Rutgers football falls to Washington 38-19 in the most lopsided loss the Scarlet Knights have suffered this season.
Rutgers started the game hot on offense, scoring 10 unanswered points before Washington scored a touchdown of their own. That would be the high point for the Knights’ offense the rest of the night, as they only scored nine points afterwards. Rutgers quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis would throw for 386 yards on 50 passing attempts, scoring two touchdowns and throwing one interception. The
Knights quarterback would throw several questionable passes that were almost picked off, or were picked off, but got called back.
Rutgers would have six drives that stalled inside the Washington 30-yard line. These drives totaled 6 points.
One bright spot that has to be acknowledged is Antwan Raymond. Raymond had several big plays throughout the game, including a 51-yard run on the first drive of the game and a 48-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter.
Despite this, Rutgers would go into the half up 13-10. Washington would then breeze through the Rutgers defense in the second half, scoring four touchdowns in the final 30 minutes.
The same issues plagued the Rutgers defense in this game. Washington quarterback Demond Williams was able to consistently find open wide receivers down the field for chunk gains. If by chance he couldn’t, he would scramble and get the yards himself, as he finished the game with 402 yards passing and 136 yards rushing, both of which were career highs. Rutgers’ defense would routinely give up chunk plays on passes thrown to the middle, as Washington would march right down the field on several drives. The Knights generated a turnover in this game and got a stop deep in Washington territory, but were unable to fully capitalize as the two ensuing drives combined led to just three points.
Rutgers’ safety play once again left much to be desired as the Knights looked lost in the secondary overall.
One area where Rutgers did improve was on special teams. The Knights’ special teams units were able to escape this game without having a crucial blunder, aside from one missed field goal.
Rutgers will be back in action at home next Saturday at 6:30 as they will face off against the No.3 Oregon Ducks in their annual homecoming game.
