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TagsBY MIKE VORKUNOV
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
1. Not all wins are equal. On paper this looked like an easy win for Rutgers, a three touchdown difference over a punchless Maryland squad, but it certainly wasn't that easy. They had to make the most of five turnovers from the Terps, and do something they've never done before under Greg Schiano, score twice defensively, to pull out the wins. Martinek's two late touchdowns added padding and made the final result more digestible, but it couldn't hide the trouble RU had all day long.
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2. The secondary has problems. From the first play of the game, when David Rowe was beat deep for 45 yards by Torrey Smith, to Zaire Kitchen's invisible man tackling attempts, it was a bad day for the Rutgers defensive backs. It's becoming evident that outside of Devin McCourty there is little to rely on back there except for calamity. When Tony Pike and Cincinnati tore them up, some blamed it on a scheme mismatch, but when Howard, Florida International and Maryland give you problems, then it becomes a dilemma. They looked better in the second half, and interceptions by McCourty and Billy Anderson surely make the final numbers look better, but there are problems there that can't be ignored.
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3. If Domenic Natale is the quarterback, the offense regresses 50 years. Back in the 1960s, you could win games by running it 50 times a game and occasionally taking your chances. But Rutgers is trying to take what was old and make it new again. Greg Schiano obviously doesn't trust Natale to throw the ball down the field. The offense took their chances in the second half after a tame first 30 minutes, but none of them worked out. The Scarlet Knights are going to rely on pounding the ball down the throats of the opponents and hope to surprise them when Natale drops back to pass.
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4. If you're going to run the ball a lot, then you have to succeed at it. The Knights couldn't do that until the fourth quarter. Coming into that final quarter the Rutgers had run the ball 35 times for only 96 yards. After Martinek broke his two long touchdown runs, the final numbers were more impressive, 49 carries for 207 yards. Still, it doesn't make anyone forget about the two goal lines failures in the third quarter where on third and fourth down Rutgers could not score from Maryland's one-yard line.
RELATED:
Defense scores for Rutgers over Maryland, 34-13
RUTGERS 34, MARYLAND 13 — BOXSCORE
Rutgers Lefeged shows Maryland he's one that got away
Follow Mike Vorkunov on Twitter for more Rutgers football news at Mike_Vorkunov