Orange hope to squeeze out a victory over Scarlet Knight
Syracuse, NY (Sports Network) - Back in the national spotlight with an AP Ranking of 25th this week, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights head to enemy territory as they take on Big East Conference foe Syracuse at the Carrier Dome.
The Scarlet Knights opened the 2009 campaign with a 47-15 loss to Cincinnati and have been trying to climb back to respectability ever since. Finally it has happened, thanks to three straight wins and victories in seven of the last eight outings overall.
Back on November 12th, the team hosted South Florida and took advantage of countless Bulls' miscues en route to a 31-0 rout, the second time this season Rutgers has issued a shutout.
As for the Orange, they've been trying to get out of their own way from the opening kickoff versus Minnesota. Last week the team found a new way to prevent itself from winning, missing an extra point that would, at the very least, have provided the team with a 10-10 tie and given the Orange more of a chance to come out on top. But as it turned out, Syracuse was stuck with the 10-9 loss to Louisville, the team's third straight setback and the fifth in six games.
In terms of the all-time series, the Syracuse leads by a count of 28-10-1, although it was Rutgers that posted a 35-17 win in the most recent meeting.
Quarterback Tom Savage stepped in and converted 15-of-30 passes for 194 yards and a pair of touchdowns as he led the Scarlet Knights to the victory versus USF last week. Also having a strong game for the home team was Joe Martinek who carried the ball 25 times for 128 yards and a touchdown as well.
Against a USF program that was at one point nationally ranked before its starting quarterback went down with an injury, the Rutgers defense feasted on the youth and inexperience of quarterback BJ Daniels by logging six sacks and intercepting a pair of passes, all while allowing the visitors just 159 yards of total offense. With a total of seven sacks, the Knights left the Bulls with just 30 net rushing yards on 32 attempts.
"I was able to get outside a couple of times and run," Daniels said of the countless times he was under pressure from the Scarlet Knights. "They were coming with so many that we couldn't really hold them." The Bulls got a firsthand look at a defense that is one of the best in the business right now, ranking second in the Big East and fourth in the nation overall in both sacks and tackles for loss with averages of 3.2 and 8.3 per game, respectively. What's more, this squad is now ranked first in the entire nation in turnover margin with a plus-2.3 per game. It is almost scary how well Rutgers has taken care of the ball this season, losing just three fumbles and having five passes picked off.
Obviously, much of the credit has to go to Savage and the rest of the skills players on the offensive side of the ball. The quarterback has converted 55.1 percent of his passes for 10 touchdowns and only two INTs, while Martinek has carried the ball 146 times for 729 yards and eight touchdowns. Further down the field Tim Brown has responded with 40 catches for 860 yards and six scores, while Mohamed Sanu checks in with 37 grabs for 396 yards and a TD.
While Savage appears to be picking up the pace with the Rutgers offense, the exact opposite is happening across the border in New York where Syracuse can't figure out how to move the ball with any level of consistency. In the last three weeks the team has scored a combined 26 points so not much is happening there.
Most would agree that the Greg Paulus experiment at quarterback has failed miserably. While it is true that he converted 12-of-16 passes last weekend, he generated a total of just 89 yards. Forced to run for his life a few too many times, Paulus was also sacked four times, bringing the team's rushing total down to 156 yards in the loss to the Cardinals.
Running back Delone Carter put up 129 yards and a touchdown on 28 attempts, but while his touchdown should have put the Orange ahead by seven points early in the fourth frame, the failed PAT proved to be the reason for one more loss for the team.
"There were a lot of plays that we could have made during the course of that game to go up by two scores to win the game," Syracuse head coach Doug Marrone said after the game, "we didn't make those plays. We had a chance to make plays at the end of the game and we didn't." At this point Paulus has been credited with 44 rushing attempts, but the results have often been less than exciting as he now has minus-40 yards on the season. In terms of passing the ball, the former Duke basketball player has tossed 10 touchdowns, but also 14 interceptions in 237 attempts.
Before Paulus came back home to supposedly help the football program, sophomore signal-caller Ryan Nassib had all but been promised the starting job, so when he does step into the huddle on those rare occasions and makes something happen, many can't understand why he is shuttled back to the sidelines so quickly. At some point the SU coaching staff would be smart to think long and hard about keeping Nassib on the field for more than a few token plays here and there. Considering the offense ranks 110th in the nation with just 305.2 ypg and is 107th in scoring (19.2 ppg) and the possibility of becoming bowl eligible is now gone, what does the team have to lose? "I've always played to win," says coach Marrone, "I think this team plays to win...and that's what you do here at Syracuse, you play to win."
11/18 11:09:43 ET
