Can you believe that?!?! It took until the eighth game of the season but the Rutgers offense you came to know and love in recent years (sans Ray Rice and Brian Leonard) finally showed up. Quarterback Mike Teel, wide outs Kenny Britt and TIm Brown and the rest of the Scarlet Knights put together one for the ages on Saturday, coming up with a mind-bending 54-34 win at number-17 Pittsburgh…R-U’s first road win over a Top-25 team in 20 years. The question is—does this astounding victory turn around what has been an utterly disappointing season and put Rutgers back on track…dare we say it, for a bowl bid. More on that later. First, accolades for the embattled fifth-year senior Teel. In one afternoon, he erased most of the bitterness of 2008 and delivered one of the great performances in Scarlet Knight football history. A school-record six touchdown passes and 361-yards in the air…and in a startling efficient manner…on just 14 completions. That’s almost 26 yards per completion. Britt continued his fine season with a career-best three t-d catches. And Brown chipped in with two. And, although the defense gave up 34 points, it came up with two key third-quarter turnovers including linebacker Kevin Malast’s first career interception which he returned 74-yards to set up a game-breaking Scarlet Knight touchdown.
So, Rutgers picks up it’s second straight Big East win to improve to 2-2 in league and 3-5 overall…keeping alive its hopes for a winning season with four games left…and keeping its bowl game hopes on life support. Next up is a very winnable home game on November 8th against hapless Syracuse followed by the final non-conference contest at home against Army. Then its at South Florida followed by the season finale at home against Louisville. It’s still a tough task ahead BUT the unexpected spectacular win at Pittsburgh gives all Scarlet Knight fans a great deal more hope…and reason to believe.
