'Getting back to who we are:' Rutgers football's defense working on fixes ahead of USC
PISCATAWAY – For Rutgers football to turn this season back around, for the Scarlet Knights to get back to winning games and looking like the formidable team it was through the opening weeks of the season, its defense needs to make considerable and immediate improvements.
So far, Joe Harasymiak’s unit hasn’t lived up to expectations, partly because of injuries to multiple impact players but also simply because of underperformance.
The Scarlet Knights’ next chance to iron out their issues will come Friday night when they battle Southern California at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (FOX, 11 p.m. ET), hoping to snap a three-game losing streak ahead of the team’s second bye week of the season.
Through seven games, Rutgers has allowed 22.3 points per game (15th in the Big Ten), 385.3 total yards per game (17th) and 170.3 rushing yards per game (17th). The Scarlet Knights’ pass defense has been better, yielding 215.0 yards per game, eighth in the conference – though UCLA quarterback Ethan Garbers carved up Rutgers’ defense for 383 yards and four touchdowns in a 35-32 win on Saturday.
“Right now we’re working on getting back to who we are,” cornerback Robert Longerbeam said. “We’ve just got to play with a level of violence that we preach and we’ve just got to get back to that standard.”
USC’s offense, averaging 434.0 yards per game, isn’t easy to slow down, even if Lincoln Riley’s team, also on a three-game losing streak, hasn’t lived up to most expectations.
“Talented as all get out,” Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said Monday. “Schematically, they present as many issues as anybody we’ll play all year.”
Upheaval this season for Rutgers football's defense, depth getting tested
So this will be another challenge for a Rutgers defense that’s undergone some upheaval, from linebacker Mohamed Toure suffering a torn ACL in training camp to cornerbacks Robert Longerbeam and Eric Rogers, as well as linebacker Tyreem Powell and defensive ends Aaron Lewis and Wesley Bailey getting banged up during the season.
“We’re just trying to jell with whoever’s out there,” Longerbeam said. “It’s a next-man-up kind of mentality. So whoever’s up, we’ve just got to jell better and play together more.”
Still, there’s only so many losses a defense can take before it becomes vulnerable – and while Rutgers has quality depth, most of it is relatively young and inexperienced.
That’s especially true at linebacker where Moses Walker, Dariel Djabome and Abram Wright have needed to step up.
“(They’ve played) really, really well at times, and then not so well at other times,” Schiano said. “So we've been inconsistent. But what do you expect from guys that don't have a lot of snaps under their belt? Now, we are going into Week (9). So I think that has got to stop being a reason. Definitely talented guys that we just need to become more consistent.”
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Schiano, who was a linebacker at Bucknell, also reiterated it’s not an easy position to play.
“I think it's the hardest position on defense because you have to fit the runs against people that are much bigger than you, and you also have to play the pass against people that are faster than you,” Schiano said. “It's a disadvantaged life.”
For linebackers, maintaining eye discipline is paramount, and that’s not always easy to do for inexperienced players at this level who have to process a lot of information quickly.
“It’s difficult, but it gets easier as long as you’re studying,” Wright said. “If you study, you should be good.”
Rutgers’ defense looked the best it has all season when it shut out Nebraska in the second half of the Scarlet Knights’ 14-7 loss on Oct. 5 in Lincoln.
But Rutgers wasn’t able to use that as a springboard toward consistency – 64 missed tackles in seven games, according to Pro Football Focus, hasn’t helped.
The Scarlet Knights need to make corrections.
Friday night’s game will show whether they were able to make them.
“We’re just preaching get back on the chop,” Longerbeam said. “We have a system, we have stuff we know we have to do. We just haven’t executing to that level. We just have to get back to chopping and being in the moment and taking one play at a time.”
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Rutgers football: Defense making fixes ahead of USC game
