2-1 could have easily been 3-0 for the Scarlet Knights!!

Saturday’s loss to the University of North Carolina was a team loss. There was no one person nor one unit that was responsible for the let down in Piscataway. The Knights now have one more week to fine tune things against Tulane, before they get to there Big East play started against UCONN in two weeks. They should NOT over look Tulane at all cause they are going to come and play us tough!!

Now what needs to be fixed:

Offensively I think the O-Line needs to do a better job run blocking.  Granted a lot of the runs were out of the wildcat and a little tough to know where the ball is going to be, so more down hill runs would help them out up front! I think they did a good job pass protecting even though Savage was sacked a couple times, I think most of them were his own fault from either holding the ball or locking in on just one receiver, Mohamed Sanu!

Savage hasn’t looked relaxed since the season started and doesn’t have a real reason to be rattled! Rutgers offense may need to run less wildcat and allow Savage to get into that groove he was in all of last season. Subbing him in and out is not allowing him to get in a groove nor giving him any confidence as the leader of the offense. There are other ways to get Sanu involved besides lining him up at QB. Maybe line him up at RB? Throwing the ball has always gotten the ball down the field faster than running it!

I think Defensively, they played strong.  Rutgers got turnovers, put pressure on the QB and made stops for the most part when they had to! The defense held UNC to under 100 yards rushing, which is always a plus. I just think there were one to many missed tackles which could have helped them have an even better performance. If Rutgers defense can continue to hold quality offenses like UNC to 17 point who scored 24 points the last two weeks against quality defenses in LSU and Georgia Tech, they can carry this team.

Special teams was the weakness for the first time in a very long time. An early missed field goal that if made would have allowed for an attempt of a game winner at the end of the game instead of having to go for a touchdown!

It’s the small things that came back to bite them in the butt! A blocked punt also didn’t help, which turned into points for the Tar Heels!

The objective this week should be to eliminate the mistakes and play a clean game! Erase some of the wildcat from the game plan and allow Savage to stay in the game. At some point in the season we will need him to have the confidence to lead the team to victory throwing the ball against a great defense!