Rutgers heads into Saturday night’s showdown with No. 6 Indiana carrying something that matters this time of year: evidence.
The Scarlet Knights’ 58-7 win over Howard wasn’t just a lopsided result. It was a game where Rutgers piled up 534 yards and had several players post grades that suggest the roster is starting to settle into something more stable. Whether that holds against a defending national champion is a much bigger question, but the building blocks are there.
Antwan Raymond put up the kind of game that turns heads no matter the opponent. His 91.6 PFN Impact Grade was the third-highest of any running back in the country in Week 4 and first among 32 Big Ten backs.
He rushed for 140 yards and three touchdowns, then crossed 2,000 career rushing yards. On the season, Raymond sits at 89.7, which ranks 10th among 348 FBS running backs and fifth in the Big Ten.
KJ Duff keeps looking like the kind of receiver Rutgers can lean on every week. His 82.4 against Howard ranked 15th among 70 Big Ten receivers that night, but his season-long 96.3 still stands first in the Big Ten and third among 710 FBS receivers. He has graded at 80 or better in all four games, went over 2,000 career receiving yards Friday and scored in a fifth straight game.
Those two have been the constant. Indiana will have to track them snap after snap, and that’s easier said than done. USC managed to take Duff away for stretches and still gave up 35 points to Rutgers.
The support around them has started to show up too. Bradlee Jones turned in his best game of the season at cornerback, earning an 89.1 grade after his previous high was 75.2. That was good for second among 67 Big Ten corners and 12th among 494 FBS corners in Week 4.
Latrell Noel was Rutgers’ top safety on the night at 81.0, which placed him third in the Big Ten and 39th nationally. Kwabena Asamoah led the line at 80.9, while Dylan Lonergan’s 79.5 ranked eighth among 20 Big Ten quarterbacks after he went 12 of 17 for 214 yards and two touchdowns without a turnover. Abram Wright, back from injury, paced the linebackers at 77.7, and Logan Blake led the tight ends at 68.6.
Rutgers also has three players sitting inside the national top 25 at their positions for the season: Duff at third among wide receivers, Raymond at 10th among running backs and Moses Walker at 24th among linebackers. Walker’s season grade is 87.1, which places him sixth among 88 Big Ten linebackers.
There are still some stress points, and Indiana will expose them if Rutgers is not sharp. The Scarlet Knights saw top defensive lineman Rondo Porter go down with an injury. Porter is still the highest-graded defensive lineman on the team this season at 80.9.
At cornerback, true freshman Devonte Anderson has shown he can handle the moment, grading out at 82.6. Jones is just ahead of him on the year at 83.7. Those numbers will need to hold if Rutgers wants to keep pace.
The defense has at least moved in the right direction since that opening-night disaster against UMass. Against Howard, Rutgers’ defense earned an 87.1 grade, second in the Big Ten for the week and ninth nationally.
Even so, the season-long numbers still tell a less flattering story: 70.1 overall, 15th in the league and 85th in FBS. The defensive line is at 73.6 for the year, also 15th in the Big Ten and 78th in FBS, while the secondary sits at 72.9, 13th in the conference.
The offensive line is trending up as well. Moshood Giwa is the second-highest-graded Scarlet Knight on the season at 89.8, which ranks 12th among 130 Big Ten linemen. Asamoah is right there too at 89.1.
That kind of gradual improvement is part of what Rutgers is banking on as the season moves along. After the Howard win, Greg Schiano put it plainly: "Sometimes when you have a more experienced team or you have a team that's just uber talented, you can wing it a little bit and it doesn't affect you," head coach Greg Schiano said after the Howard win.
"That's not us. And I think a big part of coaching is knowing who you are.
Not only do you have to know who the team is on the other side of the field, but you got to know who you are."
In Other News...
Rutgers Offense Looks Different Now But Indiana Will Reveal Everything
Rutgers offense has looked noticeably cleaner over the past two weeks, and the contrast with the early part of the season has been hard to miss. The Scarlet Knights piled up a 58-7 win over Howard without turning it over, a sharp response after throwing nine interceptions in the first three games and leaving too many drives unfinished.
Now comes the real test. Players have sounded encouraged by the progress, but No. 6 Indiana is a different kind of measuring stick altogether, the kind that can show whether Rutgers has truly corrected its issues or simply found a brief reset against lighter competition. The next game should say plenty about how far this offense has actually come. [Read more 🡒]