Following big win, RU has lackluster performance
Scarlet Knights don't show much in 31-3 loss to West Virginia
BY DOUG McKENZIE Correspondent
The West Virginia Mountaineers were just about perfect. With the sixth-ranked team in the nation coming to Piscataway on Saturday for a rain-soaked affair, the Rutgers University football team was hoping to beat its second ranked opponent in a row for the first time in school history. However, with quarterback Patrick White and tailback Steve Slaton running at will, the Scarlet Knights simply couldn't keep pace, losing 31-3 before a sellout crowd at Rutgers Stadium.

With the loss, RU fell to 5-3 on the year (and 2-2 in the Big East), while the Mountaineers improved to 7-1 (2-1 in conference) and kept alive their hopes for both the Big East and BCS titles.

"The positives for the game were that not one player stopped playing their hardest," said RU head coach Greg Schiano following the game. "That's how we want to play when things go against us."

And there certainly were plenty of things going against them, most notably White, who continuously torched the RU defense with his speed and elusiveness. Rutgers also lost four turnovers, resulting in 14 WVU points, while the Mountaineers did not turn the ball over.

When they had the ball, White methodically picked apart the RU defense with his legs, with the Scarlet Knights having to respect Slaton's running ability as well.

"We knew [White] was an explosive guy from watching him on film," said senior defensive tackle Eric Foster. "It's not going to catch you by surprise, but you know this is a very, very fast quarterback, possibly faster than any we'll see this year."

The rainy weather and wet turf did little to slow down White, who is complemented perfectly by Slaton, a shifty speedster himself. From the start, the WVU tandem proved to be the difference in the game.

Facing a first-and-10 at the RU 38, Slaton opened the game's scoring with a dazzling run across the field, following his blockers into the end zone at the 4:33 mark of the first quarter.

After the RU defense made a defensive stand, a special teams miscue set up WVU's next score. A WVU punt bounced off the back of Ramy Nubani, who was running to set up the blocking on the return. The Mountaineers recovered at the RU 31, and five plays later it was 14-0 after a White one-yard keeper.

Rutgers got on the board with just 4:39 left in the first half when senior Jeremy Ito booted a 39-yard field goal, but WVU managed to answer with a field goal of its own - a 42-yarder from Pat McAfee - as time expired in the first half to head into the break up 17-3.

In the second half, WVU padded its lead with a nine-play, 75-yard scoring drive, with Slaton scoring his second TD of the game from a yard out. Up 24-3, WVU capped the scoring late in the game with a seven-play, 66-yard scoring drive, with White finding the end zone once again.

"It is very obvious the things we did not do today," Schiano said. "We did not tackle the way we should and we did not catch the football. We dropped too many passes, and some of them were touchdown passes. We dropped three touchdown passes. Are they tough catches? Some of them are, but they are catches we need to make.

"Tackling just wasn't Rutgers-like today," he added. "Certainly the two guys [Slaton and White] we were trying to tackle had something to do with that. Those are as good athletes as there are in the country, but a lot of things went wrong today."

Rutgers tailback Ray Rice put forth his usual strong effort, carrying the ball 30 times for 142 yards, and becoming the first player in Rutgers history to rush for at least 1,000 yards in three seasons, and the first player to eclipse 4,000 yards for his career in the process. He also set a new school record with his 20th career 100- yard game. However, despite his personal accomplishments, Rice was hardly in a celebratory mood following the game.

"We got outplayed," he said. "They came out here and executed and we didn't. … We have a lot of young guys playing right now, so we have to continue to try to be our best. I think we just have to finish the season out and see how far we can get."

Wearing all-black uniforms for the first time in school history, Rutgers was playing its second consecutive top-10 team for the first time in the program's 138-year history as well. However, they were unable to match the effort they put forth in beating then-No. 2 South Florida, 30-27, on Oct. 18.

"If we want to become an elite program, we have to do that," Schiano said about competing with the nation's top teams on a regular basis. "We have to be able to win a big game and then go out and win another big game. That's what championship programs do. We are going to have back-to-back big games. We didn't do that, and that is frustrating. … Certainly today we were a little bit off in everything that we were doing."

Next up, RU will take on Connecticut on Saturday at Rentschler Field. UConn is coming off its biggest win in the program's history, a 22-15 win over South Florida on Saturday. With the win, the Huskies (7-1, 3-0) maintained first place in the Big East, and proved that, like Rutgers, they are ready to play with some of the elite teams in the nation.

''I think we earned a lot of respect today,'' UConn head coach Randy Edsall said.

They certainly got everyone's attention, and Rutgers will need to play a far better game this Saturday if they hope to compete with this vastly improved Huskies team.

Rutgers quarterback Mike Teel, who was victimized by a slew of dropped passes by his wide receivers against WVU, acknowledged that his team needs to play better against UConn, but was also quick to credit West Virginia for the lopsided score this past Saturday.

"We didn't play anywhere near the level of football that we can play, but the other team had a lot to do with that," he said. "They played a very good football game."

A just about perfect game, as a matter of fact.