The story of the Rutgers football team's 2021 season has been like that of a roller coaster at Six Flags Great Adventure.
The fans were excited to see head coach Greg Schiano again on the sidelines, there was optimism heading into the year after the Scarlet Knights won three Big Ten games in the very different COVID shortened season. Then Rutgers got out of the gates hot winning its first three games against Temple, Syracuse, and Delaware.
But then came some of the traditional powers and a new power of the conference. Rutgers lost to a trio of ranked teams in Michigan, Ohio State, and Michigan State, and then fell in a disappointing outing to Northwestern.
After the bye week, Rutgers got back on track, winning on the road at Illinois. Wisconsin stopped the Scarlet Knights in their tracks with a big blowout, but undeterred, Rutgers went to Bloomington on Saturday and defeated Indiana by a wide margin -- its biggest in a Big Ten game, 38-3, to move to 5-5 on the season.
"That was a heck of a victory. Really proud of our guys," Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano said. "They battled through adversity and during the week, we were not sure who was gonna be able to play. Some did, some didn't. But together they found a way to win the game., so I'm really proud."
Rutgers is now one win from a bowl game with games remaining. The last time it made a bowl game was in 2014 when it crushed North Carolina in the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit, MI.
"When you're building something, it's kind of the roller coaster. This feels good," Schiano said. "We need to find consistency, and that's that's what building a program is about. I'm excited. We're 5-5. Our guys are fighting and we'll see. We want to be able to write that story at the end of the year, so we got a chance."
Rutgers thumped Indiana, and was the better team from the first whistle to the last. Rutgers fell on a fumble on the first play from scrimmage in the game, and generated six total takeaways, two interceptions, and four fumble recoveries.
Many of the turnovers led to points for the visitors.
"I would say it's the biggest factor in today's game," Schiano said. "And we work on it all the time, but we've had a drought. Over the years, we've always been able to be pretty consistent with taking the ball away and we've had a drought like we've never had in our times together. The last four or five weeks it's been really bad. We get six today. How do you figure? But you just keep working on it every single day. It's an important part of our preparation."
Rutgers was missing its starting linebackers today in Olakunle Fatukasi and Tyshon Fogg. Tyreek Maddox-Williams was also out. Schiano didn't offer any excuses and said the defense still had to play well minus them and it did. Drew Singleton and Tyreem Powell, who had 10 and four tackles, respectively, stepped up in their place. Powell notched his first career interception.
"It's really about coaching and playing because there wasn't any great schematic adjustments. I think Singleton and Powell really stepped up big. They had to for it to them to get three points," Schiano said. "They did a heck of a job, but as I talked to our team, don't tell me what we don't have. We got our entire D-line and we had our secondary. We were just missing our starting linebackers. So let's find a way to do it. I thought our kids did a really, really good job. I think the coaches did to."
All season long, the Rutgers defense has been stout on third down. In fact, it was second in the Big Ten in third down conversion against percentage coming into the game at 29.0%. The Hoosiers went just 1-for-14 on third down.
"It's the coaches and the players for sure, Robb Smith in the defensive staff and then all the players executing it," Schiano said. "Way back, even when we weren't very good, we always played pretty good third-down defense.
"It's something that a lot of our guys are passionate about. It's important to get off the field. We treat it like a takeaway. You get off the field, it's just like taking the ball away and you get a punt."
After the victory, Rutgers is at Penn State next Saturday at noon before it finishes up the regular season with a home contest against Maryland. The Terrapins are home to Michigan next week. Heading into the Nov. 27 contest at SHI Stadium, both teams could be sitting at five wins with the winner going to a bowl game and the loser not.
It could be like the blood round at the NCAA Tournament for wrestling.
"Of course we thought about it, but we have a big, big game against Penn State. ...We got a huge game this week against Penn State at Penn State and everything we got is gonna go into it," Schiano said. "They're a good football team. Really good. We're gonna have to do everything we can to have a chance to win, and 100% of our focus is there now. Everybody knows, if you get to six you get to go to a ballgame. Everybody knows that. We need to make sure we are ready for a very good Penn State team at Penn State."
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
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