| In their eight years as conference foes, Ohio State has won all eight meetings with the Scarlet Knights. Once, the COVID year, Rutgers managed to stay as close as 22 points. The second closest game was 56-21. As much as we expect Ohio State to always win this game, they seemingly still do it even more impressively than we expect, covering in 6 of those 8 wins. You never want to punt a game in college football, but after this week, the Scarlet Knights host Nebraska and Indiana in their next two games. Any reasonable path to Rutgers' first legitimate bowl bid since 2014 likely involves sweeping those next two games. So while seeing the Ohio State backups up 40+ seems almost certain, would it shock me if Rutgers also decides to stay healthy for a two game stretch that will likely decide their season? Nope. Rutgers actually outgained Iowa 361-277 last week, but was -3 in turnovers, as teams tend to be when playing Iowa. They were able to shut down the Iowa ground game, but Spencer Petras had his best game of the season. He only threw 17 passes, but had season highs in completion percentage, ypa, passer rating, and QBR. In fact his first above average (50) QBR on the season. C.J. Stroud is just second in the nation (behind the very fun Jalon Daniels at Kansas) in QBR, with 16 touchdowns and 1 interception. So good luck with that. There is a chance Noah Vedral makes his 2022 debut, which should give Rutgers' quarterback play a boost. Vedral was lousy down the stretch last year, which is why freshman Gavin Wimsatt was given a shot to win the job with Vedral hurt. He disappointed so much, Schiano just let Evan Simon try to bridge the gap. But Vedral was great in September last year, leading Rutgers to a 3-0 start, before a close loss at Michigan. But starting with a three pick game at Ohio State, he was below average in 8 of Rutgers' 9 games, finishing with 5 consecutive sub 100 yard passing games. I think if they could play the long game with Wimsatt, they would, but Simon isn't the long term answer, which tells me that if the 6th year senior is healthy, Vedral is back under center. |
