Rutgers Football vs. Ohio State Debacle Thoughts

I picked Rutgers to beat what went off as a 39-point spread. After one quarter I was feeling pretty good about that, with OSU on pace for about a 24-point victory. Then the second quarter happened and it never got any better.

The Positive

Greg Jones is okay and most of the steps taken on the field that made things look so ominous were precautionary. Chris Ash said that Jones was actually walking around on the sideline by the end of the game.

Jones's replacement, Tyreek Maddox-Williams, ended up leading the team with 11 tackles. Kiy Hester and Deonte Roberts also racked up double-digit tackles (10 apiece). Hester was all over the place again. But then again, when the other team runs so many plays, some guys on defense are going to put up numbers.

Rutgers had been getting its doors blown off in the first quarter during the first three games. This is two games in a row where the game was close after Q1. So, they're starting better.

Concerns

These are things that concern me other than the obvious 58-point drubbing and the crazy disparity in yardage gained and pretty much everything else.

Kickoff returns were terrible. Everyone knew that Rutgers was never going to duplicate the contribution of Janarion Grant, who was arguably the best return man in the country. But RU averaged a feeble 12.4 yards per kickoff return. And with all of the chances they had, you'd think at least one would've got into decent field position.

Tylin Oden, who's strength is the run game, carried the ball 9 times for 14 yards and didn't appear able to break the tackles of these top-tier Ohio State players. On top of that, he played almost the entire second half without completing a pass. I guess it was good to get him reps, but he didn't show much today other than the fact that he needs to work on his throwing and get stronger.

Three completions to one receiver. Three!

Other Tidbits

In his postgame press conference Chris Ash called out everyone, but specifically talked about the run defense needing to be better and the struggles of the offensive line. In terms of pass protection, Ash felt it was unacceptable to have the other team "rushing four guys and they're in our face."

Kevin Wilkins started at defensive tackle. That was Wilkins's first career start, alongside fellow defensive linemen Darnell Davis, also making his first start.

Ntwademela Perry saw his first action in a Rutgers uniform.

When I saw that the postgame notes on www.scarletknights.com mentioned that Rutgers won the turnover battle I actually started laughing. It was a nice deflection by Blessuan Austin and snag by Anthony Cioffi. We just needed about 5 or 6 more of those.