Rutgers Annihilated by Ohio State 56-17

We saw first hand just how far away Rutgers is from competing for a Big 10 championship on Saturday, as they were totally outclassed by Ohio State by the score of 56-17 in front of 106,795 fans, which was the most Rutgers has ever played in front of. The Buckeyes were just the bigger, faster, more physical and more talented, better coached team and it showed in a huge way. This was Rutgers largest margin of defeat in 12 years. This was a total embarrassment of a game that just needs to be forgotten as the team moves forward. Almost nothing good happened in this game. I hate looking back on blow outs,so at least I will save some time writing this recap.

The defense was an unmitiglated disaster in this game, there's no way around that. Ohio State scored a touchdown on seven of their ten non end of half drives, which is totally unacceptable,The line was getting blown off the ball on almost every play and the tackling at the second and third level was atrocious, which has been a season long theme but was especially bad in this game. Making matters worse was the fact that Ohio State was snapping the ball before Rutgers had their play call in and/or not yet set up. That's 100% in the coaching staff, They should be prepared for that kind of stuff.

JT Barrett escaped pressure numerous times and ran free for a whole bunch of yards and touchdowns. It looked like Rutgers was playing man coverage and there was just nobody there to stop him. I'm not a big fan of spying quarterbacks, but they probably should have spied him. This was obviously an extreme circumstance, they won't play another offense even close to the Buckeyes level this year, but I am growing very concerned with this unit.

The offense was.....not horrible. The offensive line struggled in pass protection, but I thought they were pretty good run blocking. The Knights ran 34 times for 180 yards (5.3 per carry) when you don't include sack yardage, which is very nice. They struggled on the ground in their first two Big 10 games, but this was a strong performance. Keith Lumpkin in particular deserves a ton of credit, a lot of Rutgers big runs came behind him off left tackle and he was mauling people. Especially since the Buckeyes put star defensive end Joey Bosa on the offense's right for most of the game. Both Desmon Peoples (qho scored his the first two touchdowns of his career in this game)and Justin Goodwin ran the ball very well in this one, and Rob Martin showed some flashes of potential late in the game. Good to at least see the run game get going. Most of the game was garbage time, but Ohio State kept their starters in until late in the 4th quarter,

Gary Nova was under pressure pretty much every time he dropped back, but he only turned the ball over once and averaged seven yards per attempt. That's ok-ish. He made a nice escape to complete a 40 yard deep ball to Leonte Carroo, and Carroo also made a circus catch leaping and ripping the ball away from a defender as part of a 100 yard receiving day. The Iron Men duo almost connected for a touchdown in the redzone before half time, but Nova left the pass a little short and it was intercepted. They probably should have ended up with about 24-28 points in this game, which is on line with what they have been doing. You should still feel good about this group.

This game was very ugly for the defense, and they need to just put it on their rear view mirror as they prepare for a tough Nebraska team. The offense at least showed some positives they can build on moving forward. This game was embarrassing and showed that Rutgers is nowhere close to being on Ohio State's level in any stretch of the imagination, The Big 10 as a whole is very watered down, but the Buckeyes are still an elite program who could very well be in the playoff this January.