Rutgers Continues To Besmirch The Big Ten Name By Being Very Dreadful

Last week’s beating at the hands of Ohio State might have seemed a low point for Rutgers, which mustered just 116 yards of total offense in the 58-0 loss while ceding 669 to the Buckeyes and allowing J.T. Barrett to break the school record for touchdown passes.

But no, Rutgers assured everyone yesterday, things can be worse than that. Much, much worse! In a 78-0 blowout loss to Michigan, the Scarlet Knights did not so much play football as they presented a case study in shades of ineptitude and embarrassment. To wit: two first downs on 39 total yards. To be clear, those are their game stats. That involved averaging less than half a yard per pass, and they were 0 for 17 on third-down conversions, which forced them to punt 16 times.

No. 4 Michigan, meanwhile, was able to put together their largest margin of victory since 1940 on 600 total yards and set a school record for rushing touchdowns in a game (nine). The latter was an equal-opportunity outing of sorts, with four players running in two scores apiece.

The loss drops Rutgers to 0-3 in the Big Ten this year, in line with last year’s 1-7 conference record. Meanwhile, it gives undefeated Michigan an early transitive-property argument for being better than Ohio State.