CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. - Rutgers is 0-2, and the early-season damage already feels enormous.
Friday night’s 28-21 loss to Boston College didn’t just drop the Scarlet Knights to 0-2. It left them with almost no room to breathe, no margin for error, and a whole lot of questions after a game they had chances to steal but never finished.
The start was ugly. Rutgers was down 17-0 in the first 17 minutes, and the opening sequence told you plenty about how the night would go.
The Scarlet Knights had to burn a timeout on the third play because they sent two players onto the field wearing the same jersey number, #56. That kind of beginning usually means trouble, and for Rutgers it was only the first hint.
Boston College seized control early, but Rutgers kept helping the Eagles along. The Scarlet Knights turned it over twice on their first two drives - first on a failed tush push on fourth down, then on the first interception of third-year quarterback AJ Surace’s career.
Surace’s night only got rougher from there. He threw a red-zone interception to open the second half after being jumped by two defenders, then later in the fourth quarter tossed his fourth pick after linebacker Moses Walker had given Rutgers another chance by intercepting a pass of his own.
That was the pattern all night: Rutgers kept finding ways to get back in position, then handing the game away.
And yet, there were real performances buried inside the wreckage.
Antwan Raymond was excellent, piling up 152 total yards and a touchdown. He ran for 134 yards and kept fighting behind an offensive line that still didn’t give him nearly enough help, even after the unit was shuffled in the middle of the game.
KJ Duff had a quiet first half - one catch for nine yards - but exploded after that. He finished with eight receptions for 137 yards and two touchdowns, including a 60-yard scoring catch that pulled Rutgers back into striking distance and a fourth-down conversion that kept the comeback alive.
The defense, too, found something after a brutal opening stretch. Boston College scored on four of its first five possessions, but Rutgers steadied itself in the second half.
The Scarlet Knights forced three turnovers and held the Eagles to 38 yards in the third quarter. That was enough to create a real opening.
It just wasn’t enough to overcome the offense’s mistakes.
There were multiple moments when Rutgers could have taken control. It converted two of five fourth-down attempts, and both were decisions you could defend.
The problem was the execution around them. Twice, Rutgers got stuffed on fourth-and-short - once on a tush push, once on a shotgun run - and later lost a huge chance when it couldn’t convert a fourth-and-1 after back-to-back defensive takeaways had put the offense in the red zone.
Late, with another shot to tie after Walker’s second interception, Surace threw his fourth pick, and that was that.
The final numbers make the quarterback battle and the result look a little closer than they felt. Surace finished 18-of-27 for 230 yards, three touchdowns and four interceptions. But the interceptions were the story, and they were crushing ones.
So was the overall picture. Rutgers has already dropped two games that looked very much within reach, and now the Scarlet Knights are staring at the possibility of a second straight season without a bowl game. To get there, they would need to win at least five Big Ten games, which would be their highest total since joining the conference.
At this point, that feels like a massive ask.
Here are five observations:
- Greg Schiano put all his chips in the center - and lost
Under heavy pressure after last week’s shocking loss, Schiano leaned even harder into his aggressive style.
It didn’t pay off.
Rutgers went 2-of-5 on fourth down. The calls were mostly defensible; the execution was not.
One conversion helped set up a four-yard touchdown pass to Raymond just before halftime. Another came late when Rutgers needed a drive to stay alive, only for the offense to waste it on the next snap.
The failed fourth-and-short tries hurt, especially because they cost the Scarlet Knights points they might have needed later. But even one more conversion might have changed the feel of the game.
- New quarterback, same problems
Surace won the job in camp, beating out a quarterback battle described as one between “similar quarterbacks.”
On Friday, he looked a lot like the guy he replaced.
The first-time starter’s stat line was shiny enough on paper, but the four interceptions told the real story. Dylan Lonergan, who traveled to his former school but did not dress because of injury, threw one fewer interception than Surace - and the outcome was just as costly for Rutgers.
- Defense goes from disastrous to formidable
For a while, it looked like Travis Johansen’s defense was headed for another night it would rather forget.
Then it flipped.
After allowing four scores on five drives and 226 yards in the first half, Rutgers came out and played its best defensive football of the season after halftime. The third quarter was the turning point, with the Scarlet Knights forcing their first two turnovers of the year and giving the offense chances to dig out of the hole. In the fourth quarter, they kept making plays and kept the game alive.
It still wasn’t enough.
The Scarlet Knights were a national punchline early, with one analyst asking whether they were the worst Power Four team in the country and another wondering if they could beat Howard. By the end, they at least had turned the game into a fight.
- Rutgers had its chances, but kept wasting them
That’s the hard part of this one. Rutgers wasn’t overwhelmed for four quarters. It was sloppy early, resilient in the middle, and wasteful at the worst possible times.
Every time the Scarlet Knights seemed to have a foothold, something went wrong - a turnover, a failed short-yardage play, a busted coverage, another interception. Boston College didn’t need to be perfect. Rutgers made sure of that.
- A different Scarlet Knight program had a better night
While the football team was absorbing a painful loss, Rutgers men’s soccer pulled off a major upset over No. 11 UCLA in Piscataway. It was a big result for Jim McElderry and his team, and it offered at least one bright spot for Scarlet Knight fans on a rough night.
Boston College also used the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks to honor alum Welles Crowther in a memorable way. The pregame video, the in-game recognition of his family, the uniforms and the red bandanas handed out in the stands and press box all came off as a fitting tribute.
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