GAME 6 OHIO STATE v
RUTGERS
October 18 2014 Ohio Stadium Columbus, OH
Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Location: Piscataway, NJ
Stadium: High Point Solutions Stadium
(52,454)
Coach: Kyle Flood (3rd year):
17-12 at Rutgers/overall, 1-1 v B1G, 0-0 v OSU
Series: 1st Meeting
Coach Meyer (3rd season): 28-3 at OSU, 132-26 overall, 20-2 v
B1G, 0-0 v Rutgers
2013 Rutgers Scarlet Knights
(6-7)(3-5) AAC 2013
Ohio State Buckeyes (12-2)(8-1) B1G
51 at Fresno State 52 (OT) 40 Buffalo 20
38 Norfolk State 0 42 San Diego State 7
28 Eastern Michigan 10 52 at California 34
28 Arkansas 24 76 Florida A&M 0
55 at SMU 52
(OT) 31 Wisconsin 24
10 at Louisville 24 40 at Northwestern 30
14 Houston 49 34 Iowa 24
23 Temple 20 63 Penn State 14
17 Cincinnati 52 56 at Purdue
0
17 at Central Florida 41 60 at
Illinois 35
17 at Connecticut 28 42 Indiana 14
31 South Florida 6 42 at Michigan 41
16 Notre Dame 29 24 Michigan State 34
(Pinstripe Bowl) (B1G
Championship game)
35 Clemson (Orange Bowl) 40
2014 Rutgers Scarlet Knights
(5-1)(1-1) 2014
Ohio State Buckeyes (4-1)(1-0)
41 at Washington State 38 34 at
Navy (Baltimore) 17
38 Howard 25 21 Virginia Tech 35
10 Penn State 13 66 Kent State
0
31 at Navy 24
31 Tulane 6 50 Cincinnati 28
26 Michigan 24 52 at Maryland 24
O11
O18 at Ohio State Rutgers
O25 at Nebraska at
Penn State
N1 Wisconsin Illinois
N8 at
Michigan State
N15 Indiana at
Minnesota
N22 at Michigan State Indiana
N29 at Maryland Michigan
OHIO STATE OFFENSE v RUTGERS DEFENSE:
The Rutgers Scarlet Knights come into the ‘Shoe Saturday as one of the surprise
teams not only in the conference, but also the country. In their 145th year, this will be
their 1295th game, more than any other school in the FBS. The key matchup on this side of the ball will
be the Rutgers pass rush verses Ohio State’s improving offensive line. The Knights are third in the nation with 24
sacks and it starts up front with junior DT Darius Hamilton leading the
way. Hamilton already has six tackles
for loss (out of 17 total) and 3.5 sacks.
Next to him, senior DT Kenneth Kirksey has been in the opposing
backfield in every game this season with a sack, a TFL, or forcing the QB to
throw the ball away. Rutgers also has a
pair of good book ends in Djwany Mera and David Milewski. Mera plays good run support, while Milewski
has been just as lethal for opposing quarterbacks as Hamilton, also posting six
tackles for loss and three sacks. The
line backers are led by Steve Longa, who leads the team in tackles with 41 and
is an active participant in their “sack attack” with two sacks. Quentin Gause and MLB Kevin Snyder have
acquitted themselves well in 2014.
Snyder is the Knights’ most experienced player on defense as he will be
playing in his 45th career game.
Gause has been a ball hawk as in three out of their five games, he has
picked up seven or more tackles and was the recipient of the Rutgers Leadership
Award for demonstrating outstanding leadership qualities on and off the
field. Cornerback Gareef Glashen leads
the secondary and is third on the team in tackles with 31 to go with seven pass
breakups and an interception. The other
corner, Nadir Barnwell, returned from an injury and didn’t seem to miss a beat
as he made three tackles against Tulane and five verses Michigan. Strong safety Lorenzo Waters already has 30
tackles and has been known to blitz from both sides of the ball, garnering two
sacks. The speedy redshirt freshman
Andre Hunt earned the starting role against Michigan and responded with two
tackles and a critical pass breakup on third down. Look for Ohio State to counter the Knights’
aggressive defensive scheme with the rapidly burgeoning running game with Ezekiel
Elliott between the tackles and quick-outs to Dontre Wilson. We may also see J.T. Barrett with a lot of
three-step drops and quick throws to the tight ends to counter the blitz
packages they will see.
OHIO STATE DEFENSE v RUTGERS OFFENSE:
Rutgers quarterback Gary Nova is one of the most under-rated quarterbacks I
have seen this year. The senior
quarterback has completed 62 percent of his passes for 1601 yards and 13
touchdowns compared to only seven interceptions, a complete turnaround from
last year. The highlight of such a
turnaround came against Michigan two weekends ago, when Nova played
arguably the best game of his life. He threw a career-best 404 yards and
three touchdowns to notch Rutgers’ first win as a member of the Big Ten. Nova’s favorite target is WR Leonte Carroo,
with 29 receptions for 548 yards and five touchdowns. Janarion Grant and Tyler Kroft will also
figure in the passing attack, as well as John Tsimis, as Nova has been adept at
going through his progressions. If those
four weren’t enough to worry a defense, Rutgers also has Desmond Peoples coming
out of the backfield to haul in seven catches already, including four in their
win over Michigan two weeks ago. Peoples
is also starting to pick it up on the ground, filling in for the injured Paul
James who suffered a season-ending injury against Navy. Peoples, with 326 yards, is starting to run
harder each game he plays. Up front,
fifth-year seniors Taj Alexander and Bryan Leoni lead a unit that, minus their
loss verses Penn State, has done a decent job keeping Nova upright and are
starting to do a better job at run blocking.
However, figure this line to have their hands full against an improving
Ohio State front four who will look to build off their dominating performance
against Maryland.
SPECIAL TEAMS: Rutgers has a solid kicker in Kyle Fredrico,
who has made 8 out of 10 field goal attempts with a long of 45, while Tim
Gleeson does a good job at punter, averaging 42.3 per punt with a long of 57.
SUMMARY:
Give the Rutgers Scarlet Knights much credit for being better than most
everybody thought they would be and Gary Nova has shown he is the real deal at
quarterback. Their wins, however have
been against teams with losing records and an FCS school. Their loss to Penn State looks bad in the
light that Penn State’s troubles on the line of scrimmage have now been exposed
in back-to-back games. Not that Ohio
State’s results have been that much better, but many figured Rutgers would face
an uphill battle starting with this game on Saturday. Coach Urban Meyer is 18-1 as a head coach in
games following a bye week, with the single loss coming back in 2001, his first
year. At Bowling Green, Utah, Florida
and Ohio State, Meyer-led teams have surpassed their scoring average 11 times
and hit it on another occasion. Figure Ohio State’s defense will be able to
come after Nova and force some bad throws while stuffing the run and the
offense wearing down the Rutgers defense in the second half.
OHIO
STATE 42, RUTGERS 16
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