11/1/2020 football Edit

Three Thoughts on Rutgers Football's game versus Indiana

Craig Epstein

Rutgers.Rivals.com

Following last week’s big win over Michigan State, Rutgers could not capitalize on their newfound momentum as the Scarlet Knights fell to Indiana 37-21.

Here are three thoughts after the game:

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A Bad Day for the Offense

While Rutgers’ offense was able to put together some decent drives, they were few and far between as Offensive Coordinator Sean Gleeson’s bunch had trouble clicking for most of the game.

“I think we have to become consistent,” Head Coach Greg Schiano said in his postgame press conference. “We do some things to move the football at times that are exciting, at other times that’s a good defense as you saw by the result today.”

Outside of quarterbacks Noah Vedral and Johnny Langan and the running backs, this offense has had a tough time finding consistent production from their other skilled position players through the first two games. While that can be chalked up to less practice time due to the coronavirus pandemic, it is a problem that Rutgers is going to have to solve as they head into the heart of their schedule.

Turnovers Come Back to Bite the Scarlet Knights

Although Rutgers was able to force seven takeaways last week against Michigan State, they also turned the ball over three times which allowed the Spartans to keep within striking distance. While it is easy to look past that considering the Scarlet Knights were victorious, Rutgers turned the ball over three times this week as well and this time around they were not so fortunate.

“It was seven takeaways last week and none this week, they had three that led to 17 points and two of them inside our 25-yard line,” Schiano continued. “That’s very hard to overcome but where we find ourselves.”

Despite Rutgers looking much improved compared to a year ago, they are not the type of team that can afford to make multiple bad mistakes and hope to still come away with the win. No matter who they play in the Big Ten if Rutgers loses the turnover battle 3-0 there is a good chance it will result in a loss.

The (Almost) Garden State Miracle

In what will likely go down as the greatest play to never count, the Scarlet Knights’ final snap came in the form of eight lateral passes resulting in a touchdown from Bo Melton. However, the play would be wiped out due to a forward pass from wide receiver Shameen Jones.

“We practice that play, that’s one of our end-of-game plays and it never plays out the same obviously because the beginning of it starts the same but then who knows where it goes from the pitch fest,” Schiano said. “I couldn’t tell you if that was a forward pass. They really executed it about as well as you can.”

Trying to put the sequence into words would be an almost impossible task so below is the play in all of its glorious form.

Perhaps the only thing missing was the Stanford marching band storming the field.

Rutgers has a tall task ahead of them as they face top-ranked Ohio State and Heisman hopeful Justin Fields next Saturday at 7:30 p.m. (ET) on BTN.