We know we’re late here. The stinking, rotting lump of whatever the Scarlet Knights left behind on the field last Saturday was poked and prodded more than a cadaver in a room full of medical students. I’m sure we don’t have much to add to what we’ve already said, but we did needed to write this article. So far, we’ve largely avoided doing game recaps because it takes a few days to create our plans. We knew we’d be late to the party for any kind of post-game analysis, but that’s not why we wrote this. To be clear, we hope you enjoy reading it, but we really wrote it for ourselves. Consider this DIY mental health therapy for two Rutgers fans who thought we were past games like this.

As we turn our attention to UCLA, let’s make one final attempt to answer the question we posed in the headline: What the &$*! Did we just witness this?

Ed: I looked to the left at the very quiet student area. I glanced at the scoreboard and saw that there were 8:14 left in the 3rd quarter. I decided to take a photo of that moment because I wanted to remember exactly when the game was over. To cement the point, the Scarlet Knights started the ensuing drive with a delay of game, followed by an interception. Six plays later, the Badgers hit another tuddy. At that point, I was simply numb to the beating that was being inflicted on us. In a final show of strength, the Scarlet Knights put together a nice, fast drive that culminated in a Monangai touchdown. Behind me, I heard an extremely powerful fan repeatedly shouting at the top of his lungs, “We’re not done yet!” He then sang the fight song louder than the actual cannon shot. Unfortunately, four plays later, Wisconsin informed this fan that Rutgers was indeed finished after they marched 55 yards for another score. From the moment Wisconsin took the field, Rutgers virtually left it. The coaches were replaced, the players were pushed around and the fans cleared the score at 35-7. We’re 4-2 halfway through the year. That’s not a terrible record by any means, but looking at the rest of the season, it could end up being another average and barely enough for a bowl game year. For some people it’s all unicorns and rainbows, but as I’ve said from the start, an average year on this schedule is a wasted year. Is this our identity or is this something we can fix?

Gregg: I’ve always been convinced that good teams and good players don’t just forget how to play football. There are always extenuating circumstances, even if die-hard sports fans don’t want to hear them. Injuries have decimated our starting ranks and there is no way around it. But we also looked like a team that was on the verge of disaster defensively in the first four games, only to seemingly turn things around against Nebraska and then completely collapse against Wisconsin. I’ve never been a big fan of Joe Complicated Last Name as our DC, but you can’t argue with the results of his unit last year. He has to figure out how to get his boys to do this again quickly. It’s hard to get anything done on offense when you have two touchdowns before the fans have even made it from the Silver Lot into the stadium and the receivers are treating the ball like it’s a burning bag of dog poop. I think this site will correct itself.

Ed: I agree with you. This team seemed to have held up defensively in some of these games, and Wisconsin completely took advantage of us last Saturday. There are still a number of problems on offense beyond wide receivers not being wide receivers. Don’t ask me about statistics or percentages. There are many people who actually get paid to quote these. But from my point of view we are dealing with a very boring offense. Our offense is essentially an 11-man RPO system with little movement or ability to stretch the field. If you look at our last four games, we don’t have many chunk plays longer than 20 yards. Yes, we got a few big hits (the 60+ yard WR screen for Strong against VT was nice), but those are the exception rather than the rule. We’re basically praying for first downs in our running game or, in the worst-case scenario, a third-and-manageable one. Teams get smarter as they load the box and challenge us to throw it. Which brings me to that crazy play call before halftime when it was 4th-and-1 in the red zone. We were on the 13th team and needed a yard, but we were running out of shotguns. You don’t give your back momentum in a tight trench that our O-line couldn’t move consistently all day. Please make it meaningful.

Gregg: You answered your own question with this line: “Teams get smarter by loading the box and challenging us to throw it.” To put it simply: We are not. Our offensive identity is a team that lines up and finishes you off. Our QB is good enough to complete passes when he needs to, but when the opposing defense forces him to literally take over the offense… let’s just say that’s not the case be Identity. Our passing plays are ordinary because that’s all they’ve had to do so far. It’s up to Ciarrocca to come up with some new flavors. He doesn’t have to channel Mike Leach; Just create enough new wrinkles to force a man or two out of the box over the course of the game. Kaliakmanas gets a lot of criticism for being average, but average worked well early in the season when no one could stop our running game. Asking him to suddenly become elite will only work if you have a magic lamp. Therefore, coaches must figure out how to best utilize the skills he has. Unlike last year, our receivers open up and AK-16 showed decent accuracy. If there’s one group that needs to add personnel, it’s the O-line. These guys get pushed around way too much and it causes the entire offense to implode before anything can get going. Every player on defense owns a part of this mess, but on the offensive side I firmly believe that when the line actually starts, you know, BLOCKED, you will see the points start to get on the board quickly.

Ed: This will all depend on what Schiano and our offense do moving forward. They know what to expect, so it’s entirely up to them to prepare for it. As for AK-16, I’m not asking him to go all Peyton Manning, but you have to let him play the field a few times a day to keep the defense honest. If the Badgers backup QB can throw for more than 15 yards a few times, I expect our starter to at least be able to do that. No matter what happens, I can’t have a QB who gets fewer yards than the other team’s leading rusher. Nor is an offense that totals fewer yards than the other team’s rushing attack. Half is on defense, the other half is on offense. Unfortunately, it’s Schiano’s responsibility to fix everything.

Gregg: And I think they will. This team certainly doesn’t look like the dark playoff contender Herbie teased we might be in the preseason. (Not that any serious Rutgers fan would have considered this anything more than clickbait). But can they still be the 8-9 winning team I promised them at the start of the season? Yes. Again: us Do have talent. Blame it on the weather in Nebraska. Blame it on the receivers who forgot to use their hands against Wisconsin. The defense was blamed for thinking that leaning all the way to the red zone without giving up points was a sustainable strategy. Blame it all you want, but the fact remains that we only saw this team play better three weeks ago. I still believe they can get back there, injured or not. We may all need to start taking heart medication because none of these remaining games will be as easy as we thought.

Okay, that’s it. No more Wisconsin talk. Time to keep chopping/rowing upstream/hammering nails/insert cliché of your choice here. It’s time for the UCLA season.