Rutgers showing signs of progress under Ash
PISCATAWAY, N.J. — In this easternmost outpost of the Big Ten, football success is measured in different ways.
So even though Rutgers entered its home game on Saturday night against Ohio State as a 29-point underdog, it doesn’t take a glass-halffull optimist to see a glimmer of progress: The Buckeyes were 38-point favorites before the teams met last year in Columbus.
A nine-point swing in what oddsmakers perceived as the difference in the two games from one year to the next is a sign that Rutgers football in 2017 isn’t the dumpster fire that it was a year ago in Chris Ash’s first year as coach, despite Ohio State’s easy 56-0 victory in High Point Solutions Stadium.
True enough, the Scarlet Knights left Saturday’s game having lost 16 consecutive Big Ten games and 19 straight against ranked opponents, a streak that stretches to 2009.
Hope comes in the way that those streaks have, at times, been extended this season — grudgingly.
In Rutgers’ season-opener on Sept. 1, the Scarlet Knights scored on their first drive against eighth-ranked Washington and led late into the second quarter before giving up a punt return for a touchdown as the Huskies rallied for a 30-14 win.
After a disappointing loss to Eastern Michigan and a crushing victory over Morgan State, a Football Championship Subdivision patsy, Rutgers opened Big Ten play last week at Nebraska in a game that followed a similar script to the Washington loss.
The Knights scored on their first drive to take a 7-0 lead and led well into the third quarter before the Cornhuskers scored the final 13 points for a 27-17 victory in Lincoln.
“Our plan was to make it a four-quarter game and that’s exactly what we did,” Ash said. “But unfortunately we didn’t make the plays that we needed to come out on the winning end.”
It was, he added, very much like the Washington loss.
“In both games, we started out fast, and then we failed to sustain offensive drives the rest of the game,” he said.
The difference between last season and this, however, is how much Rutgers has improved defensively.
Rutgers ranked No. 116 nationally in scoring defense in 2016, allowing an average of 37.5 points per game. (Big Ten East Division powers Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan contributed heavily to that number, outscoring Rutgers 175-0.)
The Scarlet Knights this season have improved that figure by nearly three touchdowns per game, allowing an average of 18.2 points per game. They ranked 27th nationally before Saturday’s game.
“The credit is to the players,” said Ash, who served as Ohio State’s defensive co-coordinator in 2014 and ’15. “They’ve done an incredible job of pressing the reset button from last year.”
Ash has noted the Knights’ effort and toughness have markedly improved in year 2, though it hasn’t yet resulted in a signature victory.
“I believe it’s a step in the right direction,” Rutgers offensive lineman Dorian Miller told reporters after the Nebraska loss. “But at the end of the day that’s not what we play for. We don’t want to be close. The energy was there. We just need to execute better.”