It was a tough day at the office for Rutgers football, who lost 27-6 on Saturday afternoon at No. 12 Penn State. Rutgers had its chances in the game but the team’s penchant for mistakes and miscues now has the Scarlet Knights with three straight losses.
And yet, there is a glimmer of optimism and hope about the program’s direction in Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano’s post-game remarks.
One need only look at Rutgers this season 6-5 (3-5 Big Ten) to see a program that has closed the gap considerably on the rest of the conference. Saturday’s loss wasn’t pretty for Rutgers, but the win wasn’t a pretty one for Penn State either. Rutgers has found a formula to scratch and claw its way through games and has now made No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Michigan and No. 12 Penn State all sweat their way through these games.
This is a sign of progress for Rutgers, a team that last year was getting blown out in these games is now keeping things tight into the third and fourth quarters against ranked opposition.
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Schiano said after the game that his team was gutted by the loss. But in marking the end of three straight games against ranked Big Ten opposition, Rutgers certainly hasn’t embarrassed themselves.
“They put so much into it and we aren’t quite ready to close those kind of games out -we will be but it wasn’t today,” Schiano told reporters after the game .
“It’s been a heck of a three-game stretch and really three of the top five defenses in America. That’s what we cherish and we want to play at that level of football. By doing that we are getting better. Iron will sharpen iron, but it hurts when you have to do it.”
It doesn’t excuse or sugarcoat the errors and mistakes, the costly penalties or the turnovers. But it does provide some perspective that Rutgers is closing the gap and improving.
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The sources of frustration have continued this year. But it isn’t at the rate and frequency of last season.
Before the season, there isn’t a realistic Rutgers fan who wouldn’t have signed up for 6-5 and bowl eligibility in mid-October. Rutgers has done just that.
They’ve lost the games they were supposed to lose so far this season. And they won a couple of games they weren’t expected to win. They’ve been competitive in the Big Ten and Rutgers is heading to a bowl game.
That view from 20,000 feet? It isn’t so bad.
Rutgers showed improvement from last week’s loss at Iowa, a game that was a disaster offensively by every metric and measurement. On Saturday, Rutgers moved the ball well but penalties along with turnovers and some naivete in the red zone doomed the offense.
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At halftime, Rutgers was down just 10-6.
With 229 yards of total offense, Rutgers gained 100 more yards on Saturday than they did a week ago. Their 13 first downs were nearly double what they got at Iowa when they had seven.
“We are developing offense,” Schiano said.
“I told you when we started this game there are not going to be any magic pills so it’s gonna take time. We have had some good showings in the red zone and we have had some tough showings in the red zone.”