Game Day (Eve) Primer: Indiana Hoosiers vs. Rutgers Scarlet Knights
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Tegray Scales and 21 other IU players will be playing their final game in Memorial Stadium on Saturday Image: Sammy Jacobs Hoosier Huddle
Written By T.J. Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)
What: Rutgers (4-6) at Indiana (4-6)
Where: Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, IN
When: Saturday, November 18 at Noon
How to Watch: The game will be broadcast on BTN. You can also listen to the game on the IU Radio Network with the legendary Don Fischer on the call.
Game Notes: The Indiana Hoosiers will be honoring the 50th anniversary of the 1968 Rose Bowl team. In addition, Saturday is Senior Day and 22 Indiana seniors (along with cheerleaders, managers and band members) will be going through Senior Day festivities. This is the final home game for these Hoosiers and there’s no doubt they’d like to go out on a winning note.
What’s at Stake: Unless the Hoosiers were battling for a division title, the stakes could not be much higher. After defeating Illinois in Champaign, the Hoosiers are 4-6 and need wins in both of their final two contests in order to reach a third straight bowl game. On top of that, it is Senior Day and the final home game for a number of great Hoosiers (including all-time linebacker Tegray Scales). Rutgers is in a similar position. They sit at 4-6 and need a pair of wins to improbably reach a bowl game and hit the fast forward button on Chris Ash’s rebuild project. This is a “50/50” game and in the gauntlet that is the Big Ten East, it’s the kind of game both programs feel they need to consistently win.
What to Watch For
1. The Takeaway Battle
For the first time in quite a while, Indiana decisively won the takeaway battle last Saturday as they forced three takeaways and were plus two for the afternoon. IU did their damage late and it helped them put away the Illini and improve to 4-6. After weeks of coming up on the losing end of this statistic, it was refreshing to see IU force some mistakes and then actually complete the plays. Rashard Fant had an interception after dropping a sure pick-six and Tegray Scales made a nice play after Jeff George Jr. bobbled the ball. IU needs its senior leaders to make plays and that’s exactly what they did. Now the question is, can the Hoosiers do that two weeks in a row? Can they take care of the ball on offense and complete takeaways on defense? Rutgers is just minus one on turnovers for the season (they have forced 14 and given away 15) so they aren’t particularly careless with it and IU will have their work cut out for them. In a game that figures to be closely contested, every takeaway could prove to be the difference.
2. Who Can Be Two-Dimensional?
Both the Hoosiers and the Scarlet Knights struggle to avoid being one-dimensional on offense. For the Hoosiers, it’s been an issue to consistently run the ball for more than a couple of yards per carry. The offensive line has had issues opening up holes for the running backs and IU is only averaging 3.17 yards per carry. On the bright side, the Hoosiers were moderately successful in running the ball a week ago as they gained 139 yards on 42 carries. Still, that could hardly be called a breakout performance as they only managed 3.31 yards per attempt. Rutgers is the exact opposite. They have one of the country’s weakest passing attacks and lean heavily on the running game. For the season, they are averaging 4.26 yards per carry and the emergence of Gus Edwards has been a huge boon. The senior is averaging 4.4 yards per carry and has gotten the majority of the work in the second half of the season. Robert Martin will also be heavily featured. Two weeks ago against Maryland, the Scarlet Knights pounded out 239 rushing yards to just 107 passing yards and they had better 5 yards per carry. Last week was similar story in terms of lack of balance as they only gained 43 yards passing against Penn State. Giovanni Rescigno is the quarterback of choice for RU but make no mistake, the Scarlet Knights want to run the ball 80 percent of the time, wear down IU’s defense and not ask their passing game to do anything. If one these teams can find offensive balance, they’ll likely come out victorious.
3. Special Teams
Indiana’s special teams unit has had a very adventurous season. They’ve had high moments, okay moments and a couple of really dreadful performances that have cost IU games (think Maryland…better yet, never think about that game again). Rutgers has a good punter in Ryan Anderson (43.73 yards per punt) and a couple of dangerous returners but their special teams unit is average as a whole. IU has gotten a terrific season from Griffin Oakes as a place kicker and a kickoff specialist and a pretty good debut season from punter Haydon Whitehead (41.12 yards per punt). The Hoosiers have had some breakdowns on punt block and on coverage. With the margin for error in this season completely gone, IU cannot afford any slipups in the “third phase” of the game. They don’t have to overwhelmingly win the special teams matchup but they sure can’t have major breakdowns and lose it.
