Recapping Rutgers vs. Minnesota Football

In his first career start, quarterback Giovanni Rescigno provided the Rutgers offense a spark they have desperately needed this season. The flame may have burned out a little too quickly, as Rutgers was edged 34-32 on a field goal with less than 10 seconds left in the game. But Rescigno's performance, and that of the Scarlet Knights overall, gave the program a lift and gave the fans hope that Rutgers can compete the rest of the season.

Like early in the season, this was a game where Rutgers took a shot to the mouth early in the contest, trailing 21-3 before fighting all the way back until the final moments. In his postgame press conference, Head Coach Chris Ash remarked that he was "proud of the effort" and that the turnovers, missed extra point, and allowing the kickoff return touchdown were the difference in the game. The coach felt Rescigno "played his heart out" and that it was the "best performance of the year" for the Rutgers offense.

In fact, this was another game where Rutgers outplayed its opponent in some significant categories. Rutgers had more first downs, more passing yards, ran more plays, was better on third-down conversions, and scored more points off of turnovers. The Scarlet Knights finished with just 27 less total yards from scrimmage than the Golden Gophers; the difference being the rushing yards. Although, both Justin Goodwin and Josh Hicks ran the ball well for Rutgers with Robert Martin missing the game with injury. Aside from his running, Goodwin was credited with some strong pass blocking.

Tylin Oden saw some action at quarterback as well, running a handful of plays. I was critical of the move, but apparently their plan is to work him in with a package of plays every week. I'm guessing that this will mainly be a package of wildcat-type plays, although I am a bit curious to see Oden throw on the run off a roll out or something similar to that. I think there's some big-play potential there. My issue was the timing of bringing Oden in because Rutgers had just scored on offense the previous series and I didn't want Gio to lose any momentum. The second time Oden came into the game Ash said it was because they wanted to call a quarterback run and Rescigno was limping badly with a banged-up hamstring.

Kamaal Seymour made his first start on offense, filling in at right tackle for J.J. Denman, who has been slowed with an injury. Offensive Coordinator Drew Mehringer felt Seymour played well. I don't doubt he did with the exception of the unfortunate "sack" he had when he turned around and took out Rescigno on a play in the second quarter. That was obviously a situation where the play broke down and Seymour didn't know where Rescigno was, but it was kind of funny, especially when I was listening to Ray Lucas and Chris Carlin's reaction. Andre Patton had another strong game, and John Tsimis, to me, made some extremely tough catches.



Defensive Coordinator Jay Niemann seemed pleased with the effort of the defense after they made some adjustments in the first half. He said that initially they had "lost the line of scrimmage." He pointed out that the defense only gave up two field goals in the second half, and was encouraged by the fourth-down stops.



Defensively Rutgers didn't get any sacks, but Minnesota rarely threw the ball. Julian Pinnix-Odrick was a disruptive force on the line. And credit Sebastian Joseph with the pressure that led to the Damon Hayes pick-6 interception return. "Damon Hayes all in my brain. Lately things don't seem the same."

True Freshman @DamonHayes22 got his 1st career Pick 6! #TheHunt pic.twitter.com/ulKb0zRIRd

— Rutgers Football (@RFootball) October 24, 2016

Rutgers is in the midst of a much-needed bye week. Ash said the main objective for the bye week was to "get our guys healthy." The bye comes at a good time for Gio as well as he'll get two more weeks of first-team practice reps before the next game against Indiana. These reps should help Rescigno with what Mehringer called "situational awareness," mainly referring to the misread that led to the interception at the end of the first half. I've also noticed on Twitter that the Rutgers coaching staff has spent the first few days of the by doing some heavy recruiting. Niemann also mentioned that linebacker Deonte Roberts was dinged up in the game.

Michael Cintron currently leads the nation in both punts and punt yardage. Those are both rather dubious statistics for Rutgers. But the good news is the gap is closing. Prior to the Illinois game, Cintron was on pace to shatter the NCAA record for punts in a season. With Gio getting the Scarlet Knights into the red zone with some frequency in the second half of that game and against Minnesota, Rutgers has been punting far less frequently. Here's hoping that Cintron starts to slide down the rankings. He's done a good job, but clearly the less punts the better.