Why Wake Forest Will Win The TaxSlayer Gator Bowl
Again, Rutgers just doesn’t score points.
It put up 61 in the opener against Temple, hung 45 on Delaware, and 38 on Indiana. That was it.
The 20 scored on Illinois in a road win was the equivalent of the Greatest Show on Turf for this bunch.
The offense was dead last in the Big Ten in downfield passing, third downs, and it rarely showed anything consistently strong in any way.
The passing attack? It didn’t get to 165 yards in any of its last six games.
Wake Forest is the opposite. It might have fizzled in the ACC Championship loss to Pitt, but it led the league in third down plays and yards per completion.
The O might have turned it over too often, but the D made up for it with an ACC-high 27 takeaways. As long as QB Sam Hartman and the passing attack can make the Rutgers offense have to press, everything should be okay.
However …
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Why Rutgers Will Win The TaxSlayer Gator Bowl
When Wake Forest melts down with turnovers, it goes all the way.
Again, the defense normally made up for the issues, or the offense would bomb its way back from a mistake, but the four giveaways against Pitt were a killer.
Over the last five games of the regular season, Hartman and the passing attack gave up 13 picks with three in the loss to Clemson – only one of those was on Hartman – two in the loss to North Carolina, and three more in the close-call win over NC State.
In the 2020 Duke’s Mayo Bowl, Wake Forest was rolling right along against Wisconsin – and then the Badgers took the ball away with four picks in their 42-28 win.
To keep pressing this home, Rutgers can’t keep up with its offense. However, there’s a decent enough running game – at times – to give it a try against a leaky Wake Forest defense that allows over 200 yards per game.
Grind, grind, grind, and then wait for the mistakes.
The Rutgers defense that forced five takeaways against Temple and six against Indiana has to strike. The chances will be there.
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