Ohio State dives back into conference waters this weekend when it heads to the East Coast to take on what looks like the best Rutgers team in many years.
Both teams hold an identical 3-1 record so far, but the Buckeyes have bounced back from their Oregon loss with two-straight wins over the past couple weeks, while the Scarlet Knights are fresh off of their first defeat of the season at the hands of Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines.
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3:30 P.M. – SATURDAY, OCT. 2 SHI STADIUM PISCATAWAY, NEW JERSEY |
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However, Greg Schiano has spearheaded a turnaround in Piscataway, New Jersey, and just one more win this season would equal the program’s best win total in the past seven seasons.
Whether or not that will come against the Buckeyes is yet to be determined, but before the two schools go head-to-head for the eighth-straight year, here’s five things to know about Ohio State’s next opponent.
Best start since 2012
This is not the Rutgers of old. And old, in this case, is just a year or two ago.
The Scarlet Knights took clear strides in 2020 – the first year of Schiano’s second head coaching stint in Piscataway – but after another offseason of reformation, the Rutgers program seems to have leveled up again, starting 3-0 for the first time since 2012 and giving Michigan all it could handle in a 20-13 loss this past weekend.
On the season premiere of Knightlife, @BruceBeck4NY chats with @GregSchiano and @PatHobbsRU, plus we explore @TrishDiPaolo's heroism, Inna Balyko's talent and @RUmlax's outstanding 2021.
— Rutgers Scarlet Knights (@RUAthletics) September 25, 2021
Full show: https://t.co/aOdOknWdMD
Presented by @HorizonBCBSNJ pic.twitter.com/ZYqBTdSVbU
That same matchup ended 52-0 in 2019, and suddenly gone are the days in which the Buckeyes could approach a road trip to New Jersey with the same urgency as a Group of 5 non-conference breeze.
Ohio State is favored by 17 in next Saturday’s contest, which is just three points more than the Buckeyes were favored to beat Oregon in the second week of the season. After playing Michigan, Ohio State and Michigan State in three consecutive weeks, Rutgers may not have quite as shiny a record, but the Scarlet Knights have certainly gotten off to an impressive start in 2021.
Defense has been stifling
It’d be cliche to say Rutgers has taken on the personality of its head coach, but the Scarlet Knights have clearly benefited from the defensive-minded approach Schiano has brought to the table since his return.
No Rutgers opponent has scored more than 20 points this season, and every time aside from Michigan scored 14 or under. Giving up just 13.5 points per game, the Scarlet Knight scoring defense is the third-best in the Big Ten and the seventh-best in the country. Before the Wolverines played Rutgers, they had been averaging 47 points per game.
Rutgers has the second-best total defense in the conference, with opposing offenses averaging just 263.5 yards against it, and the Scarlet Knights are holding teams to 21 fewer yards through the air than any other team in the Big Ten. Delaware failed to crack triple-digit yardage in the passing game, and Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara was limited to just nine completions for 163 yards and no scores.
In fact, only one passing touchdown has been thrown against Rutgers this season, while defensive backs Max Melton and Tre Avery have combined to pick off three passes in the early going. Melton had two interceptions, a touchdown, four passes defended, a forced fumble and a blocked punt in the first three games alone, but the starting cornerback was suspended last week due to a paintball gun incident.
Max Melton's interception for a touchdown was Rutgers' first since Kiy Hester did it against Maryland in 2017
— Chris Nalwasky (@ChrisNalwasky) September 4, 2021
Rutgers remained stifling in the secondary without a starter against Michigan, but even with uncertainties at the quarterback position for the Buckeyes, Ohio State will likely put the Scarlet Knight pass defense to the test more than it has to this point.
Fatukasi a factor at LB
One key element to the Scarlet Knights’ defensive success has been the play of veteran linebacker Olakunle Fatukasi, whose numbers jump off the stat sheet for Rutgers over the first quarter of the regular season.
A watch list entry for the Butkus Award, Bednarik Award and Nagurski Trophy before the season, the fifth-year senior has the sixth-most total tackles in the Big Ten (36), the second-most tackles for loss (6.5) and is No. 11 with 2.5 sacks. Fatukasi leads Rutgers in two of those three categories, and has a forced fumble on his resume as well.
O3, AGAIN! That's his second sack on the day. (@o_threee) #CHOP pic.twitter.com/cqULiGlogP
— Rutgers Football (@RFootball) November 22, 2020
Fatukasi was a first-team All-Big Ten selection in 2020, racking up 90 tackles and 9.5 tackles for loss in just nine games, and the 6-foot-2, 240-pound defender is trending in a similar direction in 2021.
In the season opener alone, Fatukasi wreaked havoc on the Temple offense to finish with nine tackles, four tackles for loss, two sacks and a forced fumble. The very next week, he followed that up with a 13-tackle performance against Syracuse.
Fatukasi averaged more than 15 tackles per game in matchups with Big Ten East powers Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State a season ago, including 13 and two TFLs against the Buckeyes.
Ohio State is no stranger to Fatukasi at this stage in his career, but this year he may have a team around him that could potentially give the Buckeyes some troubles for the first time.
Offense limited against Power 5 opponents
Rutgers has put up big offensive numbers on more than one occasion to start the season.
— Rutgers On BTN (@RutgersOnBTN) September 20, 2021
Against Temple in the season opener, the Scarlet Knights put up 61 points and punched in six touchdowns on the ground alone. Against Delaware two weeks later, Rutgers had a 45-point outing, chewing up just under 500 yards of total offense. What do those two opponents have in common? Neither hail from the Big Ten, nor any Power 5 conference, for that matter.
In two games against Power 5 foes this season, a Week 2 meeting with Syracuse and this past weekend’s Michigan matchup, the Scarlet Knights have scored just 30 points combined.
Syracuse held Rutgers 195 yards of total offense, with just 50 on the ground despite 42 attempts, and the Scarlet Knights mustered just 17 points. Syracuse finished with just seven points of its own in the losing effort, but with Rutgers rushing leader Isaih Pacheco averaging just 2.6 yards per carry and quarterback Noah Vedral finishing with 145 yards passing, the offensive effort was far from inspired.
Michigan held Rutgers to just three points in the first half on Saturday, and the Scarlet Knights finished with 13 for the game in a one-score loss. Rutgers’ 352 yards of total offense wasn’t terrible given that point total, and neither was the 100-yard game Pacheco recorded. However, Vedral finished with just 156 yards through the air.
Rutgers has one of the four worst total offenses in the Big Ten, and ranks ninth in both passing and rushing. With Ohio State’s defensive struggles well publicized, Rutgers' offensive statistics might be something of a relief to Buckeye fans.
History not on Scarlet Knights' side
Rutgers had never played Ohio State before joining the Big Ten in 2014, and unfortunately for the Scarlet Knights, the series has been – to put it lightly – one-way traffic ever since.
The fact that last year’s 49-27 Ohio State win in Columbus was the closest Rutgers has ever come to beating the Buckeyes tells you all you need to know about the past seven matchups between the two programs.
Ohio State has put up at least 50 points in five of those seven games and has shut Rutgers out completely in two of them. In fact, the Buckeyes’ average margin of victory tops 40 points, and the Scarlet Knights have scored significantly less points in the entire seven-game series than Ohio State has in the last two meetings combined.
A closer affair should be expected this time around, but history certainly does not favor the home team in this one.
