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For the first time this season, Rutgers defense failed this past Saturday to generate a turnover. For a defense that through the first two games of the season has been aggressive in getting after the ball – to the point of leading the nation in turnover margin – it was frustrating for head coach Greg Schiano to not see a similar impact in Week 3 from the group.
In wins over Temple and at Syracuse, Rutgers combined for seven turnovers, an impressive start from the defense. But in Saturday’s 45-13 win over FCS program Delaware, Rutgers didn’t generate a single turnover. Given the level of competition, it was a surprise to not see the aggressive defense put the ball on the ground or get an interception.
With No. 19 Michigan on the schedule for Saturday, Schiano’s defense will need to up their turnover intensity if they hope to stay in the game and potentially get a road upset.
“There’s this stat of if you don’t turn it over, and then the even more strong stat is when you win the net turnover margin. ‘Plus Two’ is the magic number – if you’re plus two, you’re going to win, and I don’t know the exact percentage, but it’s way up here,” Schiano told reporters on Monday.
“Right? So, Saturday we didn’t turn it over but we didn’t take it away either, which was disappointing to me. – and I think very disappointing to our defense. First two games we took the ball away, and I don’t buy into that, ‘Well, it’s kind of a streaky thing.’ It’s a bunch of baloney. You do your job you do it right and you get takeaways. I mean Delaware was not a superior ball security team and we didn’t take advantage of it. So that’s on us. We let an opportunity slip away.”
The good news in all of this is that the Rutgers offense has yet to turn the ball over yet, something that is hopeful for the Scarlet Knights as they head into Big Ten play.
Rutgers is tops in the nation in ‘Team Turnover Margin Per Game’ at +3.5. Michigan is No. 31 at +.7.