TORONTO - While Ray Rice was named the International Bowl Most Valuable Player with 280 rushing yards and four touchdowns, the threat of a Rutgers University passing game opened the flood gates that Rice raced through for much of the game.
On the first drive of the game, Rice ran three times for 24 yards but the big play of the drive was a 36-yard touchdown strike from quarterback Mike Teel to wide receiver Tim Brown.
"Anytime you can mix it up you're at an advantage," Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said. "Sometimes [your opponent] doesn't allow you to mix it up but ... today we could do it."
In Rutgers' 52-30 victory against Ball State University, Teel finished with 303 yards on 16 of 25 passing with three touchdowns and one interception.
Rutgers ended up with more passing yards, 303, than rushing yards, 291.
Meanwhile, Ball State's inability to establish a balanced attack early was a key in the loss.
The Cardinals ended the game with 169 rushing yards; however, 44 of those yards came in the first half and 40 of those came from quarterback Nate Davis and wide receiver Dante Love.
Without the threat of a run game Rutgers focused more on Davis and either dropped linebackers into coverage more closing up passing lanes or sent them on a blitz to rush Davis' progressions.
"Of course it hurt our passing game, because you got to be good at both, you got to be able to run and pass," Davis said. "To set up the pass you got to be able to run and we didn't do well on the run."
In the fourth quarter Ball State almost doubled its rushing yards with 80, with 77 on the legs of Chris Clancy. Right along with that, the passing game began to click for the Cardinals.
Davis was 9 of 16, had 105 of his 291 yards and two of his three scores in the final quarter.
A constant through quarters one, two and three was Rutgers getting pressure on Davis either hurrying his throws or bringing him down to the turf with a sack. Davis was sacked six times in the game, five in the first half when Ball State failed to score a touchdown.
"At the beginning of the week I told everybody that's going to be the biggest key -- to keep them off balance," Davis said. "But they just kept getting pressure so it just threw us off balance."
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