On a day where the defense hung tough for two-and-a-half quarters, the offense generated next to nothing as the Rutgers football team was shut out 28-0 by Penn State on Saturday afternoon at Beaver Stadium in University Park, Pa.
The loss pushes Rutgers' record to 5-6 on the season and 2-6 in Big Ten play.
"That's a good football team," Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano said. "Top 10 defense for a reason. We got to regroup and we will. We'll come back tomorrow and get ready for Maryland.
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Rutgers tallied just 165 yards of total offense -- 93 passing and 72 rushing.
"First, they're good and we couldn't run the football even a little bit," Schiano said. "They're a top 10 defense for a reason if you look at the statistics. To win we would have had to play perfectly on offense and we didn't come close to that."
Quarterback Noah Vedral completed just 12-of-23 passes for 91 yards. Gavin Wimsatt went 1-for-3 in spot duty for two yards and an interception.
Bo Melton had three catches for 47 yards. On the ground, Aaron Young (20 yards on seven carries), Johnny Langan (five attempts, 18 yards), Vedral (eight carries, 10 yards), Wimsatt (nine yards, two carries), Kyle Monangai (three attempts, eight yards), and Isaih Pacheco (six carries, seven yards), together averaged only 2.3 yards per rush.
The offensive line struggled to get much push or keep a clean pocket.
"We got shut out so we didn't do anything really well," Schiano said. "We have to first look at coaching. We have to look at ourselves. It's easy to look at personnel. That's what commentators do, but we're not commentators. First you got to say we've given them the best chance to succeed."
Rutgers forced Penn State to punt on its first six drives. The Scarlet Knights won at the line of scrimmage, got into the backfield, and held up in coverage.
"We played well enough defensively to win a game like that," Schiano said. "We just have to get the other side cooking it a little bit."
The Nittany Lions didn't score until their last possession before halftime, an 8-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Christian Veilleux to star wide receiver Jahan Dotson. Starting signal caller Sean Clifford left the game early in the first quarter.
In his first game, Veilleux completed 15-of-24 passes for 235 yards and three touchdowns. He also connected with Parker Washington and Malick Meiga. Washington made a touch catch in the end zone with Tyshon Fogg draped all over him to go up 14-0. Meiga scored on a 67-yard play thanks to busted coverage by the Rutgers defense to make it 21-0.
Keyvone Lee capped the scoring with a 7-yard touchdown run in the fourth.
Fogg and Drew Singleton both led Rutgers with 12 tackles apiece. Fogg had a sack while Singleton had 1.5 tackles-for-loss. Rutgers tallied six TFLs, three pass breakups, and three quarterback hurries.
Adam Korsak punted 10 times for 444 yards (44.4 average) with a long of 73 yards where the ball kept on rolling.
The offense couldn't muster anything, and it wasn't helped out by penalties either. The Scarlet Knights were called for eight penalties for 50 yards compared to four penalties for 35 yards for the home team. Another killer penalty was Singleton's late hit out of bounds that led to Penn State's first score.
Schiano didn't offer much comment on if the offense was un-settled or disorganized at times.
"I don't know if it was unsettled, but why does that happen? First of all, I put it on coaching," Schiano said. "That's No. 1."
Rutgers, which needs one win to become bowl eligible, faces Maryland next Saturday at noon at SHI Stadium in Piscataway. The winner gets extra practice time and a bowl trip while the loser likely seeds its season end. There is a chance one of the teams -- more so for Rutgers -- could make a bowl at 5-7. It hasn't been to a bowl game since 2014.
"We still in the last game of the year have the pen in our hands," Schiano said. "We have a chance to write it. But so does the team we're playing. Two teams trying to do the same thing against each other. Who is more prepared in all facets, who plays together, who plays harder for longer will win
"We got to figure out how to do better than they do for about three and a half hours next Saturday."
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
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