The Rutgers offense showed signs of severe struggle in their matchup against Nebraska last Saturday only mustering up seven points in the Knight’s 14-7 loss to Nebraska. The offensive line had major issues holding off Nebraska, the passing game was not hitting its mark, and the running game went silent after the first half. The offense showed some of the worst production on third and fourth down the Scarlet Knights have this season, failing to punch it in on or convert on numerous opportunities.
This showing made Rutgers fans feel as if the team’s improvements in the offseason were all for nothing. While that likely isn’t true there are several telling things we saw about the Knight’s offense during this game.
Rutgers Will Sorely Miss Bryan Felter
Right before the game against Nebraska, the Knights announced that guard Bryan Felter would miss the rest of the season due to a knee injury he sustained against Washington last week. This is a huge blow for Rutgers as Felter was rated as one of the best left guards in the country in the previous weeks. His replacement, Taj White, had a long day squaring off with Nebraska’s tackles. In his first career start, White surrendered a sack and a bunch of pressure which disrupted Rutger’s passing game on numerous occasions. The knights will need to find a way to shore up the left side in Felter’s absence.
The Offense needs to be better at converting on crucial plays
During the third quarter, Rutgers had six chances at the Nebraska two-yard line to punch it in for a score due to a blocked punt and a Nebraska penalty. They could not score. The Knights also went two of fourteen on third down and two of six on fourth down. This cannot happen again. Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano even said that in the Knights’ matchup against Washington the week prior, one of the major reasons the Knights won was because they had a much better conversion percentage than the Huskies. Rutgers has to be better at converting crucial plays to survive the rest of their Big Ten schedule.
What happened to the run game?
Rutgers is a run-first team, no doubt about that. The Knights have the former Big Ten leading rusher Kyle Monangai in their backfield carrying the rock along with solid role players such as Samual Brown V. Rutgers is not meant to be a team that throws more than they run the ball. With that being said, the Knights threw the ball five more times than they ran it. On their first two possessions of the game, the Knights ran the ball for 70 yards and seemed to be making quick work of the Nebraska rushing defense.
In the second quarter, however, it seemed that Rutgers had almost completely abandoned the rushing attack as they only ran the ball six times in comparison to throwing the ball 12 times.
When Rutgers tried to go back to running the ball later in the game, there was nothing there, leaving them with only 78 yards rushing on the day. The passing offense of the Knights relies on the rushing attack to be the offensive backbone. Without the rushing threat, the passing game becomes severely weakened. With the Knights turning away from the rush so early, the passing game suffered with it.