| While Rutgers still remains mathematically alive for a bowl bid (and hell, they backdoored their way in last year at 5-7), the loss last week at Michigan State, with Penn State this week, sort of makes in a done deal. With a loss here, Greg Schiano would drop to 6-20 in Big Ten games. Before you write Schiano 2.0 off, remember that he went 3-24 in conference play in his first four years at Rutgers last time, and that was in the Big East, not the Big TEN East. It wasn't until Year 5, and Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College bolting for the ACC, when he "broke through" with a 7-4 season, and an Insight Bowl bid, the school's first bowl in nearly 30 years, and their first winning season in 13. Rutgers' admission into the Big Ten restarted this series, which had been played 24 times between 1950 and 1995, but hadn't been played since. In that first game, Rutgers scored 10 points, which remains their high water mark in this series as Big Ten foes. In the 7 games since, the Scarlet Knights have been shut out twice, and scored a TOTAL of two touchdowns. They've averaged 4.1 ppg. The Nittany Lions defense is rolling right now, coming off a shutout of Maryland, and just 7 non-garbage time points against Indiana. The Rutgers offense remains as stagnant as ever, ranking in the bottom 20 of all 4 major offensive statistics (scoring, total, rushing, passing). SP+ ranks their offense #117 in the FBS, behind both Iowa and Northwestern. The problems start up front with the offensive line. Schiano made some changes last week, and a Michigan State defense, down to just one scholarship defensive end, was able to pressure Gavin Wimsatt on 27.5% of his dropbacks. Now they face a Penn State defense that ranks #16 in the FBS in sack rate. The Scarlet Knights have to stay ahead of the sticks. As poor a job as the line has done in pass blocking, they may have figured something out with the running game, in sophomore Kyle Monangai. The back had never tallied more than 7 touches in a Big Ten game, but he got 27 last week (24 carries, 3 receptions), and took advantage with 182 offensive yards. His 162 rushing yards was the most in a Big Ten game ever for Rutgers. But even with that historic performance, against a much worse defense than Penn State's Rutgers only had 14 points until a garbage time 4th and 28 touchdown. |
