12/6/2020 football Edit

Three thoughts on Rutgers Football's game versus Penn State

Craig Epstein

Staff Writer

Looking for their first win over Penn State since 1988, Rutgers put up their worst performance of the season thus far and once again lost to the Nittany Lions 23-7 to drop to 2-5 on the season.

Here are three thoughts after the game:

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Rutgers Gets Dominated In The Trenches

Point blank Rutgers lost this game because they were obliterated in the trenches. Whether it was the offensive or defensive line, Penn State did whatever they wanted to do all game long to the tune of 248 rushing yards and held the Scarlet Knights to their season-low in points.

“Guys played hard but we didn’t play a very clean game,” Head Coach Greg Schiano said in his postgame press conference. “Hats off to Penn State, I thought they played very well. We struggled to handle them up front especially offensively.”

As one of the few teams in the Big Ten who has been able to successfully play each of their games so far, it is worth wondering if that unit is starting to feel the wear and tear of a season with no bye weeks.

Offense Fails To Get Anything Going

Coming off of a week where Rutgers came back from 10 points down at halftime to beat Purdue 37-30, the Scarlet Knights must have left all of their offensive prowess in West Lafayette because outside of a prayer touchdown pass to Bo Melton in the third quarter Rutgers could not get anything going offensively all day.

“I thought Noah actually did a pretty good job today,” Schiano continued. “When he dropped back we didn’t protect very well. Again hats off to Penn State you could say we didn’t protect well or they did a great job generating a pass rush.”

This was by far Rutgers’ worst offensive output of the year so far. However, a brighter way to look at it is unlike past seasons at least this time their worst performance can be easily identified and the team can (hopefully) improve in the coming weeks.

A Wasted Opportunity To Beat A Rival

In a season that went south fast for Penn State, this was a tremendous opportunity for Rutgers to not only capture their first win over the Nittany Lions in 32 years, but also guarantee they would finish last in the Big Ten for the first time in the program’s illustrious history.

“We not only need to catch up to people but we have to pass them and certainly Penn State’s one of those programs,” Schiano said. “Today we didn’t show that. They’re a talented team, they’ve had some tough losses but you look at them and then you watch the way they play they’re a talented team.”

However, it was not meant to be for Schiano’s squad as they are still not only in search of that elusive victory, but allowed their bordering state rival to secure their 900th all-time win as well.

Rutgers will return to action next Saturday when they travel to Capital One Field to take on Maryland.