The Scarlet Knights took down Washington under the Friday night lights by a score of 21-18. This can be chalked up as Washington’s welcome to the Big Ten moment as Rutgers is 4-0 to start the year for the first time since 2012.
The game certainly wasn’t pretty for the Scarlet Knights. However, the Knights did have some things that worked out extremely well. For starters SHI stadium was sold out for the Blackout and the fans made their presence felt. The last time SHI stadium had a sold-out crowd was in 2022 against Penn State—just one of head coach Greg Schiano’s effects on the program.
What Rutgers did well
The next thing that went really well for the Knights was their running game. When it was needed Kyle Monangai and Sam Brown V seemed to do just what they needed to do to get the Knights by. The Knights ran the ball 33 times for 184 yards, averaging 5.6 yards per attempt. The Knights also scored two touchdowns on the ground. The one issue with Rutgers running was that there were too many negative plays. Throwing in more screens and play-action passes should go a long way toward opening this running game permanently.
The passing game wasn’t anything special but quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis once again did what he needed to do to secure the win for Rutgers. With how potent the Rutgers running game is, he really doesn’t have to do much other than handle the ball well and hit his receivers when needed.
One area that has to improve for Rutgers is pressure on the quarterback. The Knights had zero tackles for loss on the day along with giving Will Rogers way too much time to find receivers open downfield. The Knights did not get a sack on the day and only got a few quarterback hits/quarterback pressures. With the star-powered passing offenses in the Big Ten, Rutgers will need to find ways to create pressure to keep their winning streak alive as they move further into Big Ten Play.
What Went Wrong For Washington
Rutgers benefitted a lot from several key Washington mistakes. The first and most obvious are the missed field goals. Washington kicker Grady Gross missed three field goals on the day that would have given the Huskies the win or at least they would have forced overtime if he had made one.
Another constant issue for the Huskies was their penalties. Washington had several would-be scoring drives ended because they couldn’t keep the little yellow flag off of the turf. Washington had six penalties on the day, totaling 69 yards.
One of these penalties had what could be considered the biggest impact on the game. It was fourth and five at the Washington 20 with Rutgers lining up to kick a field goal. Washington blocks the kick and celebrates thinking they got the ball back. Perhaps they did too much celebrating as an illegal substitution penalty was called on Freshman Vince Holmes after he ran onto the field during the play.
Rutgers would take the fresh set of downs and score a touchdown one play later.
This was just one of many times self-inflicted wounds doomed the Huskies.
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