Gameplan to beat Rutgers

[CatManTrue]

1. Load the box to stop Pacheco - I don’t care if it’s a 5-2, a 4-4 with a safety choked up. He’s the heart of their offense. If Vedral can beat us with his arm, then let’s see it
2. ATTACK #24! He’s given up three touchdowns over sixty yards in the first half to MSU. We’ll see if he plays in the second half or keeps his starting job next week
3. Pound the ball. Remember Bowser 2018! I want to see a lot of our three RBs
4. What am I missing?

 

[DaCat]

5. Someone other than O'Neil running the defense.

 

[phatcat]

5. Someone other than O'Neil running the defense.

RU looks good. We must play some D.

Their defense is shifting around all over the place. OL needs to study

Check that - Walker just ran for 94 yard TD

 

[zeek55]

RU looks good. We must play some D.

Their defense is shifting around all over the place. OL needs to study

Check that - Walker just ran for 94 yard TD

That play set records for MSU.

Still getting back to Rutgers, they do look pretty solid on both sides of the ball. If we show up with the defense that we've used against Nebraska, Michigan State, and the first half of Duke, they will beat us by 2 or 3 TDs.

 

[its_the_sauce]

Score more points

 

[Rebel_]

1. Load the box to stop Pacheco - I don’t care if it’s a 5-2, a 4-4 with a safety choked up. He’s the heart of their offense. If Vedral can beat us with his arm, then let’s see it
2. ATTACK #24! He’s given up three touchdowns over sixty yards in the first half to MSU. We’ll see if he plays in the second half or keeps his starting job next week
3. Pound the ball. Remember Bowser 2018! I want to see a lot of our three RBs
4. What am I missing?

Blocking, tackling, conditioning, and winning the turnover battle.

 

[Catreporter]

Looked like Rutgers QB Vedral (who beat us at Nebraska two years ago) hurt his throwing arm on a late fumble. We'll see if he can play next week.

 

[CatManTrue]

Looked like Rutgers QB Vedral (who beat us at Nebraska two years ago) hurt his throwing arm on a late fumble. We'll see if he can play next week.

All the more reason to load the box if he’s out. Their backup QB is a redshirt freshman who has completed 1 of his 4 passes so far… although it went for 27 yards. Their other backup is a redshirt sophomore who has thrown two career passes.

From a preseason article about RU:
Backup QB mystery continues. Schiano and offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson have surely decided who goes in the game if Noah Vedral gets hurt. But they are not in a rush to let the outside world know. Evan Simon and Cole Snyder are listed as an “or” under Vedral on the depth chart. It’s not a huge surprise given Schiano has indicated the backup quarterback designation could be subject to in-season competition. It also makes sense in today’s transfer portal world where coaching staffs don’t want to risk losing scholarship players right before kickoff. Either way, Rutgers doesn’t have much experience behind Vedral. Snyder has thrown two passes in his college career; Simon has never taken a snap.

 

[Jaguar 88]

Score more points

That is the trick, but our offense is very erratic to say the least lately.

 

[zeek55]

Winnable game, but our defense has to be ready to stop the run if their QB is out.

Their defense is decent, and I'd expect a low scoring game.

Reminds me of our last Rutgers game to be honest.

Likely just need to sustain 2 or 3 drives and play for field position a lot.

 

[TheC]

How about not giving up 60+ yards on the first play?

 

[CatManTrue]

How about not giving up 60+ yards on the first play?

Baby steps!

 

[CatManTrue]

Winnable game, but our defense has to be ready to stop the run if their QB is out.

Their defense is decent, and I'd expect a low scoring game.

Reminds me of our last Rutgers game to be honest.

Likely just need to sustain 2 or 3 drives and play for field position a lot.

So I looked it up: Rutgers is averaging 3.4 yards per carry to rank 98th in the season.

Their passing game averages 5.6 yards per attempt, which is 121st.

They’ve won 3 games because they’re pretty good at generating turnovers ( their +0.8 turnover advantage per game is 17th in the nation).

So it we just avoid bad turnovers, we should win this game.

And if our defense can’t contain this offense… watch out below.

 

[CatManTrue]

Source for my stats above:

Rutgers Scarlet Knights

Rutgers Scarlet Knights team page with results, picks, power rankings, odds and stats.

www.teamrankings.com

 

[zeek55]

So I looked it up: Rutgers is averaging 3.4 yards per carry to rank 98th in the season.

Their passing game averages 5.6 yards per attempt, which is 121st.

They’ve won 3 games because they’re pretty good at generating turnovers ( their +0.8 turnover advantage per game is 17th in the nation).

So it we just avoid bad turnovers, we should win this game.

And if our defense can’t contain this offense… watch out below.

Yeah and if their QB is injured, then they'll basically just be running a ton; if we can stop the run, it should be very winnable, especially on first downs. Get them into 2nd and 7+/3rd and 5+ a lot, and that just looks like a game that you play for field position with a lot of punting.

Really similar to our last game against them; just need a few sustained drives on offense to win a game like that.

Turnovers are pretty much the difference between winning and losing games like that though if that margin is equal it all comes down to whether our offense can sustain a drive or two.

 

[Overly_Invested_Cat]

Yeah and if their QB is injured, then they'll basically just be running a ton; if we can stop the run, it should be very winnable, especially on first downs. Get them into 2nd and 7+/3rd and 5+ a lot, and that just looks like a game that you play for field position with a lot of punting.

Really similar to our last game against them; just need a few sustained drives on offense to win a game like that.

Turnovers are pretty much the difference between winning and losing games like that though if that margin is equal it all comes down to whether our offense can sustain a drive or two.

We haven't exactly excelled at stopping the run.

 

[CatManTrue]

We haven't exactly excelled at stopping the run.

Rutgers hasn’t excelled at running it.

This Saturday we’ll finally find out what happens when a stoppable force meets a movable object.

 

[zeek55]

We haven't exactly excelled at stopping the run.

Mobile quarterback is the difference; theoretically should be a lot easier to stop Rutgers than Nebraska.

But we'll see, ultimately our defense has been one of the worst in college football the first 5 games. If we continue to play like that, we'll lose to virtually everybody else on the schedule.

I'd like to think that there will be changes that make that not happen, but we all have to wait and see.

 

[CatManTrue]

Maybe I’m still buzzing off of my viewing of “The Last of the Mohicans” last night… but Fitz should take a page from this coach’s pregame speech to get the team fired up for Homecoming. They’ve looked lackadaisical to start every game. This speech gave me goosebumps.

 

[Blitz8RUCrazy]

Mobile quarterback is the difference; theoretically should be a lot easier to stop Rutgers than Nebraska.

But we'll see, ultimately our defense has been one of the worst in college football the first 5 games. If we continue to play like that, we'll lose to virtually everybody else on the schedule.

I'd like to think that there will be changes that make that not happen, but we all have to wait and see.

FYI

our QB, Vedral IS mobile though. We run a lot of QB draws and he escapes out of the pocket a lot to extend players with his legs. We run RPO.

Terrible passer though (no touch, low velocity on balls) which is why we do a lot of short passing (especially screens and to the flat). We very rarely take intermediate shots. Mostly 5yd passes or long bombs.

We have started using the TEs more in the MSU game though for 10yd passes, so that is promising.

Running game is often used to stretch the field east-west as does the passing game. This helps free up the middle when the defense is napping for a QB draw or a run up the gut.

Our top 2 WRs are injured and we have a bunch of other key injuries/players missing across the team (paintball gun incident removed a starting CB and a backup CB). Our secondary is depleted. Our run D is now better than our pass D due to personal losses in the secondary.

Our OL and DL line play was suspect against MSU, Michigan, and OSU. We were getting dominated along both lines (less so against Michigan whom we shut down in the 2nd half).

Our redzone offense is atrocious as we rely on dinking and dunking so we don't have a big play ability.

We lack playmakers and game breakers on the team other than Arron Cruickshank who is one of the best returners in the country.

We have one of the best punters in the country as well whom routinely punts 40-60yds often pinning the ball within the oppositions 10yd line (which is probably the only reason we beat Syracuse other than due to their idiot coach, Babers).

Our team is very disciplined (one of the least penalized teams in the big ten) and will play hard even when outmanned and outgunned and will be opportunistic in trying to create turnovers. We also have a tendency to block kicks.

RB room is solid provided our OL can run block on any given day.

Game will be decided by line play like any other game.

 

[eddie_gocats]

How about not giving up 60+ yards on the first play?

I remember during Fitz first season he “practiced” halftime. The D needs to practice the first play!

 

[Williesfan]

FYI

our QB, Vedral IS mobile though. We run a lot of QB draws and he escapes out of the pocket a lot to extend players with his legs. We run RPO.

Terrible passer though (no touch, low velocity on balls) which is why we do a lot of short passing (especially screens and to the flat). We very rarely take intermediate shots. Mostly 5yd passes or long bombs.

We have started using the TEs more in the MSU game though for 10yd passes, so that is promising.

Running game is often used to stretch the field east-west as does the passing game. This helps free up the middle when the defense is napping for a QB draw or a run up the gut.

Our top 2 WRs are injured and we have a bunch of other key injuries/players missing across the team (paintball gun incident removed a starting CB and a backup CB). Our secondary is depleted. Our run D is now better than our pass D due to personal losses in the secondary.

Our OL and DL line play was suspect against MSU, Michigan, and OSU. We were getting dominated along both lines (less so against Michigan whom we shut down in the 2nd half).

Our redzone offense is atrocious as we rely on dinking and dunking so we don't have a big play ability.

We lack playmakers and game breakers on the team other than Arron Cruickshank who is one of the best returners in the country.

We have one of the best punters in the country as well whom routinely punts 40-60yds often pinning the ball within the oppositions 10yd line (which is probably the only reason we beat Syracuse other than due to their idiot coach, Babers).

Our team is very disciplined (one of the least penalized teams in the big ten) and will play hard even when outmanned and outgunned and will be opportunistic in trying to create turnovers. We also have a tendency to block kicks.

RB room is solid provided our OL can run block on any given day.

Game will be decided by line play like any other game.

Nice synopsis of your team, thank you for sharing. I will sum up NU.

Our defense sucks and our offense is not much better. Not as precise as yours but accurate.

 

[zeek55]

FYI

our QB, Vedral IS mobile though. We run a lot of QB draws and he escapes out of the pocket a lot to extend players with his legs. We run RPO.

Terrible passer though (no touch, low velocity on balls) which is why we do a lot of short passing (especially screens and to the flat). We very rarely take intermediate shots. Mostly 5yd passes or long bombs.

We have started using the TEs more in the MSU game though for 10yd passes, so that is promising.

Running game is often used to stretch the field east-west as does the passing game. This helps free up the middle when the defense is napping for a QB draw or a run up the gut.

Our top 2 WRs are injured and we have a bunch of other key injuries/players missing across the team (paintball gun incident removed a starting CB and a backup CB). Our secondary is depleted. Our run D is now better than our pass D due to personal losses in the secondary.

Our OL and DL line play was suspect against MSU, Michigan, and OSU. We were getting dominated along both lines (less so against Michigan whom we shut down in the 2nd half).

Our redzone offense is atrocious as we rely on dinking and dunking so we don't have a big play ability.

We lack playmakers and game breakers on the team other than Arron Cruickshank who is one of the best returners in the country.

We have one of the best punters in the country as well whom routinely punts 40-60yds often pinning the ball within the oppositions 10yd line (which is probably the only reason we beat Syracuse other than due to their idiot coach, Babers).

Our team is very disciplined (one of the least penalized teams in the big ten) and will play hard even when outmanned and outgunned and will be opportunistic in trying to create turnovers. We also have a tendency to block kicks.

RB room is solid provided our OL can run block on any given day.

Game will be decided by line play like any other game.

Good synopsis.

Oddsmakers are giving us a shot (pick 'em meaning Rutgers is favored by 3 on a neutral field), but reality is just we need big changes to our defense to have any chance to win.

Our defense has been terrible against Power 5 level competition to say the least; giving up big plays (especially early); and much of it appears to be due to Jim O'Neil taking over as DC and implementing his own scheme.

It sounds like both of our teams are pretty depleted from injuries so likely will just depend on what's available.

FWIW, I'm a big fan of Schiano's and I think he'll have Rutgers rolling in a couple years. Rutgers has played like a well coached team, and that Michigan game showed your potential.

A lot of our fans are pessimistic about our team right now because of how badly the transition has gone from one of the best defensive coordinators of all time in Mike Hankwitz to Jim O'Neil. And offensively, we're missing our best QB (at least based on what we saw in the Duke game) in Andrew Marty, which makes things rough because we're not really suited to win with his backups though our current QB Ryan Hilinski looks like a solid pocket passer, but we're not really equipped to protect him at the moment and he's not very mobile.

 

[jensberg]

Mobile quarterback is the difference; theoretically should be a lot easier to stop Rutgers than Nebraska.

But we'll see, ultimately our defense has been one of the worst in college football the first 5 games. If we continue to play like that, we'll lose to virtually everybody else on the schedule.

I'd like to think that there will be changes that make that not happen, but we all have to wait and see.

It won't surprise me if the same players start on defense