Rutgers football lost 31-7 on Saturday afternoon at Michigan, a game that was a bit of a disappointing score line given all the upset talk from the national media over the past week.
But Rutgers is a better football team than last year and the loss to Michigan proved it.
It isn’t scarlet-colored glasses, far from it. Everything from Saturday was better than the season before when Rutgers got manhandled by Michigan in the second half of a 52-17 loss.
And that’s the measuring stick for a rebuilding program like Rutgers. Are they better off than they were 11 months ago against the same opponent?
The answer is yes.
Now, there is no doubt that Michigan is a far better team right now than Rutgers, but this wasn’t easy stuff for the Wolverines. The second-best team in the nation went down (again) to Rutgers 7-0 in the first quarter and carried a narrow 14-7 lead at halftime.
Scroll down and check out five things we learned from Rutgers football’s loss at Michigan.