PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Despite a 142-yard rushing effort from Heisman Trophy candidate Ray Rice (New Rochelle, N.Y.), the No. 25-ranked Scarlet Knights suffered a 31-3 loss to No. 6 West Virginia Saturday afternoon at a rain-soaked Rutgers Stadium. WVU running back Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White combined for four scores as the Mountaineers earned the victory before the venue's ninth straight sell out crowd and a national television audience.
Rutgers (5-3, 2-2) took the field dressed in all black uniforms looking to capture consecutive wins over ranked opponents for the first time in school history. The poor weather, however, did little to enable the charged environment from which the Scarlet Knights fed in their win over No. 2 South Florida. Rutgers entered the game having scored on 26 of its 27 trips inside the 20, but came away empty on two trips inside the red zone versus the Mountaineers.
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Joe Lefeged just misses sacking WVU QB Pat White. Photo by Jim O'Connor/NJ Sport Pics |
"It's very obvious the things we didn't do today," said Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano. "We didn't tackle well and we didn't catch the football. We dropped too many passes to count, and some of them were touchdowns. We dropped three touchdown passes. Are they tough catches, some of them are, but they are catches we need to make. Tackling just wasn't Rutgers-like."
The Scarlet Knights also committed four turnovers in the contest, while the visitors did not lose a single miscue. West Virginia (7-1, 2-1) scored 14 points off Rutgers turnovers.
"The positives for the game were that not one player stopped playing their very hardest," said Schiano. That's how we want to play when things are going against us."
Rice made school history on the game's first offensive play. A two-yard gain up the middle, the carry provided him 1,001 yards on the year, making the junior the first Scarlet Knight to ever exceed the century mark in three seasons. The rush would also be the first of 16 carries for 63 yards by Rice in the initial stanza.
West Virginia posted the contest's first points. Facing a first-and-10 at RU 38, Slaton changed fields on the slick surface and raced right. With the Scarlet Knights attempting to recover from their initial pursuit, he raced into the end zone with the aid of some opportunistic downfield blocking provided by his receivers. The score capped a six play, 63-yard drive and provided the Mountaineers a 7-0 advantage with 4:33 remaining in the opening quarter.
WVU would extend its lead to two touchdowns courtesy of a special teams' misfortune that befell the Scarlet Knights. After forcing the Mountaineers backwards after they advanced to the home 32, Rutgers was poised to field a punt. The kick, however, deflected off the back of Ramy Nubani (Upper St. Clair, Pa.), who was running toward his return men to provide blocking on the anticipated return. West Virginia recovered at the RU 31. Five plays later, the visitors held a 14-0 advantage after one yard touchdown run by White.
The reliable leg of Jeremy Ito (Loma Linda, Calif.) enabled the Scarlet Knights to light the scoreboard. Named the Lou Groza Star of the Week for his three field goal performance versus USF, Ito split the uprights from 39 yards with 4:39 remaining in the second quarter. The kick culminated an 11-play, 45-yard drive and marked the 70th field goal of his career. He became one of just 19 players in NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision history to record 70 field goals.
A 42-yard field goal by Pat McAfee as the clock expired sent the Scarlet Knights to the locker room at the midpoint facing a 17-3 deficit. The kick concluded an 11-play, 60-yard effort and was the third score for the visitors in five first half possessions.
The rain, which was steady and driving, subsided prior to the start of the second half. Rutgers was in receipt of the half's initial possession and drove into the red zone for the first time, to the WVU 14. A holding penalty, however, sent the home squad backward, where it was forced to settle for a 41-yard field goal attempt. The try, however, was wide right.
With the miss, the Mountaineers re-gained possession and drove downfield in purposeful fashion. A one-yard Slaton touchdown run capped a nine play, 75-yard drive that consumed just 3:18 off the clock. The junior's second scoring jaunt placed the Scarlet Knights in a deep, 24-3, hole with 3:59 remaining in the third quarter.
West Virginia. closed out the scoring on a seven play, 66-yard drive that was 3:04 in length. Each of the Mountaineers' four touchdown drives consumed 3:18 or less of the game clock.
The Scarlet Knights return to the gridiron next Saturday (Nov. 3) evening at Connecticut in a 7:15 p.m. kick-off at Rentschler Field. The game will be televised live on ESPNU.
Rutgers Post Game Notes
Team Notes
The sixth-largest crowd in school history (43,620) was in attendance. It marked the ninth consecutive sell-out at Rutgers Stadium, the longest streak in school history.
For the first time in school history, Rutgers wore all black uniforms. The Scarlet Knights traditionally wear scarlet jerseys at home, but wore the black jerseys made by Nike in today's game.
Representatives from six bowls - FedEX Orange, Allstate Sugar, Tostitos Fiesta, Konica Minolta Gator, Brut Sun and International - were in attendance at the game.
Rutgers played its second consecutive top-10 opponent for the first time in 138 seasons of football. The Scarlet Knights defeated then-No. 2 USF 30-27 on Oct. 18 before today's 31-3 setback to No. 6 West Virginia.
Player Notes
Junior RB Ray Rice (New Rochelle, N.Y.) became the first player in Rutgers history to rush for at least 1,000 yards in three seasons. After a 30-carry, 142-yard game against WVU, Rice has 1,141 yards through eight games this season. He ran for 1,794 yards as a sophomore last season and 1,120 as a true freshman in 2005.
Rice became the first Rutgers player in school history to eclipse the 4,000-yard mark for his career. He also set a new school record with his 20th career 100-yard game with 142 yards.
Rice moved into a tie for third place in BIG EAST history with West Virginia's Steve Slaton with 20 career 100-yard rushing games with his performance against the Mountaineers.
In three career games vs. teams ranked in the AP Top 10, Rice has averaged 151.3 yards after his 142-yard performance against West Virginia.
With a second-quarter, 39-yard field goal, senior PK Jeremy Ito (Loma Linda, Calif.) became just the 19th player in NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision history to record 70 career field goals. For his career, Ito is 70-for-98 (71.4 percent) on field goal attempts.
Sophomore CB Devin McCourty (Nanuet, N.J.) had a career-high 12 tackles. His previous career high was a 10-tackle effort against Maryland (9/29).
Redshirt freshman FB Andres Morales (Bethlehem, Pa.) recorded his first career start. He became the third different starter at the fullback position this season.
POSTGAME QUOTES
COACH SCHIANO
Opening comments:
"It is very obvious the things we did not do today. We did not tackle the way should and we did not catch the football. We dropped too many passes, and some of them were touchdown passes. We dropped three touchdown passes. Are they tough catches; some of them are; but they are catches we need to make. Tackling just wasn't Rutgers-like today. Certainly the two guys we were trying to tackle had something to do with that, those are as good athletes as there are in the country, but a lot of things went wrong today. At no point did I feel our football team gave in. It was me at the end starting to take guys out because we weren't going to win the game and we have a long season ahead of us but there wasn't an ounce of letdown in those guys. It just didn't seem like anything could get done for us, whether it was we get down there inside the red zone after you force them to a three and out, and you get a holding penalty on fourth and one. You can't do that against good football teams. We hold them once and they punt and the ball hits us in the back. Sometimes things happen, and unfortunately it snowballed on us today. The positives for the game were that not one player stopped playing their very hardest. That's how we want to play when things are going against us."
On preparing to face WVU running back Steve Slaton:
"Certainly there's not another [Steve] Slaton anywhere, let alone on a scout team. We try to assimilate the best we can, but as you saw we had three guys to the ball several times but we couldn't get him to the ground. Some part of that is that it's hard enough to tackle them on a dry day. Our field and our footing was great because of the surface, but if those weren't wet jerseys, on some of those missed tackles we might have held on, but when the jerseys are wet you can't. And those two broke a lot of tackles."
On Rutgers quarterback Mike Teel:
"I thought he played very well. We dropped passes, but I thought they were great passes. If you have to make those catches, now you're in a tight football game. Early on, when the rain was coming sideways, that's a different story. At that point I said let's go easy and rush the ball. At one point in the first quarter, the rain was coming down at a 45 degree angle with the wind. We pulled off the throwing a little bit, but I felt he was throwing the ball well. We didn't catch the ball well, but I thought he threw the ball well. He's honest and he's tough. He said I can throw it, wet ball or not."
On back-to-back games against top-10 ranked opponents
"If we want to become an elite program we have to do that. We have to be able to win a big game and then go out and win another big game. That's what championship programs do. We are going to have back-to-back big games. We didn't do that, and that is frustrating. Certainly the opponent had something to do with that, again we were playing a very good West Virginia team. Like I said, there is such a fine line at this level when you are playing the very good teams, that if you are not right on point then you are in for a long day. Even if you are on point, you may not win the game. Certainly today we were a little bit off in everything that we were doing. That's something we're going to focus on after this game, we did it last year when we beat Louisville and then did not play well against Cincinnati. I think it's not just Rutgers, I think that's an age-old problem in sports. That fine line, that edge, if we are going to be the program that I know we are going to be, then we have to learn to do it. It is my job to get us to do that as a program, and we will get it done, I am not worried about that."
On Rutgers' play against West Virginia:
"I don't think this game is a real indicator of where Rutgers is right now. Certainly West Virginia has very talented players and a good football team, so my hat is off to them. We really played quite poorly today in a lot of different areas. Sometimes that happens and you can get away with it. You drop passes but your defense is playing well, you're not tackling so well but you are playing great in other areas. With the exception of Ray [Rice] running the ball and Mike [Teel] throwing the ball, I thought we did those two things well, but other than that we had spurts of doing things well, but we never had any consistency."
On Rutgers tackling against West Virginia:
"We didn't tackle well because I felt that we didn't just let it fly. I think we were a little apprehensive about tackling Steve and Pat, and when we broke down the play they were fast and quick enough to get around us. We came out in the second half and we let it fly, and sure enough we got those guys on the ground. But then they made some plays where we made some mistakes on third down, and you can't make mistakes on third down. You bust your hump to get them into a third down situation, defensive plus situations, you have to make a play."
STUDENT-ATHLETES
Junior QB Mike Teel
Overall thoughts on the game: "The thing about football is how good are you on that given day for that three or four hours. We didn't play anywhere near the level of football that we can play, but the other team had a lot to do with that. They played a very good football game."
On the team's offensive production: "We had the ball in the red zone and we had opportunities, but we had negative plays and penalties. We didn't play our best football and a lot of that goes to West Virginia."
On dropped balls: "It changes the game a little bit, but it's also part of the game. It's something that can't happen if we want to be successful. We have to continue to work on it and obviously we need to correct it to be the best we can be."
On the weather: "It makes it a little more difficult, but it's part of the game. You play football in the rain and deal with it."
Junior RB Ray Rice
Overall thoughts on the game: "We got outplayed. They came out here and executed and we didn't."
On the weather: "I think the weather was a factor in the beginning. There were a few plays with a few missed tackles, but as far as driving the ball, I thought we did a good job. We needed to make a few extra plays, but they made the plays when they needed to be made."
"We have a lot of young guys playing right now so we have to continue to try to be our best. I think we just have to finish the season out and see how far we can get."
Senior DT Eric Foster
Does this game indicate where Rutgers is: "You can't throw this one game all in one basket. That wasn't us out there today. Until we give our best and do our best that is when you can really judge where we're at. That wasn't us out there."
On Pat White's speed: "We knew he was an explosive guy from watching him on film. It's not going to catch you by surprise but you know this is a very, very fast quarterback, possibly faster than any we'll see this year."
Sophomore CB Devin McCourty
On missed tackles: "I felt we were there and we were well prepared, but like coach says all week in practice, we have to put our face on it, grab and tackle through the ground and today we just didn't do that."
Did the rain affect the defense's ability to tackle: "We can't control the weather. We knew coming into the game there was a chance of rain and our motto around here is we can't stop distractions going around us, we just have to do our job and we didn't do that today."
