It was a season-saving performance by the Scarlet Knights, as they flushed their blowout loss to Illinois and dominated their matchup against the Maryland Terrapins for most of the afternoon. The offense
led the way, behind Antwan Raymond’s career-high 240-yard performance as well as a three-touchdown day for Ian Strong.
Here are my takeaways from the resounding 35-20 win by the Scarlet Knights in what was arguably their best overall performance of the season.
Scarlet Knights Run All Over The Terrapins, But Finish Off Maryland With The Pass
Right from their first possession, Rutgers set the tone by handing the ball off to Raymond six straight times before Kaliakmanis threw his first pass to KJ Duff. Before today’s game, Maryland was averaging just shy of 170 rushing yards allowed per game, and the Scarlet Knights made it their game plan to attack the Terps on the ground as much as possible.
Although Raymond’s longest run went for 34 yards, he did most of his damage in short to intermediate runs, picking up between seven and nine yards on several plays while having consecutive 15-yard runs and multiple double-digit pickups throughout the day.
Raymond continued to run through the Terrapins’ poor run defense well throughout the fourth quarter as he tied the Rutgers record for most carries in a single game at 41. He rushed for the third-most yards in a single game in program history and became the ninth Scarlet Knight to rush for 1,000 yards in a single season on the last carry. Most notably of all, he set the Rutgers record for most rushing yards in a Big Ten game.
But for as much as Rutgers relied on the legs of Raymond, it was the potency of the passing game that put Rutgers over the top against the Terrapins. Athan Kaliakmanis bounced back from a poor showing at Illinois, going 13-20 for 229 yards and four touchdowns, with his two interceptions being a tipped pass that bounced off Strong and multiple Terps defenders and a Hail Mary attempt that was picked off at the goal line before halftime.
The first touchdown of the day went to Sheffield on a nine-yard walk-in touchdown, in which DT was open on the left side of the field after being in motion pre-snap (a rarity for the Rutgers offense before this game). Later on, Sheffield ran an excellent route to get separation for a 31-yard catch down the left sideline and finished with four catches for 56 yards.
KJ Duff had a monster 49-yard grab as well as a 20-yard catch to finish with 69 yards, while Kenny Fletcher Jr. returned to the lineup for his usual two catches for 16 yards. It seems that the tight ends are always open on those short passes up the sideline, but the offensive staff is reluctant to use them more than a couple of plays per game.
But the other star of the show today was Ian Strong. After having a rough couple of games and battling through an injury, Strong made the biggest contributions in the receiver room with five catches for 88 yards and three touchdowns. On the first touchdown pass, Athan Kaliakmanis evaded the Maryland rush and found Strong, who had blown by the cornerback for the 45-yard score. The second TD pass saw Kaliakmanis climbing the pocket and zipping the ball to Strong in the back of the end zone, while the final touchdown to Strong saw the star receiver use a stutter-and-go as well as his hands to beat Jamare Glasker and complete the hat trick.
The second touchdown was the most impressive of the three, as Kaliakmanis pinpointed the ball to go right above Glasker and into the hands of Ian Strong for the sure-handed touchdown to put Rutgers up 21-17 at halftime.
Defense Overcame Rough Start For Fantastic Finish
On defense, Rutgers overcame a shaky start and a poor day against the run to shut the Terrapins down in the second half. Washington scored on a quarterback keeper that fooled nearly the entire defense on the second play of the game, and it looked like it would be more of the same from the Scarlet Knights, especially when Washington took off for another long scramble that looked like the usual free romp up the field that we have seen so many times this season.
Maryland, who averaged just 86.9 rushing yards per game against FBS opponents, ran for a total of 309 yards on 29 carries, which was more than twice as many yards as their season-high of 152 against FCS Towson. Even running back Nolan Ray took off for a 53-yard run, while the usually non-mobile quarterback finished with 164 yards on just eight non-sack carries. After the Terps failed to register a single 30-plus yard carry across eight games, they had three against the Rutgers run defense, all of which came in the first half.
However, the Rutgers defense stepped up and played its best half of the season to hold Maryland to just three points in the second half. With the Knights’ offense firing on all cylinders, the Terrapins looked to go for it on fourth-and-three from the Rutgers 37-yard line, but Eric O’Neill’s pressure forced a slightly errant throw from Malik Washington that went off the fingertips of DeJuan Williams and gave Rutgers the ball back.
Although Rutgers proceeded to turn the ball over on downs with Glasker breaking up a deep pass intended for Duff, they held Maryland out of the end zone and forced a field goal from Sean O’Haire that cut the lead to eight. After another punt, Rutgers got the ball right back with a three-and-out and responded with a clock-churning drive that saw Raymond get rewarded for his career day with a rushing touchdown to effectively seal the game, as the Terrapins could not execute in complete desperation mode down by two scores late in the fourth quarter.
Jett Elad intercepted a pass before the end of the first half with Washington trying to quickly move the ball down the field, but the key contributor was Eric O’Neill, who shut down the Terrapins’ run game in the second half, registering 10 tackles, including seven solo and two for loss. Fellow edge rusher Bradley Weaver was also active, breaking up a pass intended for Shaleak Knotts that got UMD off the field at a time when Rutgers needed a stop to help put the game out of reach.
The unsung heroes may be our secondary with a great assist from the pass rush. I was fully expecting Malik Washington to tear up the Knights with the deep and intermediate passing, as so many other passers have done, but Washington tended not to go there, and when he did, it resulted in incompletions and/or pass deflections.
There were no blown coverages at the goal line, getting exposed for deep plays with no defenders in the area, and the rush affected Washington just enough to make the chain-moving completions difficult for his receivers to have several passes come off their hands. Two killer drops and a couple of unforced penalties (false start and an offensive face mask) did Maryland in when they had chances to complete drives for touchdowns.
I did not think that the incremental improvements the defense was making would show up enough to affect an entire game, as the team had shown minimal to marginal improvement after their first bye, against an awful Purdue team, and even last week against the Illini, with Greg Schiano calling the defensive plays by all visible indications.
However, the game plan and execution of shutting down Maryland’s potent passing attack shockingly worked, while it was the struggling run game of Maryland that had stunning levels of success. It was a risk that paid off with dividends for Rutgers, as their commitment to shutting Washington down as a passer derailed the Terrapins’ offense for the entire second half.
Rutgers-Penn State May Be For All The Marbles
With the Maryland game in the books and Penn State’s sudden resurgence as they nearly knocked off #2 Indiana despite having lost six straight games, the final game of the regular season might have the magnitude of an earthquake in Piscataway. Penn State has a hapless Michigan State and a Dylan Raiola-less Nebraska to take on before heading to Rutgers, but the way they have been playing, they should be favored to run the table and get to bowl eligibility.
There is a very good chance that the Scarlet Knights and Nittany Lions will meet at 5-6, in a win-or-go-home scenario, with the winner punching a bowl ticket and the loser being left out in the cold. Let us enjoy our bye week, take our lumps in Columbus, and then get ready for a Penn State game that will likely have a different feel than we have ever seen before.
If Rutgers can snap their long losing streak to the hated team from the west to clinch a bowl game after the season they have had, it would erase a lot of the painful losses, from Iowa and Minnesota on the competitive end to Oregon and Illinois on the humiliating blowout side of the spectrum.
However, a loss to that team, especially if they celebrate a bowl bid on our field and leave us out in the cold, could leave Rutgers fans with a deep emotional scar and give them an even bigger reason to hate the Nittany Lions than they already do. Although the matchup is still three weeks away and circumstances can change between now and then, the Scarlet Knights and Nittany Lions may be on a collision course for the ages two days after Thanksgiving.
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