Rutgers Stumbles in Loss to Pitt 27-6

This game always had a weird vibe to it. Some people even thought this game was meaningless. It just seemed like a forgone conclusion that the winner of the Louisville- Rutgers game that was scheduled just a few days after this one would decide who earns the Big East's BCS bid. Louisville would take care of UConn, and the result of this game against Pitt would not matter at all. But as it is often the case in the Big East 2.0, things do not go as planned, and the Cardinals lost to the bottom feeding Huskies in triple overtime, and Rutgers blew their chances of securing an Orange Bowl berth if they would have simply just taken care of  a mediocre Pittsburgh team. They of course did not do that, and they got tripped up in another trap game, as they have so many times in the past. They came out flat, played about as poorly as they could of in all three phases of the game, and were thoroughly out played and out coached in a 27-6 loss to Pitt. Simply put, it was just another bad loss for a program that has become accustomed to such losses.

Rutgers was totally inept on the offensive side of the ball in this game. The play calling was just as conservative as it has been all year, and the players didn't exactly help matters with poor execution and penalties. Rutgers had some early success running the ball, getting some 4 and 5 yard carries, but Pitt started to load up to stop the run, and once that happened, Rutgers could not muster anything. Savon Huggins and Jawan Jamison had nowhere to run, and Dave Brock kept stubbornly pounding the rock up the middle, including on multiple third and longs. It seemed like they weren't really trying to score points and were just content to punt all the time, even when they had pretty good field position. They refused to put the game in Gary Nova's hands at all for some reason and on one of Nova's rare throws in the first half, he was slammed on his head and shoulder and had to miss a series. All in all, Rutgers had the ball 8 times in the first half and they punted it away all 8 times. They had 6 three and outs and a grand total of 48 yards going into the lock room at the half.

Trailing 21-0 a tht estart of the third, Rutgers finally decided to open things up a little bit. Nova was throwing the ball out of shot gun over the middle and he completed passes to Tim Wright and Paul Carrezola for a couple first downs. Huggins had just picked up another first down in Pitt territory on a 3rd and 2, but that run was called back on an Andre Civil holding penalty, and the drive ended with another punt. They continued throwing on their next drive, and Nova was hitting Tim Wright and Quoron Pratt over the middle for first downs, advancing into Pitt territory. Mark Harrison then caught a pass on an out route to set the Knights up on the goal line. Jamison burst into the endzone, but DC Jefferson was called for a hold (it was a good block and did not warrant a flag), negating the score. A pass interference penalty in the endzone got RU a new set of downs, and Brandon Coleman caught a touchdown toss from Nova on a post pattern from 11 yards out to make it 24-6. Kyle Flood decided to go for 2 to make it a 2 possession game, but the try failed. I did not like his decision, as the odds of making 3 straight 2 point tries are not very good, and you just need to take the point there. Dick Vermeil's chart agrees with me. It would end up not mattering though, because Rutgers couldn't do anything else on offense. Nova threw a bad interception on the next drive, and they just packed it in after that.

This offense has shown flashes of brilliance this year, and that makes the overly conservative play calling and penalties even more frustrating. They are capable of doing so much more, but they look like an FCS offense sometimes. You would think the coaches would realize that their stubborn offensive game plans are hurting the team, but that doesn't seem to be the case. The offense is pretty young, but the coaches need to put more faith in them at some point. You have to remember too that Kyle Flood is a rookie head coach, so hopefully he figures out what he's doing wrong with this offense, learn from it, and fix it.

The Scarlet Knight defense certainly did not play their best game either. They dominated in the first quarter, but were embarrassed in the second, so I guess it added up to a mediocre performance overall. On the opening series of the game, they appeared to set the tone with Scott Vallone and Jamil Merrell bringing Pitt tailback Ray Graham down in the backfield to force a punt. They yielded a first down reception to Mike Shanahan on the next series, but they were able to hold Graham in check, and they forced another punt. The secondary was locking things down as well, and Pitt couldn't convert any third downs in the opening quarter, and had three 3 and outs as a result. Things started rolling out of control in the second quarter, however. Tino Sunseri started attacking the flats with the Scarlet Knights bringing heavy pressure, and they were able to march down field with Shanahan finishing the drive off with a TD reception after Brandon Jones was fooled by a double move. Pitt moved the ball effectively on their next drive as well, but Marcus Cooper was able to stop a screen pass that almost went for a touchdown and Jamil Merrell recorded a sack when Sunseri held onto the ball too long to force Pitt out of field goal range.

Pitt was set up in great field position on their next possession, and they were able to advance the ball to the Rutgers two. Fortunately for the Knights though, the Panthers botched a snap exchange, and Logan Ryan was able to recover the loose ball. The offense could not flip field position at all, so the defense would be faced with bad field position again, and that problem was compounded by the fact that Khaseem Greene was flagged for targeting while covering the punt, on what looked like a clean hit to me. I think he led with his shoulder, but you can judge for yourself:

After another questionable penalty, this time Marvin Booker was called for roughing the passer when it appeared he let up before making contact, Graham was able to punch the ball in for a one yard score. Pitt got the ball back again with just over a minute left in the half, and they had a quick, efficient scoring drive that made the Knights look helpless. Ed Tinker caught a TD pass, and it looked like Rutgers' DB defending him could have knocked the pass down if he turned around. If he was able to do so, the Panthers would have been limited to a field goal. Instead, the Scarlet Knights went into the locker room down 21-0.

Rutgers could not stop the run early in the second half, and it led to a Pitt field goal that extend the deficit. Vallone made another big stuff on 3rd and run to force a punt at the end of the third quarter, and he came up with another big stop by getting a tackle for loss following Nova's interception early in the 4th. He was really Rutgers' lone bright spot on the day. They allowed Pitt to make another tack on field goal towards the end of the game.

It was a mediocre game overall for the defense. They dealt with poor field position all day, but they did not perform up to the lofty standards they have set for themselves. They were not awful, holding Pitt to less than 6 yards per pass attempt, while picking up some sacks, and doing ok against the run (despite giving up 3 or 4 long runs), but it was just not good enough. They only forced one turnover, and they had an abysmal second quarter. The defensive line played pretty well, but everyone else was...meh.

This was a typical trap game where Rutgers came out totally flat and lost to an opponent that they should have beaten (even though Pitt has talent and played a great game), as  they were probably looking ahead to their next game.The offense was downright terrible in every way, and the defense could not bail them out, as they merely turned in a mediocre performance and only forced one turn over. The coaches did a poor job in game planing and making in game decisions and adjustments, and the team looked very bad as a result. It was just an all around terrible game. Rutgers must pick themselves up and put in the necessary work to get ready for Louisville in the defacto conference championship game on short week and at home.

Additional Notes
-Jawan Jamison became the first Rutgers player to rush for over 1000 yards since Ray Rice did so in 2007. Congrats to him and his offensive line, that's a big accomplishment.

-With Connecticut's win over Louisville in triple overtime, Rutgers clinched at least a share of the Big East title, but the conference's BCS bid will still be up for grabs on Thursday. This is a big accomplishment, as the Scarlet Knights have never won the conference before, but it really won't feel like they won the conference unless they go to a BCS game. Think of it this way: if they have to share their crown with SYRACUSE, that lessens the accomplishment.