{"id":235339,"date":"2025-10-19T02:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T02:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/235339\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T02:34:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T02:34:08","slug":"rutgers-suffers-ash-level-blowout-to-oregon-as-disastrous-defense-hits-new-low-5-observations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/235339\/","title":{"rendered":"Rutgers suffers Ash-level blowout to Oregon as disastrous defense hits new low | 5 observations"},"content":{"rendered":"

At multiple points in the past three years, usually after a crushing defeat, Greg Schiano<\/a> touted his program\u2019s progress throughout his second stint, saying they are \u201ccloser\u201d to \u201cgetting there.\u201d <\/p>\n

This week, the Rutgers<\/a> coach said his team was not playing at \u201ca championship level\u201d as it got off to an 0-3 start to Big Ten play, but it was playing at a \u201ccompetitive level\u201d after making \u201cgreat strides.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the Scarlet Knights<\/a> reverted to a level unseen since the disaster Schiano was hired to dig them out of.<\/p>\n

Rutgers (3-4, 0-4) was hopeless during the 56-10 obliteration it suffered against No. 8 Oregon, a long evening with shades of the 78-0<\/a> and 58-0<\/a> losses to Michigan and Ohio State during the first year of the disgraceful Chris Ash era. <\/p>\n

Rutgers had mostly avoided being blown out this badly by the Big Ten\u2019s best defeats under Schiano, but by the third quarter on Saturday, the stands were empty outside of the thousands of visiting fans chanting \u201cLet\u2019s Go Ducks!\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ducks (6-1, 3-1) did what they wanted against the Scarlet Knights\u2019 disastrous defense, finishing with 750 yards \u2014 the most Rutgers conceded in a Big Ten game, the most conceded by a Power Four defense this season and quite possibly the most it has surrendered in a game in program history \u2014 that they gained at will. When they got bored of moving the ball normally against a secondary that bickered with each other before multiple snaps, they threw out unorthodox formations and double flea-flickers for fun.<\/p>\n

Oregon went 8-of-10 on third downs, racked up 28 first downs and averaged 13 yards per play, including 15 gains of at least 20 yards. The Scarlet Knights surrendered 446 yards on 34 plays (13.1) in the first half, then gave up 122 yards on the first three plays of the second half.<\/p>\n

The Ducks did not touch the red zone on its first five touchdown drives, which ended with scores of 68, 30, 31, 21 and 28 yards.<\/p>\n

A week after conceding a historic performance against Washington\u2019s Demond Williams, Rutgers allowed Oregon\u2019s Dante Moore to look like prime Michael Vick<\/a> as he threw for 290 yards, four touchdowns and an interception while running for 49 yards on three carries before being pulled from the game with his team leading 56-3 at the end of the third quarter.<\/p>\n

And while the Scarlet Knights needed a perfect offensive performance to overcome their disastrous defense, they were just as helpless against the Ducks\u2019 defense. They finished with just 202 total yards, committed three turnovers and went 4-of-18 on third downs, going three-and-out six times.<\/p>\n

Altogether, it led to a 42nd consecutive loss against a ranked team for Rutgers, the longest-such streak among Power Four programs. The Scarlet Knights lost those games by an average margin of 29.8 points, a number that gets uglier when narrowing the scope to top-10 opponents (35.7 points across 17 matchups).<\/p>\n

Unless Illinois returns to the top 25 in two-weeks time, the streak will reach 16 years on Nov. 12, and unless the Scarlet Knights pull off an all-time shocker in Columbus against No. 1 Ohio State on Nov. 22, the drought will extend to next fall.<\/p>\n

Forget ranked teams, though; at this point, Rutgers will be worried about beating any Big Ten team. A meeting next week with Purdue \u2014 a must-win for Rutgers to keep its bowl hopes alive \u2014 is no gimme the way the Scarlet Knights\u2019 defense is playing.<\/p>\n

Here are five observations from Rutgers-Oregon:<\/p>\n

1. Athan Kaliakmanis has his worst game of season<\/p>\n

He finished with 79 yards, zero touchdowns and two interceptions on 8-of-25 passing (32%). He missed a wide-open DT Sheffield on a deep pass in one of his few opportunities for a big play, got two passes batted down at the line of scrimmage \u2014 making it five in the past two weeks, more than he had in his first 18 games as a Scarlet Knight combined \u2014 and struggled to maneuver with his feet (11 rushing yards on three non-sack carries). <\/p>\n

Outside of a nifty spin move that forced two Oregon defenders to collide, the quarterback did not have many positives to take out of his matchup with Oregon\u2019s top-15 defense. <\/p>\n

2. Ian Strong\u2019s short day<\/p>\n

The star receiver was targeted one time in the first half before going down and grabbing his lower leg midway through the second quarter. He returned for one snap but left the game once again and did not play a snap in the second half.<\/p>\n

If Strong misses any time, it will be a major hit to the Scarlet Knights.<\/p>\n

3. Defensive backs remain disastrous<\/p>\n

The Scarlet Knights\u2019 season-long struggles in the secondary were particularly glaring against the Ducks.<\/p>\n

Of Moore\u2019s 15 completions, eight gained at least 20 yards. He found his receivers in acres of space, often without a defensive back within five yards of them. The secondary bickered amongst itself often, with sophomore safety Kaj Sanders and linebacker Abram Wright barking at each other while pointing in opposite directions in glaring fashion during a play in the first half.<\/p>\n

4. Jai Patel bounces back<\/p>\n

For the first time in a Big Ten game this season, the kicker converted every field goal he attempted. He nailed a career-long 51-yard attempt on his team\u2019s first drive, but did not get another shot as the Rutgers offense rarely crossed over to Oregon territory.<\/p>\n

5. BONUS ROUND<\/p>\n

Here are some other thoughts from SHI Stadium and around the Big Ten.<\/p>\n

a. Rutgers took the ball away from Oregon twice (a fumble recovery and an interception), marking the most takeaways it has had in a game this season. But it did nothing with it, throwing three incomplete passes after the former and going three-and-out after the latter.<\/p>\n

b. Redshirt freshman quarterback AJ Surace made his Big Ten debut in the fourth quarter. He went 0-of-2 in his lone drive, which ended with the Scarlet Knights\u2019 only touchdown of the night.<\/p>\n

c. Assuming Iowa does not come back against Penn State, Rutgers\u2019 four losses in Big Ten play came against teams with a combined 10-6 record, with four of those losses coming to No. 1 Ohio State (2) and soon-to-be No. 2 Indiana (2). At the very least, the Scarlet Knights are losing to good teams.<\/p>\n

d. The same won\u2019t be said if Rutgers falls to Purdue, which dropped to 0-4 in Big Ten play with a 19-0 loss at Northwestern. The Scarlet Knights cannot be the Boilermakers\u2019 first \u2014 and, in all likelihood, only \u2014 Big Ten win of the season.<\/p>\n

e. Luke Fickell will soon join James Franklin (Penn State) and DeShaun Foster (UCLA) as Big Ten coaches to get canned this season after Wisconsin suffered a 34-0 loss to No. 1 Ohio State tonight. The Badgers are 2-5 through seven games, a span in which it has scored 44 total points. That makes Rutgers\u2019 42-7 loss to them last season \u2014 the worst at Wisconsin of the 21st century \u2014 even more baffling.<\/p>\n

f. The Rizzler was a special guest at SHI Stadium, which led a majority of those in attendance to ask: who is the Rizzler?<\/p>\n

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At multiple points in the past three years, usually after a crushing defeat, Greg Schiano touted his program\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-235339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}