PISCATAWAY – It’s been anything but an easy season for Rutgers football’s defense, which ranks among the worst the Big Ten in almost all categories.

But one issue in particular has stood out the last two games.

The Scarlet Knights haven’t been able to get off the field on third down, and that’s an issue Travis Johansen’s unit will be looking to fix when Rutgers plays Wisconsin on Saturday, Nov. 7 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin.

On Oct. 24, Northwestern went 9 of 13 on third down in a 42-14 win over the Scarlet Knights, and then on Oct. 31 Michigan went 12 of 16 in a 28-21 win.

To be clear, this hasn’t been a strength for the Scarlet Knights all season – opponents are converting on third down a Big Ten worst 47.9 percent of the time against Rutgers.

Opponents have also only faced 96 third downs against the Scarlet Knights – second to last in the conference – with so many moving the ball too easily on earlier downs.

“I’m not sure we’re doing that well on first and second down because we had a lot of third-and-5’s, third-and-6’s, which you’d rather have third-and-8’s and third-and-9’s” coach Greg Schiano said. “But the last two weeks have not been good. A 72 percent conversion rate by the offense. Before that it was 37 percent. Still not what I look for. That’s not acceptable, that’s not our standard. But 37 is a lot better than 72.”

This far into the season the state of the Scarlet Knights’ defense is clear. The unit hasn’t played nearly well enough or consistently enough, and it’s been the biggest culprit in the team’s disappointing 2-6 campaign.

But if Rutgers is going to go on the road and give itself the best chance possible to beat the Badgers, who are converting 41.7 percent of their third downs, it’s going to have to find a way to get off the field and give the offense as many chances as possible to score points.

“We’ve got to get back to being better and then hopefully even better than what we were at the beginning,” Schiano said.

That has to be true in several categories – Rutgers is allowing 418.0 total yards per game, worst in the Big Ten.

Johansen for the Michigan game called the game from the sideline after previously doing so from the press box.

Schiano said as of Tuesday he wasn’t sure if Johansen would do the same against Wisconsin.

But Johansen’s players did like having their coordinator on the sideline.

“It helped a lot,” defensive lineman Sekou Kromah said. “Seeing our DC out there helping us getting everything in order and helping us make checks whenever we needed.”

Schiano said he doesn’t have a strong preference where Johansen calls the game from, but Kromah said he hopes it’s from the sideline again.

“I would appreciate that,” Kromah said. “And I feel like our all our guys will to.”