Southeast : Vanderbilt Defeats Rutgers, 27-13, and Ends Losing Streak

After dropping six consecutive games, Saturday’s 27-13 victory over Rutgers at Nashville, Tenn., was a welcome relief for Vanderbilt Coach Watson Brown and his Commodores.

“This gets us our confidence back,” said Vandy quarterback Eric Jones, who completed 19 of 26 passes for 267 yards and a touchdown and also rushed for 101 yards in 17 carries.

“I think this win means we are a good team and shows we could have won some of our other games,” Jones said of the Commodores (2-6).

Despite his team’s top offensive output of the season with 560 total yards, Vanderbilt Coach Waston Brown said the Commodore defense was the difference.

“I’m more proud of the defense than anybody,” Brown said. “I know we had close to 600 yards on offense, but we won it on defense. Rutgers never got any momentum going. We slowed them down.”

Rutgers Coach Dick Anderson agreed that the Scarlet Knights were unable to come up with the big play when it was needed.

“Unless we make some big plays we’re in trouble,” Anderson said. “Vanderbilt played a very fine game. We play well on neither side of the ball.

“We had a chance to make the plays (on offense), but we dropped balls and missed open receivers. We just didn’t play well,” said Anderson, whose team dropped to 5-3.

Vandy also had 33 first downs against their Eastern independent foe, the most by any Southeastern Conference team this season.

The Commodores quickly snapped a 10-10 halftime deadlock, taking the second-half kickoff and mounting an 85-yard scoring drive.

Everett Crawford, who rushed for 88 yards in 20 carries, capped the 12-play march with a 1-yard touchdown run for a 17-10 lead. During the drive, Crawford rushed for 43 yards and caught one pass for 16 more.

Rutgers pulled within 17-13 with 7:24 left in the third quarter on a 44-yard field goal by Carmen Sclafani before the Commodores put the game away early in the fourth quarter.

A three-yard scoring run by fullback Andy McCarroll with 10:24 remaining pushed the Vandy lead to 24-13.

Rutgers saw its last opportunity to move back into contention lost when Vanderbilt linebacker Scott Brown intercepted a pass with 6:47 left.

Brown’s interception led to a 32-yard field goal by Johnny Clark that put the Commodores ahead, 27-13, with only 1:25 left in the game.

The Commodores took a 3-0 lead in the opening quarter on a 19-yard field goal by Clark, but the Scarlet Knights pulled even in the second quarter, getting a three-pointer by Sclafani from 50 yards.

Vanderbilt came right back after Sclafani’s field goal to march 71 yards in 9 plays, with Jones capping the drive with an 8-yard scoring pass to flanker Carl Parker with 4:36 left in the half.

The Scarlet Knights pulled into a 10-10 tie with 32 seconds remaining on a one-yard run by Curt Stephens.

Rutgers became the first team this year not to score on Vanderbilt during the first quarter, despite moving into Commodore territory twice in the opening 15 minutes.

Rutgers’ best scoring opportunity of the first quarter went awry when Sclafani missed a 40-yard field-goal attempt with 2:50 remaining.

Leading 10-3, the Commodores had an opportunity to take charge in the second quarter after linebacker Chris Gaines intercepted a pass at the Rutgers 45 with 4:20 left in the half.

The Commodores turned the football back over to Rutgers three plays later, however, when safety Vaughn McKoy intercepted a Jones pass at the Scarlet Knight 45 to set up the march to the tying touchdown.