yards for a pass.
It's no secret the Scarlet Knights struggled on offense last season, and with the solid play of freshman quarterback Artur Sitkowski along with the emergence of speedy sophomore wide receiver Bo Melton this past spring, and even the stable of running backs that are available like sophomore Raheem Blackshear, senior Jonathan Hilliman, and freshman Isaih Pacheco, head coach Chris Ash is hoping for more long, chunk, or explosive plays in 2018.
"Villanova (men's basketball) wins a national championship. Why? Well, they hit a lot of 3-pointers, big plays. Offensively, if we're going to go out and perform the way we want, help our football team change results, we have to get more explosive plays," Ash said after the Scarlet-White game.
In the exhibition contest, Sitkowski connected with Melton for 187 yards on just five receptions and 187 yards. One of the scores was from 75 yards out.
Sitkowski made throws that Rutgers quarterbacks just flat out couldn’t last season and Melton came into his own and had arguably the best spring out of anybody on the team.
“Hopefully he can give what he did today. Get behind some guys and we can connect on some deep balls and have some more explosive plays,” Ash said. “We talk about it a lot in here with our team. ...I’m hoping Bo Melton can do that for us. Eventually that will loosen some defenses up so we can run the ball better.”
That circles back to the tailbacks.
Hilliman and Pacheco are more bruising, big backs that can run inside. Blackshear on the other hand is quick and can do damage on the outside and in the open field. Five of the 20-yard long plays on offensive were courtesy of Blackshear.
“I think he’s a super kid and he has tremendous talent,” offensive coordinator John McNulty said of Blackshear. “We have to find as many ways possible to get him the ball and keep him upright. I think we have a couple of home run hitters on offense so to speak, and he’s one of them.”
Blackshear had 39 carries for 238 yards (long of 41 yards) and three touchdowns with seven catches for 133 yards and two more scores (long of 42 yards).
"He may be our most dynamic offensive player," running backs coach Nunzio Campanille said. "We have to find ways to get him the ball..."
However, in order to get those chunk plays, the offensive line needs to block and protect. Everything good on offense won’t happen without them.
“I would say on a couple of those big throws we protected well,” Ash said. “That was an issue in past years. Combine all three, protection, getting deep behind the coverage, and the ability to make those type of throws, we have not all three of those working together very much the last couple years.”
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisWasky.