Behind Enemy Lines: Rutgers edition

John Gugs
2 days ago
3 min read

Maryland football is coming off a 55-10 beatdown against second-ranked Indiana, sending the losing streak to four to set up as close to a must-win game for Maryland as it gets. This week, the Terps take the short trip north to Piscataway to take on Rutgers and try to get back to their winning ways. This week, I talked with Craig Epstein of The Knight Report to take a look into this years Rutgers squad and take a look into what to expect come Saturday afternoon.

IBG: Rutgers has been hit with lots of injuries this season. Who are two players that have stepped up the most to fill in spots that opened up due to injury?

Craig Epstein: Rutgers has been battered with injuries to the offensive line dating back to before the season when Ryder Langsdale suffered a season-ending injury. One guy who has stepped up nicely though has been Moshood Giwa who slid into the left tackle spot and has done an admirable job. Another guy who has impressed is Abram Wright who has started at linebacker for the last eight games and totaled 45 tackles with two passes deflected. He returned from a season-ending injury last year.

IBG: The Terps offensive line has only given up three sacks all year. Rutgers has only gotten ten sacks this season. What will Rutgers need to do differently against the Terps to try to get pressure on Malik Washington and throw him off his game?

CE: The Scarlet Knights really need to get their edge rushers, Eric O’Neill and Bradley Weaver, going. They both came in as pretty highly thought of transfers, but have failed to live up to their expectations. O’Neill has shown a little bit more promise as of late, recording a sack and deflecting a pass that led to an interception last week against Illinois, but Weaver has been a massive disappointment with just 2.5 sacks on the season.

IBG: The Rutgers defense is coming off a game where they gave up 35 points to Illinois. What went wrong against the Illini and what will the Rutgers defense need to do avoid a Terps' offense bounceback?

CE: Just about everything. Rutgers’ defense has been very poor just about the entire season and, while the talent might have indicated a bit of a dropoff heading into the season, it is stunning to see a Greg Schiano-led defense perform this badly. Second only to Rutgers’ defense is its red zone offense which has scored only 13 touchdowns on 26 trips in Big Ten play. If Rutgers is going to beat Maryland, it will need to start turning those trips into six and shore up its defense.

JG: The Terps defense are coming off their worst game of the season giving up 55 points to Indiana. What will the Rutgers offense need to do to not let the Terps defense gain some confidence back and have a bounce back game?

CE: Granted, Maryland is coming off a shellacking at the hands of Indiana, but it also came at the hands of Indiana which is one of, if not the depending on who you ask, best teams in the country. Like I said before, Rutgers will need to improve in the red zone and finish off drives with touchdowns rather than field goals. The Scarlet Knights have shown in the past that they have an offense that can overwhelm their opponents at times, but it will not matter if they cannot continuously score touchdowns.

JG: What is your score prediction for Saturday and why?

CE: If Rutgers is going to reach bowl eligibility, this is a must-win game considering it faces No. 1 Ohio State next week. On paper, this is a very winnable game for the Scarlet Knights, but I’m just too skeptical considering what I have seen the last six weeks. Even their win against bottom-feeder Purdue had to come on a last-second field goal. Schiano has shown in the past that he can pull his teams out of ruts, but right now I am at the point where he needs to show me before I can put my faith into them beating even an average team like Maryland.

Maryland: 31, Rutgers: 23

A win this weekend for the Terps will put them back above .500 and will have them one win away from bowl eligibility. The game is set to kickoff at 2:30 PM ET and will air on FS1.

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