After winning their first Big Ten game of the season a week ago at Purdue, Rutgers football was thrashed 35-13 today against Illinois.
The game started with the Scarlet Knights going three and out thanks to three straight incompletions. The ensuing punt was downed at the one-yard line. What happened next was a 99-yard touchdown drive, during which Illinois moved down the field with relative ease. The Knights would respond with a field goal drive of their own before intercepting a pass from Luke Almyer and tacking on another field goal on the ensuing drive.
Illinois responded with a touchdown drive before forcing a Rutgers punt, and then went on to score another touchdown. Rutgers’ next drive would lead to the end of the first half.
Illinois would come out of the half and go on a 75-yard drive and score another touchdown. Rutgers would again go three and out on their next drive, punt, which led to another Illini touchdown.
Rutgers would find the end zone in the fourth quarter, but it was all for not, as Illinois would cruise to an easy, 22-point victory.
The same issues Rutgers has been facing all year reared their heads again, along with several new issues popping up. The Knights’ defense once again struggled to contain a quarterback who could run. In addition to their quarterback containment struggles, Rutgers’ secondary repeatedly left wide receivers uncovered down near the goal line, which led to easy Illini touchdowns.
On the flip side, the Rutgers offense struggled to find any consistency. Knights quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis only completed 55% of his passes, while the running game was stuffed repeatedly at the line of scrimmage.
The few bright spots for Rutgers in this game were kicker Jai Patel, who made all of his kicks, and defensive tackle Farrell Gnago, who intercepted Altmyer’s pass early in the game. This was his second game generating a turnover for the Knights.
Rutgers will be back in action at home next week against Maryland. Kickoff is set for 2:30 pm with live coverage available on FS1.
