Rutgers vs. Washington Postgame Reaction

Having had a night to sleep on and sleep off the Rutgers 48-13 shellacking at the hands of the Washington Huskies, I feel like I can look at the game a little more objectively. I'm going to break the game down into some general comments, positives, negatives, and hand out some game balls.

The game got off to an inauspicious start with Janarion Grant's 12-yard kickoff return, giving Rutgers woeful field position at their own 15. But Justin Goodwin immediately picked up 9 yards rushing on the next two plays. Rutgers found themselves in a good position with a third and 1 at their own 24. Goodwin got stuffed on that third-and-one play and things quickly degenerated. Had Rutgers made that third down conversion I believe it would have been a different football game. The outcome would've still been a Rutgers loss, but I think the game would've been much closer in the sense that RU would've at least covered the 26.5 point spread.

Another thing that struck me was the tenacity of the Rutgers players in the second half. Quarterback Chris Laviano and the offense settled in and moved the ball. Despite that I believe time of position, particularly in college, is an overrated statistic, it's noteworthy that Rutgers had the edge in time of possession in every quarter and finished the game with four more first downs than the Huskies. Granted, this is the result of the RU defense and special teams giving up so many big plays, but it's encouraging that the offense was able to move the ball after finding themselves down by so much after the first quarter. That type of fight will eventually pay off as the team improves.

In terms of Laviano, he didn't play all that poorly and I can see why Ash left him in the game. The coaching staff will get him to stop taking risks running the ball. That's something they can stress with him in practice. But some of the best QBs in the country could've been behind center for Rutgers and we wouldn't have won this game. Laviano settled in and made some nice throws as the game progressed, and it will be interesting to see how he plays in the next two games.

The defense also improved and settled in as the game went on. After the first quarter, the RU defense only gave up one offensive touchdown and that came after the interception return that gave Washington the ball on the RU 4-yard line. I realize that Washington pulled the starters, but that was with 34 seconds left in Q3. So, there was certainly improvement as the game went on.

But giving up all those big plays in the first quarter was shocking from a fan's perspective. Chris Ash mentioned in his postgame press conference that it was simply a case of the Rutgers defensive backs not having the speed to keep up with the Washington receivers. Hopefully there are some things that Rutgers can do with their scheme to counter that for upcoming games. I've read that the New Mexico receivers are fast, and RU plays the Lobos in a couple weeks.

Game balls:

Janarion Grant finished with 160 all-purpose yards, and is now fifth in school history in that category. In addition, he showed a great competitive spirit by chasing down Washington's Brandon Beaver to negate what could easily have been a pick 6. The Huskies scored on the ensuing drive, but that fact that Grant didn't quit on the play shows that he plays all out whistle to whistle.

Free safety Kiy Hester, despite not starting the game, led the team with 8 tackles, including 2 tackles for loss.

Running back Josh Hicks had 70 yards on 14 carries, good for a 5-yard average. And Justin Goodwin, despite only averaging 3.3 yards per carry, caught 5 balls out of the backfield for 46 yards, giving him 95 all purpose yards for the game. 

Finally, kicker David Bonagura and punter Michael Cintron were both impressive. Bonagura made all of his kicks in his first career game and Cintron punted well, hitting some long ones when they needed them and placing the ball inside the 20 three times.