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Short Handed Rutgers, No Match For Ohio State

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Short Handed Rutgers, No Match For Ohio State

After beginning Big Ten play last week against Nebraska, the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers would face their biggest obstacle in the big Ten. Unfortunately, they weren’t up for the challenge. Ohio State shut Rutgers out 56-0 Saturday night as the Scarlet Knights could neither slow down the Buckeyes’ offense or advance against the Silver Bullets.

Adding insult to injury, Rutgers actually tried a 32-yard field goal in the final minute — and it bounced off the upright.  Ohio State’s J.T. Barrett threw for 275 yards, 3 touchdowns and no interceptions.

Since their humbling loss to Oklahoma, Ohio State has steamrolled three overmatched opponents by a combined margin of 148-28. The Buckeyes expected more of a battle from Rutgers, which played Washington tough and hung with Nebraska a week ago.

Former Buckeyes assistant Chris Ash’s team wasn’t  ready to match up against Ohio State, particularly with the Scarlet Knights’ top offensive playmaker Janarion Grant injured. Rutgers averaged 2.9 yards per run on Saturday and completed 11 of 27 passes for 92 yards, none to a wide receiver. Keeping the game close would have been a realistic goal for Rutgers. Unfortunately, Vegas not only got the point spread right “30 points”, It shows how much much the Rutgers program has ahead of themselves.

‘Obviously not the turnout that we wanted.” Rutgers head coach Chris Ash said after the game.”You know, we got decimated with injuries in our secondary, gave up several big plays in some critical situations there in the first half where it got out of hand, and appreciate our players continuing to fight in the second half, just really feel bad for them, worked really hard, and go ahead and just open it up for questions.

Rutgers Defense Was Shredded 

Rutgers best player Janarion Grant was ruled out for the second week in a row. Then after losing their best defensive player, cornerback Blessuan Austin, for the season last week, starting safety Kiy Hester went down early in this game. Prior to the injury, Rutgers defense was having some success with their three safety package with Saquon Hampton, Hester, and Gray sharing the field at times.

What Rutgers Needs To Be Address During Bye Week

With the bye week now here, it’s obvious a change must be made on offense. There are a lot of issues with this unit, including the offensive line failing to control or dictate the action and not allowing ample pass protection, too many penalties occurring, a lack of separation from the receiving core versus coverage, and a lack of explosiveness out of the backfield.

Rutgers lack of depth ultimately let this get out of hand. The biggest thing Rutgers needs to do to even stay competitive with powerhouse programs is get better at the line of scrimmage.

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