PISCATAWAY, N.J.—For the second week in a row, Rutgers had two opportunities in the final quarter to come from behind and win the game. And for the second week in a row, the Scarlet Knights offense failed to do so.
On a day that Rutgers would have liked to solve its offensive ineptitude, the problem still remains, and they may have found another.
A quarterback controversy.
After leaving the game with 5:33 remaining in the first half with a hand injury, Chas Dodd came in to relief the battered Tom Savage in the 17–14 loss as the offensive line’s inability to protect the QB caught up with them.
“Just fell wrong, and it felt a little weird,” Savage said of the injury, which occurred when he was hit while going out of bounds.
With Savage’s throwing hand hurt, the true freshman Dodd took control of the offense. Dodd was 13 of 29 for 176 yards with a touchdown and an interception, while Savage was 2 of 5 for 29 yards.
“All along I’ve said I have confidence in Chas [Dodd] and I thought he went in there and played with poise,” head coach Greg Schiano said. “I think he handled himself very well for anybody and especially well for a freshman going in there, his first real action.”
Dodd was able to spread the ball around and looked calm under pressure.
On a critical 3rd-and7 with 2:37 left in the third quarter, Dodd hit Mohamed Sanu over the middle, who scored a 10-yard touchdown after breaking a tackle, making it 17–14 Tulane.
Unfortunately, Dodd’s first touchdown pass of his career would be the last Rutgers (2–2) had on the day.
“It was great,” Dodd said. “I wish we could have finished with a ‘W,’ but it was good getting that first touchdown out of the way and hopefully there’s plenty more to come.”
Dodd also threw his first career interception on a 3rd-and-20 to Alex Wacca with under a minute reaming, sealing the victory for the Green Wave.
The interception was the lone turnover of the game—atypical for Rutgers, whose defense has become known for causing turnovers.
Rutgers also cost themselves a touchdown due to a penalty as Joe Lefeged’s kick return was called back due to a hold by Marcus Cooper in the second quarter.
“Coach always talks about penalties and how they can affect the team in a negative way,” Lefeged said. “And we had too many penalties today, on both sides of the ball, the kicking game, all over the field.”
Trick Play
The turning point came in the third quarter when the Green Wave scored on a trick play.
Quarterback Joe Kemp threw a lateral to wide receiver D.J. Banks, who threw it right back across the field to Kemp. A wide open Kemp took the ball 24 yards into the end zone giving Tulane a 17–7 lead.
“They’ve done a lot of that stuff,” Schiano said. “They’re a team that runs a lot of special plays or trick plays.”
“That’s one that we have acutally prepared for and had lengthy discussions about and just didn’t execute.”
While penalties and the trick play were a problem, so was trying to find the right formula to protect the quarterback. The offensive line was tinkered with throughout the game.
On passing downs, right tackle Art Forst would move to right guard—which he played his first two seasons on the banks—Antwan Lowery would sub out while Devon Watkis filled in at the tackle position. At times, Forst would come out the game for Watkis, leaving Lowery in at guard.
Forst said this was the game plan all week, so it’s not the reason the offensive line struggled.
“Bottom line, we didn’t execute well enough,” Forst said. “If you don’t execute well enough you don’t put the team in a position to win games.”
When it comes to lack of execution, Schiano looks no further than himself.
“I was unable to get our team ready to go, unable to get over a tough loss against North Carolina, unable to realize how important this game would be,” Schiano said.
“So as a head coach, that falls on me.”
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