DEUCES WILD

RUTGERS GAMEDAYFOOTBALL RUTGERS 44, LIBERTY 34

GAME 8: SHI STADIUM THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL ATTENDANCE: 23,058

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7 3 10 4414 17 6 34

OctOber 28, 2019Wrap page 2

STOCK UP, STOCK DOWN

STOCK UP: REDSHIRT FRESHMANQUARTERBACK JOHNNY LANGAN

Langan had a field day with the Flames’ defense on Saturday, resulting in his best performance of the sea-son. He threw for 192 yards, completing 71.4% of his passes while rushing for his second touchdown of the season. He also had 118 yards on the ground.

Langan displayed a newfound confidence, moving through the trenches with ease on quarterback keepers. Oftentimes on Saturday, he played with a rugby-esque flair on the ground, moving up the field in a scrum con-sisting of both teams linemen.

The play calling under interim head coach Nunzio Campanile has revolved around run-pass-options where the quarterback has a decision to either pass or run.

STOCK UP: SOPHOMORE RUNNING BACK ISAIH PACHECO

After surpassing 100 rushing yards only once this season, Pacheco can now say that he attained the feat twice.

Against Liberty, the sophomore rushed for 107 yards and two touchdowns, his first multi-score game he ran for four touchdowns against UMass on Aug. 30.

Pacheco has been held without a touchdown a six-game span until this weekend. He also was one carry shy (19) of tying his season best in that aspect this season.

Pacheco also did not lose any yards. The Knights’ running back group, as a whole, only lost 7 yards the whole game.

STOCK UP: SOPHOMORE DEFENSIVE LINEMAN MIKE TVERDOV

Tverdov exploded through the Flames’ offensive line and tackled Stephen Calvert behind the line of scrim-mage in the second quarter, a key stop on a third-and-nine situation.

He earned a share of the 10-yard sack alongside ju-nior linebacker Tyreek Maddox-Williams.

Tverdov finished the game with three total tack-les against Liberty and was a constant presence in Calvert’s pocket.

Last season, Tverdov had four sacks as a red-shir t freshman.

This year, it took him eight games until he picked up his first sack of the season.

The theme for the Rutgers football team’s game against Liberty was “Set The Expectation,” where the Scarlet Knights wore ribbons on the backs of their helmets for sexual assault awareness. CURSTINE GUEVARRA / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER / OCTOBER 2019

OctOber 28, 2019

KNIGHT NUGGETSBY THE NUMBERS

Redshirt freshman quarterback Johnny Langan finished his su-perb Saturday afternoon with more than 192 passing yards

and 118 rushing yards, combining for more than 300 all-purpose yards.

310 The Knights combined for 463 total offensive yards, their second-highest number in that category since they finished

with 554 yards against UMass back on Aug.30, their only other win of the season.

463

The Scarlet Knights (2-6, 0-5) lost a total of 7 rushing yards the whole game en route to a 44-34 win over the Flames at SHI Stadi-

um. Two different Rutgers players finished with more than 100 rushing yards.

7 Junior kicker Justin Davidovicz made all three of his field goal attempts against Liberty. Coming into Saturday’s non-conference

matchup, he was 5-of-8 on the season. With the three made field goals, he now is 8-of-11.

3

IMPACT PLAYER

EDDIE LEWISSo. Wide Receiver

GAME STATS:1ST CAREER SCORE

ON BANKSSophomore wide receiver Eddie Lewis had two receptions for 16 yards while hauling

in his first career touchdown in the second quarter. He caught a 5-yard pass from redshirt freshman quarterback Johnny

Langan in the first half.

Wrap page 3

QUOTE OF THE GAME

“What I think you saw there today, in a

couple years, you’ll see guys playing offense like that every week.”

Linebackers sophomore Drew Singleton (top) and junior Olakunle Fatukasi (bottom) paced the defense in tackles.

Roster Change:No Blackshear for

rest of season

Looking ForwardRutgers heads back to Midwest for Illinois visit

Injury report:OL: Mike Lonsdorf

(left arm)

JAKE SCHMIEDSPORTS EDITOR

The Rutgers football team has a second win under its belt, along with a boost of confidence in defeating a non-Power 5 school in Liberty, the Scarlet Knights (2-6, 0-5) head to the Midwest for a matchup against an underlooked Illinois team.

The Fighting Illini (4-4, 2-3) are coming into the in-ter-Big Ten divisional match-up with newfound confidence of their own. Two weeks ago, Illinois pulled of f arguably the biggest upset of the 2019 sea-son, knocking off then-No. 6 Wisconsin 24-23 courtesy of a game-clinching field goal from James McCourt.

On Saturday, the Illini earned their second consecutive Big Ten West win over Purdue on the road, 24-6. While the Boilermak-ers (2-6, 1-4) finished the game with 3 more offensive yards than Illinois, the Illini had the better defensive game.

In the second quarter, Tony Adams picked off Purdue’s quar-terback Jake Plummer and ran 13 yards to end zone for a touch-down. Adams ended the game with four total tackles, as well.

Illinois’ quarterback, Bran-don Peters, did not dazzle against the Boilermakers, com-pleting 3 of his 6 passes for 26 yards while being sacked once. Peters tallied a touchdown on a 1-yard quarterback sneak, his lone score of the game.

The running game, as a whole, for the Illini, was dominant in find-ing holes in the trenches. Reggie Corbin also earned a rushing touchdown, a 20-yard run in the third quarter of action.

He finished with 47 yards on the ground. His counterpart, Dre Brown, had 131 rushing yards, av-eraging 7.3 yards per carry.

Keep an eye on Rutgers’ offen-sive line in this upcoming game.

For updates on the Rutgers foot-ball team, follow @TargumSports on Twitter.

NUNZIO CAMPANILEInterim Head Coach

CURSTINE GUEVARRA / OCTOBER 2019

DUSTIN NILES / OCTOBER 2019

THEY BELIEVED IT,THEY GOT IT