On Saturday, Rutgers was blown out of the water by a much better team in Washington. The game was never really close, as Washington jumped out to a 24-0 lead in the first quarter. Rutgers literally could not keep up with the Washington receivers, giving up 3 touchdown passes on simple streak routes. On offense, they could not get a rhythm going with all the disruption caused by Washington’s defensive line. Here are some of my takes on the game.
Las Vegas knows all
Many fans thought the -26 spread was way to high but Washington covered by 9 points. I have never betted before in my life, but if given the opportunity, I would’ve placed a lot of money on Rutgers to cover the spread. I was that confident that the era of blowouts was over. This wasn’t only me, thought. The spread went down closer to the game, meaning lots of people were betting on Rutgers to cover. Vegas knew this game was a blowout so put a high spread knowing people would bet on Rutgers meanwhile they knew Rutgers would get slaughtered and they’d get rich.
Washington is really good
The Rutgers offensive line was supposed to be a strength of the team. They got absolutely destroyed. The Rutgers secondary was supposed to be much improved. They had receivers running all over them. Chris Laviano did not have a great game, but whenever he dropped back to throw, he had multiple defenders in his face. The offensive line could not block and the receivers could not get open. Washington’s defense is just as good as advertised.
Drew Mehringer did not have a good game
To start off the game, Mehringer ran two identical run plays to Justin Goodwin. On third and short, he ran the same play again and got stuffed and had to punt. Josh Hicks was clearly the best running back and did not get the ball enough early in the game. Almost all the plays to Janarion Grant looked the same and were ineffective. I also think he should’ve gotten the tight ends more involved. It just seemed very vanilla, as if they were holding back parts of the playbook like they weren’t expecting to win in the first place.
Special Teams are bad???
No matter what type of season Rutgers would have, the special teams would always be really good. Janarion Grant had a poor return on the opening kickoff and then didn’t really have a chance to return again. The kickoffs were once against inconsistent. Michael Cintron had a terrible game, with 8 punts averaging 38.8 yards. That is awful yardage and they were often wobbly and low. Worst of all, they allowed a kickoff return for a touchdown and a punt return for a touchdown. Having two kicks returned for scores is absolutely inexcusable.
Leonte Carroo is missed bad
Wow. The receivers were flat out terrible. Granted, they were up against an elite secondary, but they could not get open. Janarion Grant never really ran routes in the field which needs to change. Andre Patton, Vance Matthews, and Carlton Agudosi need to step up in B1G play.
This game sucked, but it is actually irrelevant
Yes, the team looked horrendous, but they were on the road playing a team that will probably be in the top 10 pretty soon. No one expected them to win and they were able to recognize a lot of their weaknesses. When you play a team like Norfolk State in the opener, you are underprepared for real competition. It is easier to fix weaknesses when they are obvious and on film against real competition. The team can work on all of these bad spots and should be 2-1 heading into the B1G opener against Iowa. Bottom line: Everyone expected Rutgers to be 0-1 this week and they were.
Most importantly...
Rutgers is not any of the following teams:
- Kansas, whose fans rushed the field after they beat FCS team Rhode Island
- Virginia, who was dominated by FCS team Richmond, 37-20
- Mississsippi State, who lost to South Alabama
- Northwestern, who suffered a MACtion packed loss to Western Michigan, 22-21 #ROWTHEBOAT