Tag: Al-Shadee Saleem

Players of the Game from Rutgers victory over Boston College

Players of the game and key moments from Rutgers’ 22-21 win over Boston College

Rutgers season opener may have finished with the result that fans of the Scarlet Knights were hoping for, but the game may have resulted in more questions being asked than answered.

Through all of the inconsistency from quarter to quarter, the sloppy play racking up penalties in the first half, to not being able to complete a third down conversion for roughly three whole quarters – Rutgers still found themselves within striking range late in Saturday’s season opener. Pinned back on their own four yard line with just under eight minutes to play, Rutgers went on a 12 play drive with all rushes, capped by consecutive 20+ yard runs from redshirt sophomore Al-Shadee Salaam to score and take their first lead of the game, 22-21. The score would remain the same as the clock struck 0:00 and Rutgers once again starts the season 1-0, their third season in a row and tenth time winning the opener under head coach Greg Schiano.

[lawrence-related id=18438]

Let’s take a look back at the players of the game for the Scarlet Knight in each phase, some key moments, and we will look ahead to Week 2 on the schedule.

[mm-video type=video id=01gc3bpvy2ev89x09akk playlist_id=none player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gc3bpvy2ev89x09akk/01gc3bpvy2ev89x09akk-d8cc58dc3f40ec361ed4ec09f42453e4.jpg]

Watch: Rutgers running back Al-Shadee Salaam scores first career TD

Rutgers football running back Al-Shadee Salaam pulls off a highlight running play in the season opener to clinch the win

Redshirt freshman running back Al-Shadee Salaam saw his first collegiate action in Rutgers’ victory over Boston College on Saturday and he made his time count.

Prior to the game, starting running back Aaron Young was ruled out for the contest, which opened the door for younger backs like Salaam to see more field time.

With the Scarlet Knights down late in the fourth quarter and pinned at their own four-yard line, they chopped the Golden Eagles defense with run after run. Salaam capped off a 12-play, 96-yard drive of all runs with an electric 22-yard run for a touchdown with just 2:43 left to play in the game to tie the game for the first time since the score was 0-0. Rutgers hit the PAT to take their first lead of the game, 22-21, and the score would remain as such when the clock ran out.

[lawrence-related id=17759]

Salaam bounced to the outside once with good spacing and bounced outside one more time following a key block from wide receiver Shameen Jones downfield. Salaam finished second on the team in rushing with 53 yards on five carries. That’s an average of 10.6 yards per carry on a day where the rushing game dominated to the tune of 212 total yards.

[lawrence-related id=18438]

With Salaam showing some explosiveness and Young’s status uncertain, don’t be surprised to see him get more and more action in the coming weeks.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01fc3gzhz7qrm49z6q player_id=none image=https://rutgerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]