Dylan Lonergan passed for 214 yards and two touchdowns in three quarters against Howard, and Rutgers did not hand the ball to anybody in a different color jersey. AJ Surace relieved Lonergan in the third quarter and threw for 40 yards, including a 9-yard touchdown pass that Vernon Allen III carried into the end zone. Bradlee Jones intercepted two passes, the first two of his college career after 1,733 snaps at The Citadel, and the defense forced three takeaways while giving up none.
That is the first game all season Rutgers did not give the ball away. The first three produced 10 giveaways, a number Schiano flatly called 'very perplexing, very frustrating' before adding that winning the takeaway margin the way Rutgers did against Howard is "what we have to do to win." He is right about both halves of that. He is also coaching a team whose opponent Saturday gained 184 total yards.
What Saturday actually asks
Indiana comes to SHI Stadium on Saturday, October 3 at 8 p.m. ET on BTN, and the simulation gives Rutgers a 2.5% chance. The Scarlet Knights are 23.5-point underdogs, a line 247Sports noted "treats Indiana like a different tier" compared with the roughly three-touchdown line Rutgers faced against USC the previous week. The building will be as loud as it gets this year.
Ball security is the thread worth following, because it is the one thing Rutgers can control that has decided its season. Lonergan has been the starter since the opener, and Surace has kept getting real snaps, including the final possession against Howard. Both played clean football, which is what a two-man rotation has to do if it is going to survive Big Ten defenses. Against Howard, that came with no real pass rush pushing either of them. Indiana will bring one.
Same caution applies to the defense Travis Johansen took over this winter, his first year as Rutgers' coordinator. Three takeaways, none allowed, Howard held to 3-of-11 on third down and to a single play longer than 20 yards. That is genuinely the unit's best week. It is also a week against an FCS offense, and Rutgers has alternated good and bad defensive games since the opener. Indiana will not throw it to Bradlee Jones twice, so the tackling, the third-down stops and the pass rush have to travel on their own.
Why it still matters at 1-3
The win moved Rutgers to 1-3, with the team facing eight remaining games as underdogs, a stretch that opens with the toughest opponent in it. Nobody should be building a season around beating Indiana. The games that decide bowl eligibility are Maryland in Week 7 (47%) and Michigan State in Week 13 (42%), with a handful of tougher home dates in between. What Saturday can do is tell you whether the habits that will decide those games, protecting the football, finishing possessions, taking the ball away, survive contact with No. 6 Indiana.
There is one piece of history the spread ignores entirely. Rutgers has won the last three meetings with Indiana, 38-3 in 2021, 24-17 in 2022 and 31-14 in 2023. Almost nobody who played in those games is still around, and Indiana has become a different program since.
The full week is at the interactive guide, and the numbers behind it are explained in the methodology.