PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Into the early stages of the fourth quarter, Rutgers football was hanging tight with No. 1 Ohio State. And it was the play of the secondary that was a major reason why Rutgers was down just 21-16 in the fourth quarter.
Rutgers did a tremendous job in limiting the space and amount of touches that Mark Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka got in Saturday’s game. Both wide receivers, likely first round picks, have been impressive this season but each standout struggled against a strong performance from the Rutgers secondary.
Harrison was held to just 25 receiving yards, his second-lowest tally of the season (although he did have two important touchdown catches in the second half). As for Egbuka, his 29 receiving yards were also the second-lowest of the season.
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It was part of a strong defensive display from Rutgers that limited Ohio State to just 328 yards of total offense in what was a 35-16 win for the Buckeyes.
“We are getting better on defense, we are getting better on offense, we are getting better in the kicking game,” Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano said after the game.
“Those two receivers are both first round draft picks, okay, and I think they were held to something like 50-some-yard together, both of them. Those are two first round draft picks. But again, for us to win that game, we needed to be darn near perfect. I wasn’t; the players weren’t; the coaches weren’t. We’ll keep battling away but there’s nobody that’s saying, oh, that was a good, close, no, no. There’s two things. There’s winning and there’s losing. Those are the only two things that happen in a game.”
Ohio State quarterback Kyle McCord threw for 189 yards, his lowest passing total of the season.
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Down 9-7 at halftime, Ohio State capitalized on Rutgers mistakes and miscues to start rolling in the second half. A pick-six in the third quarter and some strong running from TreVeyon Henderson (128 rushing yards and a touchdown on 22 carries) keyed Ohio State to the win.
“Give a lot of credit to Greg [Schiano] and their staff. He’s doing a great job with their players,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said after the game.
“Playing on the road, you have to find a way to win the game and we did. It was good to pull away.”