I don’t mean to overstate things, but Rutgers has scored an offensive touchdown against Michigan.
15 ways Rutgers is objectively doing better than it did in 2016 vs. Michigan
The Scarlet Knights are actually playing coherent football.
I needn’t add any hyperbole to that sentence, I will simply let it stand alone as one of the marked offensive achievements of our time. Consider last year’s Michigan-Rutgers game, in which the Scarlet Knights lost 78-0, a game in which the headline to our postgame recap termed the performance “a disembowelment.” Things are better for New York’s Big Ten team, and they deserve credit.
In only two quarters of football, the Scarlet Knights are on pace to already have reversed nearly every embarrassing thing we documented about last year’s game.
1. The 78-point margin was the biggest in an FBS-on-FBS game this millennium, according to the database at Sports Reference.
- It’s 21-7 at halftime, nice!
2. Rutgers had 6 (SIX!) yards of offense in the first half. That, ESPN said, was the fewest in the sport in almost two calendar years, since Wake Forest got 6 in the first half against Boston College.
- 113 yards at the break.
3. Rutgers did not get a first down until the fourth quarter.
- Got their first first down on the second drive of the game. Started off on the right foot.
4. Total touchdowns: 11 for Michigan. Rutgers, uh, fewer.
- The Scarlet Knights scored! I promise!
5. Michigan’s fullback, Khalid Hill, had three touchdowns. His backup, Bobby Henderson, had one himself and ran for 8.7 yards per carry.
- Ok, so Ty Isaac is indeed having himself a day, but it’s not that bad.
6. Michigan’s nine rushing TDs tied a school record, the team said.
- Just two rushing TDs in the first stanza. Well off last year’s pace.
7. Michigan’s average starting field position was its own 41-yard line. Rutgers’ was its own 25.
- Rutgers’ starting field position is its own 27. Not awesome, but better. Michigan’s average is its own 31.
8. Six Michigan players had more individual yards (in passing, rushing, or receiving) than all of Rutgers did, in total.
- Not even close this time out besides Isaac’s 83 first half rushing yards.
9. Rutgers’ longest offensive play of the night went for 12 yards.
- That TD by the Scarlet Knights was a 65-yard score.
10. Rutgers completed 2 of 18 passes, and Michigan got four sacks.
- Giovanni Rescigno is 3-8 through the air.
11. Rutgers punted 16 (!) times.
- Four punts this go around in the first half.
12. Michigan was on to its third-string QB with more than 24 minutes left to play.
- Well, uhh, about this. This is actually happening again in the first half, but it’s due to injury. Starter Wilton Speight is out for the season, but backup John O’Korn got benched after two picks. In steps redshirt freshman Brandon Peters.
13.
The account couldn’t stop tweeting during the game because they never started. The last tweet the account sent was 10 minutes before kickoff.
14. The announced attendance at High Point Solutions Stadium: 53,292. That’s 26,646 per Rutgers first down.
- No attendance yet, but after four first half first downs, the Scarlet Knights are at least on pace to beat that rate. Assuming Michigan’s attendance is around 105,000 today, the current rate is 26,250 per Rutgers first down.
15. This rout comes 100 years and one day after Georgia Tech 222, Cumberland 0. Rutgers did better, but only so much so.
- 21-7 at the break is not the 44-0 first half score that was last year. The Scarlet Knights won’t lose 78-0 today (I think). And that’s progress.
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