The Rutgers football team registered seven takeaways on defense in its 38-27 victory at Michigan State on Saturday afternoon. In 12 games in 2019, the Scarlet Knights have 10.
Rutgers forced five fumbles and intercepted two passes.
“It was a hard-fought game and we were able to take the ball away and that gave us a chance to win,” Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano said after the game. “They’ve worked very hard (creating turnovers) every single day in practice. We know that, that’s a way that can help us be in football games in the fourth quarter. That’s our goal. It reminds me of the NFL where everyone is good in this all-conference schedule. We’ll dial up a plan each week.”
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Rutgers forced three fumbles and snagged an interception on Michigan State’s first six drives. Cornerback Avery Young caused a fumble and fell on it after a pass completion. Two minutes later, Mohamed Toure came on a blitz and sacked Spartans quarterback Rocky Lombardi and linebacker Tyreek Maddox-Williams recovered the fumble on the 1-yard line.
"[They were] crucial. I didn't expect too much on the outside, so I just tried to swarm to the ball with the guys and make a play anyway I could," Young said.
Early in the second quarter, cornerback Tre Avery picked-off a Lombardi pass and then Young again stripped the ball out and it was recovered by linebacker Olakunle Fatukasi. Sandwiched in between was also a fourth-down stop.
In the third, Fatukasi stuffed Jordan Simmons for no gain and caused him to fumble. He also was able to fall on the ball.
After Adam Korsak punted the ball for Rutgers, it was muffed by the return man and starting wide receiver Bo Melton dove to grab it.
Safety Brendon White also intercepted an errant pass with 37 seconds left.
The Scarlet Knights scored 21 points off of those turnovers and stuffed the Spartans on two fourth-down attempts, including one after Michigan State had cut it down to 28-20. They had 12 tackles-for-loss as well.
"That was huge," Fogg said of the stop. "The defense did a great job today swarming to the ball and doing our job. We had so many takeaways. It was something good that we can move forward with."
Toure also had another hit on Lombardi that forced him to lose the ball but it was recovered by an offensive lineman. He was able to get pressure off the edge. Avery would have had another pick if a penalty hadn’t wiped it away.
“Yeah, we do that on third down. We kind of just move some guys around and have some different positions in different packages and we probably didn’t even scratch the surface on the packages we have but you know it's got to be piece by piece. We can't throw too much at them. But I think Mohamed has a very unique skill set, and he did a really good job,” Schiano said. “I have the worst seat in the house, but I saw him cause some havoc. That's what you need to do. It's not always about sacks or sack-fumbles, but it's about making the quarterback feel your presence.”
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisWasky.
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