Madison, Wisconsin. – Not enough offense and a tiring, momentum-changing six.
That’s the story of the Rutgers football game.
The Scarlet Knights come to Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday looking for their fifth win against a Wisconsin team that hasn’t looked as dominant as many expected this season but finished 24 -13 loss to the Badgers.
The Scarlet Knights scored their second touchdown of the game with four minutes left, but by then it was too little, too late.
The Scarlet Knights had their chance, but just couldn’t take advantage of it.
“What stands out to me is that at this level of football there are no missed opportunities,” Schiano said. “Someone’s always going to take them, and Wisconsin took them. We didn’t take enough. It all starts and ends with me. I’m the head coach.”
Rutgers had a scary moment late in the third quarter when quarterback Gavin Wimsatt scrambled on fourth-and-1 from the Badgers 38 and was called upon by A big hit from behind. Wisat’s head bounced hard off the turf. He rested on the sidelines for a few minutes while trainer and coach Greg Schiano looked after him.
Wisat stood up and was taken to the injury tent. He eventually rejoined the rest of the offense on the sidelines and wore his helmet. He then returned to the game in the fourth quarter.
“I feel good,” Wimsatt said after the game. “I checked out. I’m fine.”
As a result, the Scarlet Knights avoided a difficult situation — but it was still a disappointing afternoon overall.
Here are three reasons why Rutgers failed:
Wisconsin’s No. 6 pick
Rutgers finally had a good drive. On second-and-10 from the Scarlet Knights 49, Wimsatt threw the ball to JaQuae Jackson, who made a tough catch for a 26-yard gain. Wissart then rushed 17 yards to the 8-yard line on the next play.
The Scarlet Knights looked poised to at least cut their deficit to seven points by halftime. The touchdown would turn the game into a three-point play and completely change the game.
But after Kyle Monangai’s two-yard run, Wimsatt threw a pass to the right, intending to pass to Christian Dremel, the Wisconsin cornerback. Ricardo Hallman caught the ball and ran it back 95 yards for a touchdown.
The Badgers, coming off a bye week, entered halftime with a 17-0 lead.
“It was a great corner kick,” Wissart said. “The ball is the program. I can’t do that, especially in that situation, we’re in the red zone. Credit to the corner. I just can’t do that, the ball is the program.”
Wimsatt has done a better job of protecting the football — he had just one interception in the previous five games and six against Michigan — but this draft has been extremely costly. .
The Badgers’ defense is a ball-rushing defense — they’ve thrown seven interceptions in their first four games.
Their latest is a big deal.
“That was a big turning point in the game,” Wissart said.
lack of aggression
Rutgers struggled to run the pass game consistently and couldn’t get its run game going against a Wisconsin defense that was allowing 118.5 yards per game entering Saturday.
Wimsatt finished 16-of-35 for 181 yards and one touchdown, including an 11-yard touchdown pass to Ian Strong in the fourth quarter.
“They’re a huge physical defense,” Wisat said. “They played great. We can probably watch some things on film and see where we can work them out. That’s tomorrow’s task.”
Rutgers finished with just 275 yards. It had just 64 rushing yards, 43 of which came from Wimsatt. Monangai rushed eight times for 16 yards.
“We’ve bitten ourselves a lot,” Monange said. “A missed kickoff, I think there was a timeout, but not a lot of aggressive play and (we) got into a third-and-long situation.”
The Scarlet Knights went three-and-out on four of their first five possessions. They didn’t get their second first down of the game until late in the second quarter, which ended with Holman’s sixth pick.
“I thought everything didn’t go well offensively today,” Schiano said. “Give Wisconsin a thumbs up. That’s what they did. They had a bye week. They looked fresh and did some different things, but not much. They didn’t make big plays in their bye week. Change. It wasn’t just Gavin, it was everybody. We as a staff and us as a team just didn’t execute the depth of detail that it takes to win a game like this.”
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Wisconsin runs the ball effectively
Overall, Rutgers’ defense is very good. This is the norm this season.
Even though Wisconsin lost starting running back Chase Melusi to a leg injury in the previous game, they were still able to run the ball quite effectively.
Braelon Allen, a 6-foot-2, 245-pounder, rushed 21 times for 101 yards and one touchdown, while Jackson Acker had 65 yards on 13 carries. Quarterback Tanner Mordecai gained 50 yards rushing.
“I thought we prepared well,” defensive end Aaron Lewis said. “Preparation is key for us. We took full advantage of that this week. I think that’s us. Obviously, Wisconsin has great players, but I feel like we have injuries on the ball side. We’ve got to fix that.”
Rutgers allowed 98.6 rushing yards per game through its first five games, but Wisconsin found some success.
“Wisconsin did some things in their running game that we haven’t seen this year,” Schiano said. “We had to cram it into a week. I thought we did a good job, but it would have been better if we had two weeks to prepare for this. But we didn’t. That’s life.”
