Week 8 Recap: Rutgers
Looking at PFF grades, snap counts, and notable statistics from Indiana's debilitating loss to Rutgers
I’m running out of things to say about this team without feeling like I’m beating a dead horse, but Indiana was methodically defeated Saturday by Rutgers, who was confident enough to run the ball on 80% of its offensive plays, on the road. Indiana had its face caved in by the Scarlet Knights and drops its record vs. Rutgers to 0-3 since the 2020 season.
I wrote in the preview that this Rutgers game would aid in determining how steep the hill was between Indiana and some of its more beatable opponents left on the schedule. The answer is that it’s fairly steep. Indiana will need to fight hard to win another game this year (maybe Michigan State?).
Notable Snap Counts
Jaylin Lucas played 15 snaps out of the slot position, by far his most this season. His previous high was 8. He now has 43 snaps at slot, which is 3rd among all RBs nationally.
Trent Howland recorded the most snaps among non-Jaylin Lucas RBs, likely due to injury. His PFF Offensive Grade ranked 3rd in the conference among RBs this week.
Redshirt freshman DB Amare Farrell stepped in for injured Noah Pierre and was one of the primary defensive contributors. His PFF Defensive Grade ranked 13th in the conference this week. (The broadcast said Anthony Jones replaced Noah Pierre at Husky, but clearly that wasn’t true.)
Marcus Burris and LeDarrius Cox both out-snapped Philip Blidi (who owns Indiana’s best season-long PFF Defensive Grade) at DT.
Lanell Carr’s snaps are back at a typical amount (32) since he only played 16 snaps last week.
EJ Williams got his first snaps since his injury.
Notable Stats
Indiana is 2-20 in Big Ten play since the 2020 season.
Rutgers posted its best rushing performance of the season this week, rushing for 276 yards. Its previous best was at home against Wagner.
For Indiana, it was the second-best rushing performance of the season, as the Hoosiers rushed for 153 yards. Trent Howland led the team with 53 yards.
Indiana gained a solid 4.2 line yards per rush, their best performance in the statistic this season vs. FBS opponents.
Indiana crossed Rutgers’ 40-yard line 5 times but scored 7 points from those opportunities.
Gavin Wimsatt posted the 13th-best QBR in the nation this week against Indiana. Brendan Sorsby’s was 6th in the Big Ten (outside top-50 nationally).
Sorsby recorded the 7th-best rushing grade among starting Big Ten QBs this week.
Amare Farrell made a team-high 5 individual stops.
Aaron Casey has received dismal Defensive Grades each of the last four weeks and is now graded as the 17th-best LB in the conference. Jacob Mangum-Farrar is 21st.
Casey led the team in missed tackles, with 5. Nobody missed more than one. Casey now has missed 10 tackles in the last three games.
In the 5 games before Roc Carey took over as OC, Jaylin Lucas was targeted 22 times in the passing game. In the 2 games since, he’s been targeted 13 times.
“Run the Ball and Stop the Run”
Tom Allen said it several times throughout the offseason, but I remember specifically during his introduction of Matt Guerreri as defensive coordinator when he said this 2023 Indiana team needed to “run the ball and stop the run.” If there was ever a game when that identity was ideal, it was this game against Rutgers — against an opponent with the 2nd-best graded Big Ten RB and ranked 126th in rushing success rate allowed.
However, what metastasized was Rutgers’ best rushing performance of the season and a lop-sided time of possession. QB Gavin Wimsatt led the team with 143 yards (and 3 touchdowns), and RB Kyle Monangai finished with 109 yards. What was so astonishing about that Rutgers rushing success is that there was little precedence. Before this week, Wimsatt averaged a mere 5.6 rushing yards per game against Big Ten opponents, and after this week, Rutgers ranks 7th in the Big Ten in rushing yards per game against conference opponents. Its offensive line is graded well by PFF but not stellar, sitting at 32nd in run-blocking.
Indiana provided little resistance to an offense that was comfortable being one-dimensional. 53 of Rutgers’ plays (80%) were rushes, and they passed just 12 times. Of those 53 rushes, only 3 were stopped for 0 yards or less and 29 (55%) went for 4 or more yards. Indiana’s front seven recorded a 4.6% havoc rate. There was no fear from Rutgers.
This allowed Rutgers to hang on to the ball for 15 minutes longer than Indiana (37 to 22 minutes), which didn’t allow Indiana to run the ball often on offense — which they actually did well, as it does against weak defensive fronts. The Hoosiers ran just 29 times and averaged 5.3 yards per carry and recorded a similar EPA/rush to Rutgers (0.12 to 0.09). So Indiana’s lead rusher was Trent Howland, with 53 yards.
As it stands, Indiana ranks 121st in EPA/rush, with 0.031, and 92nd in EPA/rush allowed, with 0.166.
It has been rare to see Indiana being competitive. Tom Allen had two years of moderate success due to two coordinators who did a great job. They’ve both gone on to success as head coaches. If we can’t come up w $20 million to get rid of him, pay his $4.5 million salary and tell him to stay away from the facility. This is embarrassing . The Nebraska player last year was correct. Tom Allen is a clown.
What is there to say at this point? This team looks beaten and unlively with a coaching staff that is clueless and unprepared every week. Ever since the Akron game it looks like everyone has given up. For all the talk about Allen being a motivator and vibes coach (usually argued his strongest attributes), he looks like he has no idea how to motivate or fix this team. If he can't even do the one thing he's good, I don't see how this team is able be competitive with any team left on the roster past the first quarter let alone win one. As a IUFB fan, my anger has turned to apathy at this point and unfortunately I'll just wait a few more weeks for basketball.