PISCATAWAY - Rutgers didn’t need a high-volume passing attack to make Michigan uncomfortable on Saturday. It only needed a few timely strikes, and the Scarlet Knights got them.
Quarterback AJ Surace completed just three passes against the Wolverines, but every one of them went for more than 10 yards and every one helped set up points. Rutgers finished with only 21 points, yet the offense still found enough explosive moments to keep Michigan’s defense guessing from start to finish.
“No one’s been able to go down the field in 8-10 play drives and then go score (against Michigan),” Scarlet Knights coach Greg Schiano said. “They’re just dominant up front and they’re also dominant in the secondary. So we felt like we needed to take some shots and connect on some shots.”
That approach produced the game’s biggest aerial blow. Wide receiver Jourdin Houston ripped off an 80-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter, breaking past a Michigan secondary that rarely gives up anything easy. Junior cornerback Smith Snowden was left alone over the top, and one slip sent him to the turf while Houston sprinted untouched to the end zone.
Rutgers also found a way to land a punch on the ground late. In the fourth quarter, after struggling to move the ball on the run, Antwan Raymond hit a seam up the middle and suddenly had open field in front of him.
Michigan had sent junior safety Chris Bracy off the left edge and graduate linebacker Nathaniel Staehling off the right, opening the middle just enough for Raymond to break through before graduate cornerback Zeke Berry finally stopped him. The run set up the touchdown that tied the game for Rutgers.
The Scarlet Knights’ willingness to keep firing deep and attacking Michigan’s defense also seemed to throw the Wolverines out of sync. What followed was a stretch of penalties and coverage busts, something Michigan had largely avoided in previous games.
“One thing that reared its ugly head again was the penalties that bogged a bunch of drives down for us and extended a bunch of drives for them,” Wolverines coach Kyle Whittingham said. “The PIs, and defensive holdings, and roughing the passer, and we had another game with over our quota of penalties.”
Michigan was flagged seven times for 90 yards, with four of those penalties coming on defense. The secondary took the brunt of it, as Snowden, Berry and senior cornerback Jyaire Hill were forced to react to Rutgers’ unexpected downfield shots and often did so too aggressively. Hill’s pass interference on Rutgers’ first scoring drive gave the Scarlet Knights a fresh set of downs, and three plays later Surace found Logan Blake for one of his few completions, helping set up a 46-yard field goal that put Rutgers on the board.
In the next quarter, Surace connected with Raymond for 32 yards on the team’s next completion through the air. Two short runs after that stalled the drive, but a holding call on Snowden gave Rutgers enough of a boost to line up for another field goal.
“They only snapped it 38 times, only completed three balls the whole game, or they were big ones,” Whittingham said “ … The big plays against us, which typically our defense has been really good this year versus the big play.”
Rutgers never lit up the scoreboard, and Michigan’s defense wasn’t beaten down snap after snap. But the Scarlet Knights’ handful of chunk plays, paired with the penalties they drew, were enough to keep the Wolverines off balance and their secondary working all afternoon.
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