Did RU defense look bad tonight? Yup. Did the usual chicken littles run around screaming the sky is falling? Yup.
Football Rutgers Football survives opening-night scare against Ohio
- Thread starter Richie O
- Start date
I wouldn't say oue second half O was a turtle mode. We only had it three times!
Drive one stalled out at midfield because the Raymond run got stuffed on 2nd down and we had a false start to make it 3rd and 15. Punt.
Drive two resulted in the winning FG. False start again pushed us from 3rd and 2 at the 3 to 3rd and 7, and AK missed Sheffield, who was open. Kick the FG.
Drive three, the goal was to end the game by eating the clock up. Mission accomplished.
Two untimely penalties may be why the other two drives stalled without touchdowns.
Our secondary has a lot of room for improvement...
Drive one stalled out at midfield because the Raymond run got stuffed on 2nd down and we had a false start to make it 3rd and 15. Punt.
Drive two resulted in the winning FG. False start again pushed us from 3rd and 2 at the 3 to 3rd and 7, and AK missed Sheffield, who was open. Kick the FG.
Drive three, the goal was to end the game by eating the clock up. Mission accomplished.
Two untimely penalties may be why the other two drives stalled without touchdowns.
Our secondary has a lot of room for improvement...
Yes - I agree. That’s exactly it. Greg seriously may not have wanted to score a TD that drive. It seemed that way. Everyone complains he’s too conservative but he wasn’t conservative at all in the first half. He became conservative after we gave up the FG before halftime. He decided Ohio could hurt us less if they didn’t have the ball. At the end, he didnt want Ohio marching down the field even with a 10 point lead leaving potential for an onside kick attempt.
It was a dangerous way to play, but look, he was 5 for 5 on 4th down so it’s hard to knock the plan too much. It worked.
There is reason for cautious optimism. It was one drive, but the last defensive set did look better.
AK wanted that one back. Was hitting himself on the helmet after that one. Weird end to the 1st Half. We had them at 3rd and 9 at their own 4 yard line. About 2 minutes to go. They get the 1st down and go on for a FG. Gave them some momentum at the Half.
Sanders made 2 of the best 5 defensive plays on the punt block (botched snap #3 by Ohio) and a tackle late 4Q when Ohio ran right edge. Also Walker stopped Navarro from converting in the 4Q.
Not sure about Henderson, Miller and Elad. Either all 3 improve A LOT or one of them won't start v. Iowa
BEAT MIAMI
And our 2 DE transfers need to improve big time.
Not sure about Henderson and ELAD ? Live report from the game- not good. Particularly the later. Need to upgrade their play quickly.
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This post has not aged well.
Much of the game they were playing contain on the qb. Hopefully they unleash them against a traditional qb and we see better results
Rutgers really needs to start recruiting the Houston area. I live in Houston; there are kids all over the high school teams in this area that can start for Rutgers and who will wind up being backups at schools like Texas Tech, Baylor, and SMU. Especially quarterbacks and linebackers. Schiano built his teams on the back of Florida his first go-round ... time to start doing it again.
My early morning take, as I don't post during games. Ohio's QB is going to give the MAC fits. They are better than I thought and it may be the new HC.
With that said- this game still should not have been this close. They earned everything they got but we should have just been dominating them just on pure size/strength alone.
Our OL did a pretty good job and on 90% of the plays- the size/strength played out like it should have. But, like GS 1.0 used to do when overmatched, their HC had some really good defensive plays called that got them in to pressure AK.
At halftime, with the level and experience of our coaching staff, a brand new HC in the MAC should not have been the one that came out with the better adjustments.
Our defense- it worries me again. Looked more like the end of last year. I don't remember O'Neil's name mentioned much during the game. He needs to be disruptive- and he wasn't. We didnt get much from our DE's at all but the interior line was pretty good. LB's/DB's have to get better.
Happy we win but very disappointed in this game.
With that said- this game still should not have been this close. They earned everything they got but we should have just been dominating them just on pure size/strength alone.
Our OL did a pretty good job and on 90% of the plays- the size/strength played out like it should have. But, like GS 1.0 used to do when overmatched, their HC had some really good defensive plays called that got them in to pressure AK.
At halftime, with the level and experience of our coaching staff, a brand new HC in the MAC should not have been the one that came out with the better adjustments.
Our defense- it worries me again. Looked more like the end of last year. I don't remember O'Neil's name mentioned much during the game. He needs to be disruptive- and he wasn't. We didnt get much from our DE's at all but the interior line was pretty good. LB's/DB's have to get better.
Happy we win but very disappointed in this game.
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This. The only thing that “stalled” was the explosive run up the middle because after getting pounded in the first half, Ohio chose to overplay that (understandably). That’s why drive 1 stalled.
We’ll find out more about Ohio when they play WVU, but AK and the receivers deserve a lot of credit. AK played a near perfect game and that includes execution when his number was called in whatever Greg and Kirk wanted to do. He recorded 9 second half passes and completed 8 of them.
Good point but they didn’t do a great job containing.
I think the turtle narrative is also helped along by Ohio scoring to end the first and then getting the ball back to start the 2nd half and scoring again. Shaved 10 pts off the lead while our offense didn’t get a touch.
The 3rd and 7 from the 6 was the difference from likely being up at half 38-13 with Ohios spirits crushed to 31-17.
The inability to stop them there by giving up an easy open pass to the sidelines set the stage for the nailbiter
After watching tonight’s Wisconsin -Miami game, I don’t see a repeat of Ohio at all.
Miami’s offense is nowhere near as dangerous as Ohio’s so they won’t be able to take advantage of our defensive issues as much, and holding Wisconsin to 17 is not as much the sign of a great defense as the fact WI lost their starting QB early.
I'm looking at an upper deck 1/2 full on both sides, come on already with those totals.
They lost their QB early in the game and still won 17-0 but Ohio’s QB looks a lot faster to me so there’s that.
Bottomline is our offense, special teams, etc. looked about as good as we could’ve hoped. But sorry - there’s no sugar coating how poor the D performed. No sacks or picks is one thing. Even no 3 and outs. We only stopped Ohio’s offense twice in the game and the first time Ohio basically stopped themselves. The last defensive series (only other stop of the game) was our best by far even with the clapping penalty. Hopefully we build on it. The rest of the game the D was complete garbage.
With 8 minutes to go, you weren't just a little worried and disappointed in our showing? Really? This from a guy who thrashes the Mets whenever you can, being a Mets fan and all, lol Talk about Chicken Little, what a friggin hypocrite.
Nope, and piss off. You have the wrong guy in the Mets thread. I don't need your critiques of my posting. You seem to think that stretch in June/July for the Mets was acceptable with their payroll?
I’m not sure what your trying to say regarding “sky is falling”. If your point is that more positive attention should be given to how the offense and special team looks, sure maybe the poor D overshadowed that some. We don’t know how good or bad Ohio’s D is yet but Athan couldn’t have performed much better. He deserves a lot of credit.
It wouldn’t be possible to exaggerate how poor the defense looked though. If we simply didn’t get any any picks, sacks, hurries, 3 and outs, etc. against a MAC team that alone would be pretty bad. Beyond that, we only stopped Ohio from scoring twice in the whole game and the first time they arguably stopped themselves with the botched snap situation. The only time we even held them to a FG was at the end of the half with time against them on the play calls.
Ya any negative critiques are on the defensive side of the ball.
Outside of AK missing Shefeild the offense was about perfect.
Res ipsa loquitor. There is a usual group of posters who only show up in the game threads, a close game against a purportedly weaker opponent, or a loss that just pile on with constant negativity and sky is falling posts. That's all. I said it already--the defensive performance was poor. But some of the over the top nonsense and extrapolation about the team and the season was comical. Sometimes it is useful to step outside the game thread bubble and look at other results. Wisconsin struggled mightily with Miami of Ohio--oh no, we are doomed!!!! Nebraska had a hard time with Cincinnati. Minnesota struggled with Buffalo--but that is expected because PJ is Greg's little brother, right? (that's a snarky comment). All is not lost. There are 11 games to go this season, and we will lose all of them!
Miami'
Miami's QB showed good mobility but didn't have the arm Navarro showed last night. The D needs to fix things or things won't be easy.
Miami's QB showed good mobility but didn't have the arm Navarro showed last night. The D needs to fix things or things won't be easy.
LOL, thank you for proving my point! I guess you're only allowed to critique posters, lol. I got the right guy, { Volgelbeck lover} and again, here you are posting exactly what you say whenever the Mets hit a bad stretch.
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Nope. Haven't posted any over the top nonsense that are my own thoughts. Have posted items from X showing overreactions of fans, which are always hilarious to me because they are always over the top and draw broader conclusions than warranted than a segment of a game or a single game. But a dolt and troublemaker like you would not understand the difference. Have a nice life.
Great recap.
You are spot on. It never should have been that close.
Our Defense reminded me what I saw personally in the 2nd Half of the Bowl Game in Phoenix. Numerous blown assignments, mental breakdowns, poor tackling , and confusion. This with new Defense Coordinators??? Adjustments need to be made quickly. The new Portal players we picked on Defense looks worse than last year’s starters…especially on DE and the Secondary.. Really hope it’s not a talent drop off and more of schematics issues {????}
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Agreed. Coaching and schematics kept this game closer than it should have been.
Re
"Brian Smith was named Head Coach on Dec. 18, 2024 after serving as the Associate Head Coach (spring 2023) and Offensive Coordinator (spring 2024). Smith joined the Bobcats as the Running Backs Coach and Passing Game Coordinator prior to the 2022 season."
He was previously at Washington State and Hawaii under Nick Rolovich. Maybe he is a rising start, but too soon to tell.
Their OC:
"Scott Isphording has held multiple roles with the Bobcats in his 10+ years with the program, starting his second tour of duty in Athens and his first as the Bobcats’ quarterbacks coach in 2014. He was named offensive coordinator in Jan. 2025.
Isphording coached three of Ohio's greatest quarterbacks, Nathan Rourke (2017-19), Kurtis Rourke (2019-23) and Parker Navarro (2022-24)."
Fans of B1G teams have a tendency to mock and look down at MAC teams. As we saw last night with Ohio, Buffalo (Minnesota) and Miami of Ohio (Wisconsin game), MAC teams can be tough to beat. Many of the players wanted to play in the B1G, or played in the B1G and moved "down" to the MAC. Mike Teel in the radio broadcast was very complimentary about Ohio's offensive coaching staff, play design and creativity. He had similar comments about Rutgers' offense too. On the other hand, there were not many if any compliments about the defense, except at the end, the radio team and 5th Quarter show said they have work to do in the film room and in practice after the first game, which is not unusual for any team.
Their head coach's bio explains why:
"Brian Smith was named Head Coach on Dec. 18, 2024 after serving as the Associate Head Coach (spring 2023) and Offensive Coordinator (spring 2024). Smith joined the Bobcats as the Running Backs Coach and Passing Game Coordinator prior to the 2022 season."
He was previously at Washington State and Hawaii under Nick Rolovich. Maybe he is a rising start, but too soon to tell.
Their OC:
"Scott Isphording has held multiple roles with the Bobcats in his 10+ years with the program, starting his second tour of duty in Athens and his first as the Bobcats’ quarterbacks coach in 2014. He was named offensive coordinator in Jan. 2025.
Isphording coached three of Ohio's greatest quarterbacks, Nathan Rourke (2017-19), Kurtis Rourke (2019-23) and Parker Navarro (2022-24)."
Fans of B1G teams have a tendency to mock and look down at MAC teams. As we saw last night with Ohio, Buffalo (Minnesota) and Miami of Ohio (Wisconsin game), MAC teams can be tough to beat. Many of the players wanted to play in the B1G, or played in the B1G and moved "down" to the MAC. Mike Teel in the radio broadcast was very complimentary about Ohio's offensive coaching staff, play design and creativity. He had similar comments about Rutgers' offense too. On the other hand, there were not many if any compliments about the defense, except at the end, the radio team and 5th Quarter show said they have work to do in the film room and in practice after the first game, which is not unusual for any team.
D could have definitely played better.
I do think there is some usual chicken littling from our fans. This was an 11-3 opponent that won their conference. If we beat Boise by 3 people would be ecstatic.
ND LOST to Northern Illinois last year and went to the playoff. These games are pretty regular with the MAC.
Miami OH was second place MAC last year and Wisconsin didn't push them over, so hopefully we are taking the game seriously and D will work on fixing the kinks with a little over a week.
Offense and ST were great. We basically scored on all but one possession aside from the clock expiring. Few thought we'd ever see that day.
I do think there is some usual chicken littling from our fans. This was an 11-3 opponent that won their conference. If we beat Boise by 3 people would be ecstatic.
ND LOST to Northern Illinois last year and went to the playoff. These games are pretty regular with the MAC.
Miami OH was second place MAC last year and Wisconsin didn't push them over, so hopefully we are taking the game seriously and D will work on fixing the kinks with a little over a week.
Offense and ST were great. We basically scored on all but one possession aside from the clock expiring. Few thought we'd ever see that day.
Yeah I was missing the punt block drive, but again, not exactly a drive worth complementing the D on. There was again another botched snap where we again let their QB throw it away failing to get the sack. Our lineman leapt in the air to get a hand on the pass that turned into lost yardage on the reception by their OL on another play. Athletic play by our lineman, I guess, but when you stop and realize that tackling that OL was one of our 4 TFL, that drive doesn’t exactly instill confidence about anything on the defensive end.