Savage injury overshadows Rutgers win

The crowd at Rutgers Stadium saw its life flash before its eyes at the 13-minute mark of the fourth quarter Saturday when Tom Savage lay motionless on the 10-yard line.
The true freshman quarterback struggled just to get to that point, taking four sacks and completing just 11-of-28 passes for 185 yards, but a head-crunching hit on a scramble up the middle was the last straw on a hard day’s night.
Though he ran off the field after the injury, senior Dom Natale replaced him at quarterback to finish off the Rutgers football team’s 23-15 victory over the Florida International Golden Panthers at Rutgers Stadium.
“He got dinged a little bit,” head coach Greg Schiano said of Savage after the win. “I think he’s going to be OK. Right now it’s a little foggy. That’s why he didn’t go back into the game.”
Natale and senior Jabu Lovelace bailed out the out-of-sync Savage with their feet, not through the air.
Natale punched the ball in from two yards out on an option-like scramble for the Scarlet Knights’ only offensive touchdown of the game and Lovelace put together 34 yards on three rushing attempts out of the Wildcat style “Jabu Package.”
“It’s been a role I’ve spent four-and-a-half years in, so it’s nothing new,” Natale said. “It felt good to contribute and be out there and be ready.”
Natale’s big play came on a 49-yard bomb to wide receiver Tim Brown up the middle of the field, helping the Miami, Fla. native exceed the century mark for the sixth time in his career, hauling in 131 receiving yards.
“We have two great quarterbacks here,” Brown said of Savage and Natale. “I just told Dom that you have to keep going, no matter when you get in the game, step up.”
Savage was unavailable after the game, but Natale said the true freshman will be fine.
“He’s going to learn,” Natale said. “He did a good job of handling stuff. He’s a competitive guy so you can see him get frustrated. … He’ll be fine.”
The RU defense was up to the task of bailing out the downtrodden Rutgers offense, putting together an electric day after two weak appearances to start off the season with all three layers of the defense clicking.
The defensive line more than held its own against FIU (0-2). After only three sacks in the first two games, the Scarlet Knights (2-1) sacked the Golden Panthers five times, including another two from sack-leader Jonathan Freeny.
Senior middle linebacker Ryan D’Imperio contributed eight tackles and a pick-six in the fourth quarter for his first career touchdown and senior right end George Johnson recorded a team-leading 10 tackles.
“It was a good effort, but it wasn’t a complete effort because we could have actually finished the effort,” Johnson said. “In the third and fourth quarter they started gaining momentum and they started to come back on us, so we didn’t do a complete effort on defense.”
The Rutgers secondary, featuring sophomore David Rowe in his first career start, continually swarmed the ball and prevented the big play for the first time this season.
“That was the best game that the defense has come out and played,” said senior cornerback Devin McCourty, who had eight tackles. “At the end of the game, we let them back in and we have to work on that. Two quick scores can really turn a game around. Our overall effort and performance is the best so far this season.”
The usually turnover-free Paul McCall, the FIU quarterback, threw two picks on overthrown balls including redshirt freshman Khaseem Greene’s first career interception.
All-purpose threat T.Y. Hilton — third in the nation in yards from scrimmage last season — caught two late touchdown passes for FIU, finishing the day with 80 yards.
“He’s a great player,” McCourty said of Hilton. “He just made plays all day and as a defense we made sure we surrounded him.”
Sophomore Joe Martinek saw the brunt of the carries on offense for the second time in three games. His quiet 121 yards on the game mark a career high.
“Just thinking about it, it’s almost three years now, it’s been awhile,” Martinek said of his first 100-yard game at Rutgers. “It feels really good to finally get it, and now we just have to build on it.”