RU/FIU as I Saw It
Here a re my thoughts on RU's 23-15 win over FIU yesterday:
Atmosphere
I got to the game early and did a little gaitin' as I call it. Gorgeous early fall day for a football game. I know technically it was not yet autumn, but by the end of the night there was a nip to the air.
From my standpoint, the stadium appeared to be 1/3 empty, but supposedly over 45,000 people were there. And that's not bad considering it was a game against a fairly unknown nonconference opponent.
The Touchdown Club is pack selling the 50/50s rather than the cheerleaders. Although it was nice to see the girls out there in uniform, it makes sense that they would be warming up for the game.
Getting back to the fans...the fans who were there, particularly the students, were truly into the game. That is, until everyone thought the game was in the bag with 12:00 minutes to go. Those of us who stuck around found out otherwise.
The Defense
Up until the last two series, this was an outstanding defensive performance. They were able to pressure the quarterback while containing the short passes. Overrunning the short passes and missing tackles were what killed them against Cincy's spread.
Special Teams
San San Te has to become more consistent. He has to be automatic from inside 40 yards. Anything less, is not getting the job done at the level Rutgers wants to be at. The kick coverage was phenomenal and the returns weren't too shabby. I would like to see Sanu get a little more room to return a punt, though. He had no choice but to fair catch almost everything kicked to him because an opponent was consistently in his face when he caught the ball.
The Offense
It's expected that QB Tom Savage will have his struggles. He had a rough game. But the RU sideline isn't doing him any favors by constantly making him check and check and check to get the play. That idiocy seemingly directly led to the botched play in which he barely got the snap off, got bull rushed, and then got injured. Dom Natale had similar problems with the sidelines, at one point telling them to hurry it up.
Speaking of Natale, it was fantastic to see him get that TD and then come back in later and throw that deep ball to brown. Had the offense not shot itself in the foot with penalties (seemingly caused by the sideline) he would have led them to another score.
Another thing about the issue of the offense getting the plays in from the sideline...how long do you expect the down linemen to stay in a 3-point stance? I realize the team is snapping at the last second to get a look at the defensive formation. I realize that. But I'm not surprised guys are getting whistled for false starts when they are made to stay in their stance for 25-30 seconds. It's exhausting, not to mention frustrating to watch.
Congratulations to Joe Martinek on his first 100-yard game. Thankfully, Rutgers changed its play calling to focus more on the run after the second series. Why we didn't come out running against a team we seriously outweighed is just confusing.
The only other observation I have is that immediately after the game it felt like a loss even though it was a win. Now that a day is passed I feel that a win is a win, and that by FIU further exposing some of Rutgers' weaknesses it'll better help the coaching staff work to fix those problems and prepare for Maryland.
Atmosphere
I got to the game early and did a little gaitin' as I call it. Gorgeous early fall day for a football game. I know technically it was not yet autumn, but by the end of the night there was a nip to the air.
From my standpoint, the stadium appeared to be 1/3 empty, but supposedly over 45,000 people were there. And that's not bad considering it was a game against a fairly unknown nonconference opponent.
The Touchdown Club is pack selling the 50/50s rather than the cheerleaders. Although it was nice to see the girls out there in uniform, it makes sense that they would be warming up for the game.
Getting back to the fans...the fans who were there, particularly the students, were truly into the game. That is, until everyone thought the game was in the bag with 12:00 minutes to go. Those of us who stuck around found out otherwise.
The Defense
Up until the last two series, this was an outstanding defensive performance. They were able to pressure the quarterback while containing the short passes. Overrunning the short passes and missing tackles were what killed them against Cincy's spread.
Special Teams
San San Te has to become more consistent. He has to be automatic from inside 40 yards. Anything less, is not getting the job done at the level Rutgers wants to be at. The kick coverage was phenomenal and the returns weren't too shabby. I would like to see Sanu get a little more room to return a punt, though. He had no choice but to fair catch almost everything kicked to him because an opponent was consistently in his face when he caught the ball.
The Offense
It's expected that QB Tom Savage will have his struggles. He had a rough game. But the RU sideline isn't doing him any favors by constantly making him check and check and check to get the play. That idiocy seemingly directly led to the botched play in which he barely got the snap off, got bull rushed, and then got injured. Dom Natale had similar problems with the sidelines, at one point telling them to hurry it up.
Speaking of Natale, it was fantastic to see him get that TD and then come back in later and throw that deep ball to brown. Had the offense not shot itself in the foot with penalties (seemingly caused by the sideline) he would have led them to another score.
Another thing about the issue of the offense getting the plays in from the sideline...how long do you expect the down linemen to stay in a 3-point stance? I realize the team is snapping at the last second to get a look at the defensive formation. I realize that. But I'm not surprised guys are getting whistled for false starts when they are made to stay in their stance for 25-30 seconds. It's exhausting, not to mention frustrating to watch.
Congratulations to Joe Martinek on his first 100-yard game. Thankfully, Rutgers changed its play calling to focus more on the run after the second series. Why we didn't come out running against a team we seriously outweighed is just confusing.
The only other observation I have is that immediately after the game it felt like a loss even though it was a win. Now that a day is passed I feel that a win is a win, and that by FIU further exposing some of Rutgers' weaknesses it'll better help the coaching staff work to fix those problems and prepare for Maryland.
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