Despite falling behind early, Rutgers was able to bounce back and defeat Indiana 24-17 at SHI Stadium and snap a 21-game losing streak at home against Big Ten foes.
Here are three thoughts after the game….
You’re a Good Man, Samuel Brown
While Rutgers’ offense is far from perfect, one thing that new offensive coordinator Nunzio Campanile seems to have realized is that good things tend to happen when you give Samuel Brown V the football.
“We’ve all seen him progressing, if you do it too early when the guy is not ready to take that load it can have a detrimental effect,” head coach Greg Schiano said. “I think Sam continued to show us each week that he deserved more touches and today he got plenty of touches.”
Finishing with 28 carries for 101 yards and a score, Brown not only became the first Rutgers running back to log 25+ carries since Paul James in 2014, but he also had more rushing attempts than either quarterback had completions. At the end of the day, if the Scarlet Knights can hand the ball off nearly 30 times in a game chances are they will come away with the win.
Rutgers dominates time of possession
Going up against one of the fastest up-tempo teams in the nation, Rutgers knew it was going to have to keep the Hoosiers’ offense off the field for as long as possible and did so flawlessly as they nearly doubled their time of possession.
“They’re the fastest team in football and going into this game they had run more plays than anybody else,” Schiano said. “No matter how much you do different things in practice it’s hard to really simulate that at the speed with which they do it. I think it took us a series and a half to get used to it but then what an unbelievable job the defense did.”
The third quarter was where this game started to flip as Rutgers took a 17-14 advantage and allowed Indiana to possess the ball for just one minute and 15 seconds. If not for a late field goal on the Hoosiers’ final drive, the Scarlet Knights would have pitched a shutout after the first quarter.
Rutgers bounces back big
After a tumultuous loss to Nebraska, watching their offensive coordinator get fired, and falling behind 14-0 early, the Scarlet Knights could have easily packed this one in and determined it was not their day. However, from that point on they were able to lock down defensively and score 24 unanswered points en route to handing Indiana its fifth straight loss.
“I don’t have any idea what [this win] does for the season as a whole but I know that we’re 1-0 today and that was what we set out to do because the two biggest bandits that I know are the past and the future, they steal from now,” Schiano added. “We couldn’t let that loss get us twice and we can’t let the future get us. We’ve got to learn to stay in the moment and that’s our process, chop the moment.”
After starting 15-for-20 for 117 yards and a rushing touchdown, Rutgers was able to hold Indiana quarterback Conor Bazelak to just eight more completions with three of them coming on the Hoosiers’ final drive. Also, after starting the first half with 187 yards of total offense, Rutgers allowed Indiana to gain just 85 more yards the rest of the way.
Rutgers will return to action next Saturday when it travels to Huntington Bank Stadium to take on Minnesota at 2:30 p.m (ET).
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